I don’t think many of us could quite trust the more-or-less perfect forecast as the trip weekend approached, and a few times were we reminded that there had been many WTMC attempts at this area of the Ruahines, all thwarted in some way or another by bad weather. Well, it seems we finally lifted the … Read more
The plan for the weekend was a Waipakihi Hut loop – heading in over Urchin and following the Waipakihi River to the hut on Saturday then out via the Umukarikari Range on Sunday. A perfect mix of tops and river travel. While this was a medium trip, I’d indicated to the group that we were … Read more
In late-2025, the Club put out its summer trip list and for this trip there was a ‘leader required’ note on it. Being keen as ever, I suggested doing it over 3 days which would make it a medium trip, and volunteered to lead! Within a few weeks we had 13 in total wanting to … Read more
On Thursday 17th of April, two WTMC groups met at Wellington Railway station at 11.30am to catch the 1pm Interislander ferry to the South Island. After arriving in Picton, we grabbed a quick dinner and then drove south to Murchison in the club van. The night was spent at Kiwi Park Motels and Holiday Park … Read more
Mt Tongariro – a day walk from the WTMC Ruapehu Lodge A loop day hike via the South Ridge to the summit of Mt Tongariro from the WTMC Lodge in the Tongariro National Park including a map of the route. Having done a fair bit of exploring around Tongariro National Park using the WTMC lodge … Read more
The original plan for this trip was to head into Atiwhakatu Hut on Friday night, climb Baldy Peak and then go on to the Broken Axe Pinnacles and McGregor Biv on Saturday and then back to Holdsworth Lodge via Angle Knob and Jumbo on Sunday. While Saturday’s weather looked pretty good, Sunday’s forecast was for … Read more
We had an extraordinary number of sign-ups for the Aorangi Crossing trip, originally graded Medium, which was very encouraging to see. We were keen to accommodate as many trampers as possible, as the club had signed up to support the Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) ‘Love our Huts’ campaign (unbeknown to those who had signed up). … Read more
The group assembled at Platform 10 (basically 9 ¾ for WTMC) for what would end up being a wet, but enjoyable, weekend in the Tararuas. The plan originally was to head to Winchcombe Biv. However, the weather forecast was not in our favour, with winds from 35-40km/h and gusts up to 100km/h predicted for Saturday … Read more
Unfortunately, our original plan to do a return trip to Triangle Hut from the western side of the Ruahine Range was not to be, owing to the high winds and soggy weather forecast for the weekend. However, it looked like the Eastern side of the Range would have a better weather profile, so we opted … Read more
The trip began with us all meeting at Wellington Train Station to catch a 4pm ferry sailing to the South Island. Our original plan was to camp at Butchers Flat campsite, but as the forecast was looking rather awful, we made a decision while waiting for the ferry to book accommodation in Picton for the … Read more