Kia ora, it’s hard to believe it is already February. For your Committee this means we’re now preparing for the AGM (to be held on 15 April), and as part of this preparation we’ll be having a one-day offsite later this month. We’ll send out more information about the AGM and the Committee roles and election process in March, but if you would like to discuss this earlier please feel free to contact me.
Please read on below for a range of reminders and updates about what has been happening in your Club.
As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Ngā mihi
Daniel Madley
President
Life Membership – nominations close this Sunday 8 February. A phenomenal amount of work has gone into making the Club what it is today, and individuals who have made an exceptional contribution deserve to be recognised. More information about how you can make nominations can found here.
Social events – it’s been great to see lots of new and familiar faces at the New Members night, and fortnightly pub nights at Leroys. Please do come along for the next club talks – on Wednesday 11 February we’ll talk about getting into tramping, and on Wednesday 25 February, where Sam and Roger will share their adventures in the Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand. Doors open 6.30pm for a 7pm start and you can see the full event schedule here.
Trips – our valiant effort to revive the concept of a President’s trip after many years met with wet reality, and we’ve postponed the trip to Paua Hut until mid-March. Some trips have had more luck – in the past couple of weeks since the last post, Lynsey and Nicole led trips to Kahurangi National Park (Dragons Teeth low ridge and Cobb Valley respectively) and I led a group of relatively new club members to Fishermans Hut, Field Hut and Table Top to enjoy the views and appreciate the history of the hut.
We did have two PLB activations in January, in different circumstances that the Committee is considering learnings from. I’m pleased to say that in both situations the fantastic emergency response network we have in New Zealand was able to promptly support our members, the club’s emergency response system worked well, and we received positive feedback from rescue services on our safety processes and the information we collect. This is all a credit to the many leaders we have had over the years who have set up and refined systems, and to the trip leaders who compile this information for each trip – it is greatly appreciated.
Next trip schedule – we’ll be circulating this to trip leaders shortly, and the schedule should go live for sign ups towards the end of February.
Trip Support coordinator – we’re still looking for a volunteer to help Ashleigh with transport and hut bookings, and overall trip logistics. This is a shared role and it is crucial to ensuring trips can run smoothly, and supporting trip leaders. If you can help out, please email [email protected].
Gear available to members – we’ve recently done a big sort out of club gear to identify what we need and what is surplus to requirements. Many thanks to Anna, Sara, James, Tiffany and Megan for their work on this. The surplus gear includes:
- 4 tents
- a large fly
- Telescopic poles
- 6 harnesses
- Carabiners
- Trowels
- a hammer.
The surplus gear is available on an “as is, buyer beware, condition unverified, first come first served” basis, and will be available to view and collect from the clubrooms on Wednesdays 6.30-7pm throughout February. We will be encouraging people to make a small donation to the club depending on the gear they want. If you have questions, please contact Anna at [email protected].
In other exciting gear news, we’ve had a 5-tray dehydrator kindly donated to the club, which is now available for members to borrow – email [email protected] if you want to book it.
Trip reports – as signaled last year, Jacqui has now stepped down from the Newsletter Officer role. We’re looking at options to update the website so in the meantime won’t be filling the role until those decisions are taken. But we are still monitoring the inbox, so please keep sending your trip reports through as usual! Thank you Jacqui for your work over the years and for helping to make the trip reports such good reading.
“Tararua Mystery in Attic” – John Rhodes, a longtime WTMC member, has contacted us seeking members’ help with a bit of a mystery. In 2023, several boxes of 35-millimetre transparencies (slides) of the Tararua Range were found in the attic of a house in Johnsonville. All are labelled, but they are undated and the people in them are nearly all unnamed. The huts, bridges and cars shown suggest that the slides were taken in the 1950s.
Scans of some of the photographs are at https://swtc.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Unknown-Tararua-slides.pdf
If you can suggest who the photographer may have been, or identify any of the people in the photos, please email [email protected] or telephone 06 304 9095.
