Nine people signed up for the club’s New Year Round The Mountain – Ruapehu trip. The group featured a few people new to multi-day walks, a few new to the club, as well as some very experienced club members and trampers. The distance and demanding terrain mean that an excellent baseline fitness is a prerequisite, … Read more
This weekend was scheduled as an Alp 1 trip to Bounds Peak in the Raglan Ranges. It’s proving a very elusive objective, with a growing number of thwarted attempts over the past few years. The weather was definitely not good enough for alpine climbing, so we settled on an overnighter to Powell Hut, to play … Read more
The long weekend started with a Friday evening drive to Norsewood, to camp overnight. This allowed us to break up the long drive, along winding gravel roads, to the beginning of the track at Makahu Road road end – about 1.5 hours from Napier. It was sad to see some of the damage caused by … Read more
An overly excited group of eight met at Wellington Airport at 8.15am on a Saturday morning for a flight to Queenstown. Dick and Beverly were already down south and would be meeting us at Queenstown airport. This is one thing I have come to enjoy about WTMC – I knew Noel and Jane, but the … Read more
We gathered at platform 9 on Saturday morning at 8 am and headed out to Poads Road end via a coffee stop at Paekākāriki. Our tramp began at 10 am and we spent the first 15 minutes or so trudging through very muddy paddocks to the start of the actual track. We took the most … Read more
Nydia Track is a picturesque 27 km two- day walk. On Friday, the group left Wellington on the 3.45pm Interislander ferry sailing. It was a calm, quiet and sunny crossing. We stayed at the Villa Hostel in Picton, in two bunkrooms – which was a great place to stay. On Saturday morning, we stocked up … Read more
This was my first overnight trip with the club, and first overnight trip in general since 2014, so I was excited to re-acquaint myself with hut life! Saturday We met at Wellington train station on Saturday morning and, after a lunch stop at the Brown Sugar cafe in Taihape, parked up as close to the … Read more
Day 1: Mangahao Lower No 2 Reservoir to Burn Hut Weather: Dry and warmDOC travel time: 3-4 hrs Group Time: 4 hrs Departing Wellington at 9am, it was a 1 1/2hr drive to Shannon, where we had morning tea. After this, there was a 45 minute drive up a narrow gravel road to Mangahao No … Read more
We departed from Wellington Railway Station at about 7.30am for the drive over the Remutakas and past Greytown, to the Waiohine Gorge carpark entrance of Tararua Forest Park. It was a lovely sunny winter day. We started our walk at 9.20am – going straight across the Waiohine Gorge suspension bridge. There were great views up and down the … Read more
Disembarking from the Friday afternoon ferry to Picton, we drove to Onamalutu Scenic Reserve campsite along with the Medium group and had a cool, but peaceful, night’s sleep under the trees (campsite fee $10 cash per person). The Medium group had a much longer day ahead of them, so we packed up and left Onamalutu … Read more