Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
Check out the latest news and trips reports below or view the archives using the menu on the left. If you want to know more about the newsletter including submitting stories, see Newsletter>Publication Details. To learn more about the club, check the top menu. Some links will take you to the old website, but content will eventually move to this site.
Let’s start by listing the things this trip did not have: injuries, complaints, Turkish food. That’s about it. Ok, let’s look at what it did have; everything else! Our carefully laid plans to get over the hill and enjoy a kebab in Carterton were scuppered after we found the long time WTMC favourite dinner-stop closed … Read more
Megan and Sam arrived at the train station to meet Simon on the Friday night, and the three of us were the only ones rattling around in the WTMC van. We stopped briefly for pizza & kebabs at Carterton, then drove to the Holdsworth road-end to arrive at about 7pm. We then hoofed up to … Read more
Leave the Catchpool Carpark at a leisurely 10:00 am Saturday morning. Wander through to the Orongorongo River – always pleasant no matter how often you go. Climb up to South Saddle and try to avoid being blown off the ridge in the north-west gale. Scurry down into the Mukamuka to find a sheltered spot for … Read more
I had never been to the Kaimanawa Forest Park so when Tereza put this trip on the schedule I signed up. This trip also coincided with the start of some annual leave for me, so if we had a late return to Wellington on the Sunday I didn’t have to worry about getting up early … Read more
INTRODUCTION Following the great success of the first WTMC packrafting instruction course our chief-guide Richard organised a second one – which helped to alleviate our feelings of envy. Packrafting is a very exciting way to travel down a river by using a special inflatable kayak weighing in at just over 2 kg and folding to … Read more
This trip was Marie Henderson’s idea. Walk into Roaring Stag on Friday night and sleep in the hut. Then packraft down the Ruamahanga River on Saturday to a Mt Bruce exit on the highway. But at the last hour Marie was called by SAR for four days assistance in the search for a tramper missing … Read more
INTRODUCTION Over Easter weekend I took a trip through and around the Forgotten World Highway, between Taumarunui and New Plymouth. This area is surprisingly beautiful for how little I have heard about it before going, and still relatively quiet in terms of traffic. As you pass through, there are stunning views of the Ruapehu massif, … Read more
Seven bright eyed faces peered out of the windows at the brown rocks and patchy snow as the van drove down Bruce Road. A right turn before the Chateau and they arrived at their road end. The trampers leapt out of the van into the brilliant blue-skied day, raring to go. They set off at … Read more
Welcome to my June update – there are some meaty topics in this one which might be useful discussion points for long journeys in the van or those times when you need to distract your trip-mates from your puffing and panting up a Tararua hill. Re-thinking the WTMC Journal The committee has recently been discussing … Read more
The New Zealand Mountain Film Festival National Tour is coming back to Wellington with another double feature! The festival started in 2002 and is internationally recognised as one of the world’s premier mountain film festivals. It is New Zealand’s original mountain film festival with an international adventure film maker’s competition, as well as a highly … Read more