A two day retreat away from city life is always good for breaking the stress (or boredom) of a working week and so Ed Newsletter and I decided that, in spite of a MetService severe weather warning for the North Island mountains, we would head into the local hills. A wander over the Orongorongos to … Read more
The morning of Saturday 9th March dawned colder and wetter than had been predicted by both Amanda and the Meteorologists so I was glad I had packed a raincoat. From the house it was clear to see that it would be wet over in the Rimutaka ranges. Perfect conditions for an NZ bush-craft course. Seeing … Read more
We met at Platform 9¾ bright and early on the 10th November and headed off, via a crucial pit stop at Maccie Ds, to the road end of the Whakanui Track. Once there, we kitted up and headed up what felt like a near-vertical climb to meet the McKerrow Track. We enjoyed a gentle tramp … Read more
With nine punters signing up rather early we were confident it would turn out to be a good weekend. And indeed, it was a weekend with a good atmosphere, made more so by the Paua Hut rat having been caught earlier this year. The rain during the days prior to the weekend meant that the … 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
The Coast Road heading south from Wainuiomata provides a picture of New Zealand ruralness so idyllic, it feels a bit like you’ve driven onto a huge scenic calendar. The road winds through a landscape of ideally green paddocks, wooden water troughs and tumbledown sheds. Cabbage trees appear with regular randomness, as if part of a … 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
Family tramps work nearly the same as the usual tramping that we all know and love. Early starts, gruelling days through all weathers, getting far into the backcountry – well, we don’t do any of that. Four hours is a long day, persistent drizzle is enough to make us seriously consider staying at home, and … Read more
What a wonderful weekend trip to Paua Hut. The weather was superb and we had enthusiastic children that loved the whole experience, helped by having each other as company and fireworks and chocolate snacks. More about that later. We all met up at the Catchpool carpark on a beautiful Saturday morning at 10.30am. Constanze and … Read more
We went to Paua Hut on the 28th of December. It took two hours to walk through the beautiful bush to the Hut. We had to cross the river. Our shoes and socks got wet and the current pushed us but we loved it. There was no power, but there was gas to cook with … Read more