A summer trip to Mt Ruapehu is a favourite of all of ours, so quite a few of us headed up for the family tramping trip in March. It ended up that we had three trips in one, with all of us doing different things at different times. Here are three perspectives on this trip. … Read more
Wow, what a glorious weekend! The weather gods were extra kind to the young trampers. This was the writer’s first tramp in … let’s say her son is nearly 17 and leave it at that. Her external frame pack was the focus much discussion but hey: isn’t retro in? I’m sure mustard coloured, swing jackets … Read more
On the weekend of March 10/11th, I went for my first overnight tramp with Dad. We were in a large party of 5 families. The youngest was only 6 months old! We set off on Saturday from Holdsworth carpark for Atiwhakatu hut – a distance of 5 kilometres. It was a beautiful sunny day, but … Read more
What happens if you take a whole lot of comments from everyone on the trip and just mash them together? There were so many favourite parts: fireworks having left over pudding for breakfast everyone gathered round the bonfire roasting marshmallows and damper fireworks display and sparklers sleeping in the tent jelly beans the company kids … Read more
A group of 16 set out in good weather for the popular Cornish St to Korokoro Dam walk, a 3 hour return trip. The track follows Korokoro stream all the way to the dam, which was built in 1903 to supply Petone. Remnants of the water pipeline remain. Our group had a good number of … Read more
So what is it that children like most about tramping? A sense of adventure? Staying in a cool hut? Enjoying nature? Nah – it seems it is the one time in their lives that their parents let them eat whatever yummy food they like. Our trip to Totara Flats was no different. Our group kept … Read more
Everyone knows the Ruapehu Lodge is where you go for winter weekends; for snowboarding, alpine adventures and the like. Summer? What’s there in Summer? Well, that was our mission: to find out. I well know that the lodge is very comfortable for regular punters and families alike. It needs to be because snowboarding at Mt … Read more
Mt Holdsworth Day Walk A day walk on the Mt Holdsworth summit track as far as the Mountain House Shelter. On a slightly overcast Sunday, we set out for a day on the tracks of Mt Holdsworth. We got out of bed in uncivilised hours (7:30am) for a Sunday morning, packed lunch and left home … Read more
Having lived outside New Zealand for a while, I can say that weather forecasting is quite a bit more hit and miss here than, say, Australia or Europe. Something to do with being a small island in a large ocean, I’ll bet. But when the Metservice decided to add a 10 day forecast to their … Read more
After what seemed to be weeks and weeks of rain this Saturday morning the sun was out again. A good start for the easy ‘novelty’ walk to the Rimutaka Forest Park organised by Steve. (Originally, the ‘novelty’ part was to be hot lasagne; later changed for soup.) We met part of our group at platform … Read more