North Ohau Hut

The planned trip had initially been to go into North Ohau Hut via the Mangahao River. However the forecast for the weekend was not so good. So plans were altered to a less weather dependent route for North Ohau Hut via Deception Spur. The contingency if the weather was really terrible was to go up … Read more

Turning into popsicles on Baldy…

See more photos from Sarah Friday night saw our group doing an extremely quick march to Atiwhakatu hut after which I declared there would be a mutiny the next morning if we were walking that fast the rest of the tramp as my pack was stuffed full of an abundance of warm clothes. We arrived … Read more

Two Beautiful Weekends at Ruapehu Lodge

Raymond Morgan has run the first two transport/food/accommodation trips to our Ruapehu Lodge this season, and I was lucky enough to get onto both trips. While a lot of us got in some great skiing and boarding, Ray took us on some amazing adventures as well. I’m hooked! 18-20 July – Ruapehu Looking back at Ruapehu … Read more

Trip to Rangiwahia (formerly to Purity Hut)

The first (and biggest) problem of the trip happened a month before it took place: the farmer would not give us permission to cross his land so we no longer had access to the track to Purity Hut. This called for Plan B, and after some research, Kevin Cole, who was leading the medium trip … Read more

Roaring Stag Flora and Fauna

Photos from Tony Gazley Sadly, for a NZer, I’m reasonably well informed given that I can name around 20 plant species, and identify quite a few of them. However, I wanted to be able to tell the difference between a couple of species by bark, given that these trees grow very tall, and leaves are … Read more

Burnt Custard in Burn Hut

View more photos from Sarah Craig had this to say about the weather: I can confirm the presence of a Black Hole slightly to the west of Kapiti Island. It is the only feasible explanation, after tracking three fronts across the Tasman that suddenly parked themselves on top of kayaker until he quit. Points north … Read more

Turere Waterfall – Remutaka Forest Park

Turere Stream waterfall

Turere Waterfall An adventurous hike into the Orongorongo Valley, Remutaka Forest Park, to find the Turere waterfall Route Saturday 9.25 hours – Carpark to Mt McKerrow via Clay Ridge track, about 1km north of Mt McKerrow go down the first SE tending ridge and drop into Turere stream about 200m above the sidestream coming off … Read more

Madness and Bananagrams on Mt Matthews

See more pictures from Sarah.  Andrei’s report of Saturday: An important takeaway was quickly realised – my venerable Mazda Millenia sedan, which was the surrogate club van for the weekend, can only hold four backpacks.  Three in the boot and one in the middle of the back seat.  Just as well we had a late … Read more

Mt McKay, Nelson Lakes National Park

I’m not unaccustomed to being cold. I once was a student in Christchurch living in a flat seemingly designed by Fisher & Paykel. I would have to frequently de-ice the inside of my bedroom window in the winter time and my flatmates and I would sit on the couch in the evenings in sleeping bags; … Read more

When people come north to Wellington for tramping…

Date: 14 June 2014. Trampers: Too many to name. Location: St Johns Hall, Willis & Dixon Street. Trip Type: Enlightening Policy Discussions. Author: Mike McGavin. Saturday 14th June was a typical sparkly, sunshiney Wellington day and so I was naturally surprised that nobody else from Tongue and Meats* was spending it where many other trampers … Read more