Parks Peak Trapping

The trip got off to a great start, with an uneventful 5 hour drive north on Friday evening.  We dropped the hunters off at Masters Shelter for their own adventure and the rest of us continued another 10 minutes up the road.  On arriving at the parking place for the beginning of the short 10 … Read more

How about a trip to Howlett’s Hut?

The weather forecast for this trip was pretty bad, and we debated whether it was a good idea, with a forecast of heavy rain and gales, to go into a hut where the only way out was via ridge or river. After some careful analysis of the weather maps, our leader, Richard, encouraged us to … Read more

A Steak in the Hills

Trampers / Masterchefs: Mark (Trip Leader) – Supervisor, menu designer, apron wearer Emily – Chocolate Cake Billy Baker Garth – Steak Master Extraordinaire and Scrambled egg Supremo Bridget – Queen of custard Objective As a first time leader, an easy walk to the hut, eat well, enjoy the scenery and relax. Simples! Why Gourmet Tramping…? … Read more

Howletts Hut

Our epic journey started quite calmly at the railway station on Friday night. In a full club van we drove 3 hours up to Noreswood, stopping for an evening meal at the Istanbul in Caterton. The ANZAC Park campsite just north of Norsewood is a basic but pretty campsite (toilet but no water available). Next … Read more

Terrific Triangle

The lure of Christmas shopping, or perhaps the panic of not having done it earlier, meant that there were only three of us on the medium tramp to Triangle hut in the Ruahines the weekend before Christmas. We shared transport with the equally select ‘gourmet’ easy tramp  group of four who were heading up to … Read more

Mid Pohangina-Ngamoko-Piripiri Loop

The four of us left the Railway Station on a sunny Friday evening bound for the Pohangina Valley and the Ruahines. The good weather forecasted for the weekend and the free-flowing traffic along SH1 meant spirits were high in anticipation for a good weekend’s tramping even before Maarten announced he would be providing a breakfast … Read more

Across the Ruahines

There’s something very appealing about traversing a mountain range – crossing from civilization on one side, via snowy ridge tops, to civilization on the other side, without having to retrace steps to come back to the same familiar road end. And when you can do a key swap halfway to make transport easy, what could … Read more

Iron Gate Hut

We went up to Alice Nash Memorial Heritage Lodge for the night. Very nice and tidy hut about half an hour from the road end. We were joined by two hunters who camped outside on the deck and carried in a full load of beers! On Saturday occasional fine breaks with high clouds and clagged … Read more

Delightful Daphne Hut

After the usual Friday departure, a quick trip out of Wellington, and the regular Friday night stop for dinner we got to the road end for the EM group near Dannevirke at a reasonable time on Friday night. The next morning we drove to our road end, Kashmir Road, with a quick stop in Dannevirke … Read more

Cattle Creek

This trip shared the van with a group going to Howletts Hut. The Cattle Creek road end had a campsite and toilets, so it made sense to stay there on Friday night. It had been arranged that we had enough tents to use at the road end, but there was a fresh set of dry (and light) … Read more