Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
I volunteered to lead this medium trip after Michael Lightbourne pulled out due to unfamiliarity with the route. On the trip list were six club members, plus Vlad. Vlad had never tramped in New Zealand, although assured me he had hiked in the Ukraine. Best let him know what he’s in for, I thought. You … Read more
Some people go all the way up to the Central Plateau to do a bit of cycling, and indeed the well-known 42 Traverse is up on the trip schedule for early December. That should be an interesting ride, on average downhill, starting on a crisp summer morning and probably ending with that nice combination of … Read more
For this trip we had the club’s second van – ‘DPY’, and took it across on the ferry. It’s easy to drive and a real asset of the club. It took a bit over two hours to get to Kaikoura and the Mt Fyffe carpark. The forecast was for clearing weather on Saturday, but on … Read more
The original plan was to access Mt McKay (2300m) from the Sabine Valley but once we discovered that the water taxi across Lake Rotoroa was closed for the winter and that the avalanche risk was high we opted instead to approach via the Rainbow Valley. The Rainbow Valley is home to cattle as well as … Read more
This year the Club again ran both an Alpine Instruction Course and a Snowcraft course. We had 6 people on the AIC and 14 doing Snowcraft so a total of 20 students. At the time of writing we had just completed the Snowcraft course while the AIC still had its final weekend to go. We enjoyed two brilliant … Read more
For the past couple of months we (the 6 AIC students) have been heading off into the mountains with a team of dedicated (and highly skilled!) instructors to learn how to safely climb challenging snowy peaks. The Alpine Instruction Course, run by Sharron Came together with this years instructors (Allen Higgins, David Jewell, John Duggan and … Read more
After a wet week in Wellington I imagine everyone in our group was looking forward to getting away from the town and out into the Tararuas. For some reason I have never tramped in the Tararuas before and I was keen to have a look for myself after seeing many club night photos of popular … Read more
This was the third time I’ve gone to the Kaweka Hot Pools, or the Mangatainoka Hot Springs as they are more properly known. My introduction to the Hot Pools was back in 2005, doing an Easy tramp with Helen McDermott. Then two years ago I led a Medium tramp to Ballard Hut and the Hot … Read more
“Hey Justin, doesn’t the fuel gauge say we’re on empty?” “No, the fuel indicator needle is just having a little rest below the ‘E’. We’ll be fine”. “Are you sure about that?” “Um, not really, but you weren’t supposed to ask that question. I’m sure we’ll be, um, fine. Maybe we’ll make it back. . … Read more
I dreamed about Daphne, her spur, her ridge and her hut. After a couple of months filled with studies and deskwork it was time to get out and meet Daphne in the Ruahine’s. I choose to be a novice leader on this trip, the 3 -5 of July. It would be great! There were 16, then … Read more