A Southern Crossing with the help of numbers

Before I get into the juicy facts, here’s a wordy summary of our Southern Crossing Medium tramp from Otaki Forks to Kaitoke. We headed up to Field Hut from Otaki Forks around 8pm on Friday night. It was a beautiful night, with an almost full moon. We set off from Field at 9am the next … Read more

Southern Main range

It had been five years since I’d last been to Maungahuka, so I signed up to lead the southern main range, a physically demanding trip which takes you across the tops between Bridge peak and Crawford. Friday night: Tramped to Field hut. Saturday: We arose with some hunters at 5:30 am and were away by … Read more

Overnight to the not officially open Kime Hut

With only one punter signed up (Alyn) for the official WTMC trip to Snowy Hut, the trip became an unofficial WTMC fit trip with a party of two, later to become three punters on a 24 hour jaunt into the hills. I was the only person in the party not to have visited the hut … Read more

Penn Creek Hut

There were 3 in our happy band. After many days of beautiful, calm, sunny weather, there were howling gales and lashing rain forecasted for the weekend. Driving from Wellington on the Friday night, the worst of it did not arrive until we actually parked the van at Otaki Forks about 9pm. We opened the van … Read more

Field Hut

We left Wellington on Friday evening, so that the Medium Fits we were travelling with could hit the trail early the following morning. Parking up at the trail head we put on our head torches and made the short walk out to Parawai Hut. For Jo and I this was the first time tramping with … Read more

Elder Hut trip

 In November 2010 I did a great trip to Elder Hut in fine sunny weather (yes, this was the Tararuas). The views from the hut were brilliant, and it got the sun until late in the evening.  So when the trip was put on the proposed WTMC summer schedule for March 2012, begging for a … Read more