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.
As we near the year’s end it’s a great time to reflect, not just on the challenges of this year but also how much there is to celebrate. I want to firstly celebrate and thank the many volunteers that make the club as great as it is. In helping get together a list of our … Read more
‘Whio, whio’, I could hardly believe it—we had been walking for less than two hours and already my promise of sightings of the nationally vulnerable whio on this trip was coming true. I could see why the circuit we were tramping was called the Te Pua-a-Tāne Circuit—the name itself means the abundance or blossoming of … Read more
We weren’t supposed to be in the Mount Richmond Forest Park – that was Plan C. But the weather had already put paid to Plans A and B. So as we were driving up Staircase Road to the Lake Chalice carpark and a pine tree fell in slow motion across the road immediately in front … Read more
Sometimes trips I lead are a bit chaotic. This one was no exception! High winds forecast for the Sunday afternoon ruled out camping anywhere along the ridge, so our crazy plan was to summit Te Ao Whekere and return in one VERY long day. After a booking fail (my fault) with the ferry, we ended … Read more
On Friday night we walked into Paua Hut with Tony S’s Mt Matthews group. Their group had fun practicing a linked up river crossing in the Orongorongo River while our group zoomed on towards Paua hut to see how far we could get without using our headlamps. Finding the toilet at Paua hut that night … Read more
‘Dolphins’ shouted a crew member as we travelled through the Marlborough Sounds on the Interislander. I sprinted over to the railing as dolphins are my favourite animals and saw a huge pod of dolphins swimming joyfully alongside the ferry. Just magical! This seemed like a good start to our five day tramp as did the … Read more
Note that this article was first published as the result of the 2016 road closure. The latest closure (2020) resulting from new slope failures at Blue Bluff means there is now no public access to Otaki Forks. As at 1 October 2020 DOC is still investigating new ‘alternative’ access—it may reinstate the walking route described … Read more
Any trip worth its salt has an epic long drive and it seems this one was no different – it involved Matt having to do a superb job navigating around a pack of farm dogs that seemed intent on stopping the club van progressing up the road – I think they got the club van … Read more
The ski season is now finished for the year. RAL (the ski field operator) were intending to run for a couple of weeks beyond Labour weekend but a significant loss of snow put an end to that. The Covid situation has made it a highly disruptive time for the lodge, but luckily a recovery was … Read more
I’m very excited to see that the new schedule is out – and to hear about the various club trips people have been going on, and signing up for. A massive thanks to Matt Conway for getting the schedule together so quickly and virtually while also managing a range of other things as Chief Guide! … Read more