Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
As part of the WTMC mass migration to the South Island that took place on Queens Birthday weekend 2017 (35 from the Club on the ferry), the ‘easy-medium’ group was set to hike to Kiwi Saddle Hut and beyond in the Wangapeka valley region of Kahurangi National Park. One thing the ferry allows for is … Read more
Trip route details: Sat: Courthouse Flat via Blue Creek track to our campsite just above Sanctuary Basin. Approx 5-6hrs. Lots of layers and good down sleeping bags required – it’s cold! Sun: Campsite to Mt Owen. Approx 2hrs. Mt Owen to Granity Pass Hut. Approx 2-3hrs. Follow the cairned track to avoid crevasses and slippery … Read more
Friday night, waiting for the Ferry to load, there was a palpable sense of excitement for the upcoming adventure in the Kahurangi National Park. Would we see the reclusive South Island Kokako? Could Mike survive the trip with only six cans of V? And what exactly was going on in the back of the van … Read more
The extended Waitangi Day weekend afforded the perfect opportunity for WTMC members to take in the delights of the top of the South. So along with a ‘fit’ group tackling the Leslie-Karamea track and others defying gravity in the Nelson Lakes area, a select group of three ‘easy-mediums’ took on the less strenuous, less technical, … Read more
The wind had subsided in downtown Wellington and the sun was making an attempt to peek through the clouds. ‘Maybe this bad run of weather is finally on the way out,’ we optimistically hoped as we made a plan B C and D due to yet another poor weather forecast. Plan A had been ruled … Read more
A dawn chorus of korimako wakes us long before the sun hits our shaded campsite at Courthouse Flat. The results of a successful predator trapping campaign soon become evident as we headed off into the eastern side of Kahurangi National Park. It’s like stepping back in time as korimako, piwakawaka, toutouwai, kereru and miromiro swoop … Read more
Seven keen folk explored Kahurangi Tablelands for four days in exceptionally fine weather and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. We arrived at the road end, where we dossed for the night in the shelter, around 12:30am Friday morning, after a three hour ferry crossing and about a three hour drive. Another WTMC trip group arrived … Read more
This Easter trip promises to be a sort of easy-going natural history expedition. That’s what Illona’s billing suggests: moa bones, caves, an asbestos mine, a historic hut, rock shelters as well as Kahurangi’s flora and fauna, plus gourmet dining every night. We arrive late at Flora Saddle car park on the Thursday night and pitch … Read more
Contemplating our wounds during lunch half way through the scrub bash back to the tops of the Douglas Range, someone remarked that this was like childbirth: we’d forget the pain and do it all again. That certainly rang true for three of us. Sharron, who’d laboured here with David and me five years before, had … Read more
After many years of vigorously peeling any carrot that came within a co-eee of my cooking pot, I have recently found there is a strong movement of people who believe in a skin-on approach to culinary carrots. I therefore now feel more confident in writing this newsletter article about the lack of peel in our … Read more