Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
On Saturday 16th April the alarm went off at 5 am. In darkness we drove to meet the team at Wellington train station at 6 am for the train to Waikanae. Here we met fellow trampers Jared, Mike and team leader Garth. Unfortunately, one member of the team slept through the alarm so our group … Read more
We’re getting excited about the 2016 Whakapapa snow season. The Ruapehu crew have secured a licence renewal with DOC, and so a flood of money is set to hit the Whakapapa facilities. This means a new quad express lift to replace the Centennial Chair this year, and a quad chairlift to replace the Waterfall T-bar in 2017. Good … Read more
Come along and listen to the stories of the best-of-the-best S-K runners. All have recently completed the S-K Main Range in under the magical 24 hours with Chris Swallow setting a record at under 20 hours (a bit of a speed merchant he also competes in Isle of Mann motorbike races). Don’t miss meeting and … Read more
Q. How did you get involved with the WTMC? A. I had done a few tramps for Duke of Edinburgh and was keen to do more tramping but didn’t know anyone else interested in it. I kept thinking I would go along to a tramping club but was too shy to go for ages. I … Read more
Canyoning has become more popular in NZ recently and a small group of WTMC club members are joining in the fun. Below is a selection of photos taken on trips to the Patuna Chasm (easy), Turere Stream (not quite so easy), and Chamberlain Creek and the Eager Beaver Canyon (both definitely not quite so easy). … Read more
It has been reported that the search for a missing tramper ended happily. Police were called by the mother of a middle-aged man overdue on a day-walk in the Tararua Forest Park when he failed to return home for his dinner last Sunday evening. According to the crewman on the rescue helicopter, Laramie Penstock, they were … Read more
One of the committee’s aims this year was to look at how we run the club and to review if there was any way of managing things better. We ran a survey focussing on what people do to help the club operate. Our analysis of the results was published on the website in Nov (see … Read more
Katy Glenie quizzes Chief Guide Illona Keenen Q. How did you get involved with the WTMC? A. A friend Jane Perkins was a long time member and invited me along for a South Island trip to The 1000 Acres Plateau—but the bad weather meant we didn’t get there. It then took me three years to … Read more
Happy belated New Year! This was meant to be a pre-Christmas message but a virus swallowed up most of my December. I hope you have had a great break and managed to get out tramping during that amazing weather between Christmas and New Year. As well as business as usual, the committee has been focusing … Read more
Update 1 February 2016 You can now read Jean’s story of her S-K here. *********************************************************************** The latest news is that Jean Beaumont has just become the first woman to complete the Main Range S-K under 24 hours, solo and unsupported! An truly amazing effort of 23 hours 43 minutes given that conditions were apparently marginal. … Read more