Summer Nights in the Orongorongos

The last Friday of the school holidays was the closest the group could get to a Friday night at Turere Lodge, so we grabbed it. And we absolutely hit gold with the weather! Unlike friends who were in there in the 10 days before us, we had golden sunshine and light breezes all weekend – … Read more

Mount Matthews and Ocean Beach: wild and wonderful weather

Long summery evenings are a most wonderful thing. It was still light as we bounded along the Orongorongo Valley track on Friday evening; dark only settling down upon us as we reached the river. Using a waypoint that Bram had marked on his gps we successfully navigated in the, suddenly rather dark darkness, to the … Read more

Intermediate Bushcraft

As the next step in my transformation from city slicker to baby bear grylls, I signed up to the Intermediate Bushcraft course run by Kevin, Richard, Matt, Emily and Bram on the weekend of 11-13 August 2017. I had high hopes for this course. Until that time, GPS devices were just cumbersome old-school mobile phones … Read more

Top deck on top

I was not brimming with confidence about leading this trip as I had not done a medium trip before, let alone led one! However I not only survived the trip, I actually enjoyed it, which I put down to the awesome group I was walking with. We were picked up by our chauffer for the weekend … Read more

Paua Hut

It was a rainy Saturday morning when a group of 6 porters and 6 punters met at Catchpool Valley for an overnight to Paua Hut. The plan was originally to have a few people tent outside, but given the forecast, we we decided to squeeze everyone in to the hut and leave the tents behind. … Read more

Paua Hut

Did you know that WTMC has Paua Hut on the banks of the Orongorongo River in the Rimutaka Forest Park? And that the hut is available for private booking by members and non-members? Location Paua Hut is accessed from the Catchpool carpark approximately 45 minutes drive from Wellington. The hut is 2 – 3 hours easy walk from … Read more

Mt McKerrow

This day trip showed me just how accessible the bush is from Wellington city.  Our very organized trip leader (Clinton) gave us all the details we needed to get to the start of the Whakanui track using only public transport. In short you can take the 8.35am train on a Saturday morning from Wellington Railway … Read more

Canyoning

Canyoning has become more popular in NZ recently and a small group of WTMC club members are joining in the fun. Below is a selection of photos taken on trips to the Patuna Chasm (easy), Turere Stream (not quite so easy), and Chamberlain Creek and the Eager Beaver Canyon (both definitely not quite so easy). … Read more

Kiwi Footprints: Family tramp to Papatahi hut via Whakanui track

Gripping tightly to the pack straps of the people next to me in the line, we took our first steps into the Orongorongo River with the roaring water buffeting us around. “Brrrrrr its freezing” I thought as the liquid snow soaked through my shoes. “Brrrrrr its freezing” I thought as I stepped out of the … Read more

March 2015 Bushcraft

The Bushcraft course was a great opportunity to gain or refresh tramping skills and find out about how the club trips operate. The group was a mixture of people wanting to get into tramping for the first time, others wanting to get back into it after time away, and some who have tramping experience – … Read more