Kia ora,
Somehow it is already March and summer is officially behind us (although it never seemed to arrive!)
As you will see below, it has been a busy month, with an increased focus on preparing for the AGM on 15 April. An AGM notice with agendas and papers will be circulated in the next couple of weeks, and we hope to see as many Members as possible on 15 April. It will be particularly special as we intend to celebrate our existing Life Members at the AGM, and all going well elect new Life Members.
As always, please feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you have any questions or feedback on how your Club is running.
Ngā mihi
Daniel Madley
President
Committee offsite – Your Committee had a full-day offsite recently to consider where the Club is, and where we should be going. This included a discussion on what the next 10-20 years looks like, priorities for the upcoming year and approving the FY27 budget, reviewing and finalising the policies, preparing for the AGM and considering nominations for Life Membership. I want to thank all of the Committee members for your dedication to the Club, and for giving up your time on what was a very sunny weekend! We look forward to sharing some of our thinking on the future direction of the Club with Members at the AGM on 15 April.
Club policies updated – Thank you to Members who provided feedback on the draft policies at the end of 2025. The Committee has approved the new policies, and you can find more information, and a link to the new policies, here.
New trip schedule – Thanks to the efforts of James and his team, the new trip schedule is now live here. Trips are now available for sign up until the end of July, with a fantastic range of trips on offer. A few trips still need leaders – please contact [email protected] if you are able to assist.
Changes to Club communications – We are intending to streamline the way we communicate with Members after the AGM. Currently an automated email goes out about once a month with this post and a range of trip reports to about 1,500 people (far greater than our approximately 650 Members!) We intend to target our email communications to current Members using the Hello Club database. Likewise, it remains our intention that the WhatsApp community is limited to current WTMC Members, and we intend to remove non-Members shortly after the AGM. This is part of our comms strategy with some information being limited to Members, and other information (website, Facebook and Instagram) being publicly accessible.
Club trips in the past month – I led separate trips to Brass Monkey Hut and Angelus Hut in the South Island, with David leading a trip into the Nina Valley and James leading a trip up to Turkeys Nest in the Leatham Conservation Area (returning sans car). In the Tararuas, Ethan led a trip to Burn Hut, Tiff led a group up Quoin Ridge and James led a day trip to Angle Knob and doing the Jumbo-Holdsworth loop. Anne’s rafting trip was rearranged to visit Ngamoko and Piripiri Huts in the Ruahines. And Ellis and Sally led very successful expeditions into the Kawekas to visit Kiwi Saddle and Studholme Saddle Huts respectively.
Coming up, I’m looking forward to a second attempt at running the President’s trip to Paua Hut in mid-March (hopefully we will have good weather, a bonfire, marshmallows, games and more!) and this weekend we have a Bushcraft course being run through OTNZ in the Tararuas.
Visiting the Auckland Islands and Antipodes – thank you to Roger for hosting the Veteran talk last month, and speaking to his recent adventures sailing down, on two separate trips, to the Auckland Islands and Antipodes. I was especially impressed at how Roger managed to get through about 200 photos and videos in only 40 minutes! It was great to see how conservation work on the Islands are supported, and to learn more about the history of the area, and many shipwrecks!
Volunteering to support the Club – as many of you know running the Club is an incredibly demanding undertaking, and there is never a shortage of work to do. We’ll be holding a talk on 25 March to discuss opportunities to give back to the Club and contribute to its future, and we intend for this to be a big focus for the next year. More information on the 25 March talk is here, and we hope to see you there!
Paua Hut working bee – on the subject of volunteering, enthusiastic volunteers are sought for a working bee to help maintain Paua Hut, indicatively scheduled for May. In particular we are looking for builders, plumbers, fit people wanting to dig a trench and people who want to take their 4WD in to the Hut with supplies. Please contact Sam at [email protected] if you are interested.
Sorting out surplus gear – as mentioned in last month’s post, we’ve been looking to find new homes for surplus gear. I want to thank Anna and her gear team for their work, and also Megan for her help assessing some of the Club’s alpine and climbing gear, and finding new homes for harnesses and figure 8s.
All-year round Lodge – thanks to Miles, Roger, the rest of the Sub-Committee and their great team, the Lodge is in great shape. Having come off a successful summer season, the Lodge remains a great year-round destination for your Central North Island travels. You can book the Lodge here.
Kelburn Keas – the Club gets a lot of interesting queries, one of which was an invitation to speak to a bunch of 5-year old scouts recently about the Club and help them plan a day-walk. I’ll keep an eye out for new Club members in about 15 years to find out how convincing a speaker I was!
Trappers wanted – the Remutaka Conservation Trust is seeking volunteers interested in maintaining about 50 traps along Butchers Track and Cattle Ridge in the Ōrongorongos. If you’re interested in giving back and supporting conservation in the area while staying fit, please email Rosemary at [email protected].
Everest Base Camp tour – Summit Adventures has space remaining on two upcoming 17-day tours to Nepal and Everest Base Camp: 22 September – 08 October 2026 (6 spaces remaining), and 29 March – 14 April 2027 (4 spaces remaining). If you are interested in this unique adventure, contact [email protected] or see more information here.