A Fairytale climb of Gloriana Peak – Spenser Mountains

I almost pulled the pin on this trip. By the Thursday evening before we were due to leave, the weather forecast had changed daily, if not hourly, for the past few days. And the Interislander had already bumped our outbound sail to a less convenient time for everyone. I was weighing up whether it was … Read more

Two MYSTERY Huts

Speaker: Harry Smith I am going to talk about two little-known huts that I visited with Kevin Cole on our way back to Wellington at the end of our Christmas trip in the Canterbury High Country in 2018. The club has occasionally run Mystery Trips where the participants don’t know in advance where they are going; … Read more

Crooked Spur Hut

Snow covered mountain

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

The Two Thumb Range to the Rakaia

The Ashburton Lakes landscape is noted for its relatively unmodified, huge, harsh and vast inter-montane wetland system of wide open valleys, twelve lakes, and braided rivers. An area surrounded by tussock lands and bordered to the west by the Southern Alps it was never a place of interest to me, except as a place to … Read more

Crooked

Just the name seemed to be a good enough reason for two part-time trampers, who we will call J and T, to go and visit the spur and its crooked hut. So with weekend flights already booked it really wasn’t a difficult decision for them to make. Their usual late Friday night arrival in Christchurch … Read more