ThursdayWith the weather forecast and avalanche advisory aligning, we met to check in for the Interislander mid-Thursday afternoon sailing from Wellington to Picton. When aboard the almost empty ferry, we quickly got stuck in to maximising our chances to win the on-board prize draws that the Interislander staff were putting on to farewell their Supervisor. … Read more
*Editor’s note: Paratetaitonga (2535m) is a mountain peak located on the edge of Mt Ruapehu’s Crater Lake. It’s always nice when you are lucky enough to have a Friday off work for early travel to your weekend’s destination! It’s even better when you know there’ll be no soggy camping at the road end on a … Read more
“And this is my snow saw,” said Nick, as he removed the gleaming blade from its holster. A strangely curved, unwieldy and yet hugely useful device for creating a snow cave, as I would find out later that weekend. Led by Nick H, we were a band of five who had gamely signed up for … Read more
DATE: 29 August to 1 September 2019 TRIP: ALP1 LOCATION: Crooked Spur hut, Two Thumbs Range AUTHOR: Byron TRAMPERS: Byron and Tiffany “A bit overweight, but that’s alright,” said the Air NZ staffer, as they attached a “heavy” label to my bag. “Excellent,” I thought to myself. “I look forward to putting that on my … Read more
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
INTRODUCTION The purpose of running the trip as an Alp1 “PLUS” was to give experienced Alp1-level members a chance to try something with a bit more exposure, and maybe needing the occasional rope to make crossing certain features safer. This proved to be a very popular proposal, and despite this being a Fit trip I … Read more
The Kaikouas are an impressive sight from Wellington’s south coast on a sunny winter’s day. Several times most years WTMC groups try and climb one of the large peaks that appear too rise up out of the sea. On one such trip in early October our objective was a 1870 metre peak simply called ‘Snowflake’. … Read more
Dan’s Red Crater group pretty much got to do what they set out to do, but didn’t exactly get to see what they set out to see. We left Wellington early Friday evening under an even mix of blue sky and high cloud. By the time we reached Kapiti, there was no cloud, the blue seemed bluer … Read more
I had been looking forward to this trip for ages. The plan was to catch the Friday evening ferry—but which then got delayed due to a bit of a storm passing through. We were rebooked on to the Saturday morning ferry and despite getting up early we then spent an additional two hours waiting for … Read more
Two weeks out from the trip, leader Debbie emailed us two plans. Plan A would be Taranaki South Face ALP1 (M) – subject to the weather, snow conditions and avalanche risk. Should the weather, snow conditions and avalanche risk not be to Debbie’s liking, then Plan B – a tramp around the Pouakai Loop (M) … Read more