Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
Tapokopoko to South Saddle ‘Where is the Tapokopoko scree slope? The map shows it is right here.’ ‘The map lies. I reckon the cheeky aliens stole it out from under us and planted a whole forest of trees instead!’ Tony and I were standing on the edge of the supposed ‘scree slope’ that was marked … Read more
Route: Return trip from Orongorongo carpark to Barney’s Whare.Weather: Fine, no windGroup Time: 3.5 hrs + 45 mins A beautiful autumn day greeted us as we departed platform 9 at Wellington Railway Station. The Harbour was a millpond and as we crested the Wainuiomata Hill we disappeared into the thin layer of fog which enveloped … Read more
Six of us left the Catchpool carpark just after 9 am in slightly cool conditions. We were soon in the Orongorongo Valley and headed upstream to Goat Stream. At Goat Stream Hut we had morning tea. We didn’t see the person staying at Goat Stream Hut, but the door was unlocked and there were signs of habitation in … Read more
A leisurely 9am departure from platform 9, along with the Papatahi Crossing group. Our first stop was delivering that group to their start point, but because we had plenty of time and only a short walk to Waiorongomai hut, we headed to the Putangirua Pinnacles for a walk. On the way, we stopped for coffee … Read more
Papatahi Crossing was on Tash’s tramping check list for a long time. She decided to make her dream come true with five other people – Amy-Louise, Elisabeth, James, Maj-Britt and Tracey. Since I’m French Canadian and don’t know where things are in NZ, I decided to join this medium fit trip and to follow the … Read more
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
After having to cancel the bushcraft course, the next best thing seemed to be a day out in the Remutaka Forest Park for a bit of map and compass practice, with an intro to river safety. We started the day with map reading theory at the Catchpool carpark. Identifying symbols on the map – easy! … Read more
There are over 60 private/club/DOC huts in the Orongorongo valley. Our mission was to see how many we could find from out base at Paua hut.I had worried about the weather for the weekend as the forecast had predicted some rain. However, the Friday was warm and sunny and we had a pleasant tramp over … Read more
“The lights are moving—the aliens are coming for us now!” I jokingly teased Tony and suggested we both hide in our tents… Tony and I had decided to do a two-day tramp exploring our own backyard a bit more—a circumnavigation of Mt Matthews that would include both on and off-track travel in the Remutaka Forest … Read more
I had never stayed in Paua Hut (the club hut in the Orongorongo Valley) and also had not been up Mt Matthews for over four years. When I saw that this tramp required a leader I volunteered. After leaving Wellington Station as per normal on the Friday evening we drove to the Catchpool carpark at … Read more