I woke up to my alarm at the ungodly hour of 6:00AM on a Saturday. This only reminds me of my time as a struggling student, having to wake up for the early morning shift at Moore Wilsons. Nevertheless I put on my tramping gear and threw my pack over and ventured into the early … Read more
Most of our group met up at Wellington Railway Station on Saturday morning, while a few drove straight to the park. Before we left we checked how much our packs weighed on a portable scale. I was looking forward to trying out my new boots, and hoping they would prove comfortable. The weather was delightfully … Read more
Outrageous Otago mountain biking Some of thee best mountain biking in Central Otago including the ????? areas. Toward the end of summer in past years Paul and I have always tried to fit in a multi-day MTB’ing trip—but this time we planned to change that idea and try a number of single-day rides instead. This … Read more
Before I get into the juicy facts, here’s a wordy summary of our Southern Crossing Medium tramp from Otaki Forks to Kaitoke. We headed up to Field Hut from Otaki Forks around 8pm on Friday night. It was a beautiful night, with an almost full moon. We set off from Field at 9am the next … Read more
Syme Hut and Mt Taranaki – a Sherpa assisted ascent An attempt to climb Mt Taranaki with two trampers acting as Sherpas and carrying all the shared camping gear We met at Wellington Railway Station at 1730 on Friday night: Tony, Illona, Rachel, Becky, Meena, Dave and I. We were very interested to meet the Sherpas … Read more
The extended Waitangi Day weekend afforded the perfect opportunity for WTMC members to take in the delights of the top of the South. So along with a ‘fit’ group tackling the Leslie-Karamea track and others defying gravity in the Nelson Lakes area, a select group of three ‘easy-mediums’ took on the less strenuous, less technical, … Read more
To the South Island with racks and ropes and heavy packs. We started out early on Thursday with a water taxi across Lake Rotoiti to Coldwater hut, weather calm and sunny, couldn’t ask for more for the 8-9 hour trudge up the Travers valley. Lunched at John Tait in fairly good time and continued up … Read more
We set off to Hawkes Bay via a takeaway stop at Carterton, where we scattered in about five different directions to explore the smorgasbord of culinary options there. We eventually got to the road end, at around 10pm. After a splash through the river, and taking a wrong turn, the GPS was consulted and we … Read more
New Zealand is a new country geographically speaking. The Southern Alps grow every year, and Aoraki has a go at shrinking every year. For a NZ rock climber, the primary goal is to find “good rock”. Not to seek out nice “starred” routes with lovely outlooks and beautiful sequences. No, the goal is to find … Read more
It was going to be a great weekend with light winds and sun shine for Weimen’s trip to Tarn Ridge hut. I had been in that area many times, so I asked Weimen what he had planned and I gave him the times I thought the different options would take. After he had studied the … Read more