Are you a ‘peak bagger’ a ‘hut ticker offer’? Do you love going out into the bush to satisfy your personal desire to experience our beautiful natural heritage? Let’s face it; unless you are leading a trip helping others, tramping is done for our own selfish reasons of personal enjoyment and experience. And there is … Read more
It is depressing to all those that love the outdoors that so many of NZ’s native birds are either recently extinct, or are now classified as nationally critical or nationally endangered. Kea that were once common in large flocks are now rarely seen on tramping trips in the South Island mountains, falcons and rock wrens … Read more
Looking at the weather report on a daily basis I felt we would have at least one good day – and that would be the day we would go across the tops. We camped at the road end which made it easy for setting off the next morning and we could take our time tramping. … Read more
Thanks to Paul and the 5 other punters, for a great trip into the Ruahine tops…a first for most of us. It was a delayed start from the Railway station due to a spill on the motorway, leaving after 6 instead of after 5…with great relief we made good time after having dinner before we … Read more
Up the hill we went in the dark – not an inky dark, lit by a huge oculus-moon highlighting the jagged terrain amid fragmenting cloud. Not a breath of wind and a landscape bathed in ivory light made for a glorious hour up to Longview Hut for the night. Jessie’s headlamp threatened to add to … Read more
Our drive up on Saturday morning involved lots of discussion about the weather. Were we doing the right thing? Should we maybe go to Rangiwahia instead, avoiding any potentially nasty creek crossings? The severe weather warning was pretty vague as to when exactly to expect the forecast gales and rain. Hmmmm. At Shannon it was … Read more
The weather forecast was not looking good for the weekend when I left work on Friday evening. A colleague said “See you on the news” as I left; the train conductor patted me on the shoulder when I mentioned I was going tramping saying “Good luck mate…. I really mean it” and I noticed that … Read more
The first (and biggest) problem of the trip happened a month before it took place: the farmer would not give us permission to cross his land so we no longer had access to the track to Purity Hut. This called for Plan B, and after some research, Kevin Cole, who was leading the medium trip … Read more
We set off to Hawkes Bay via a takeaway stop at Carterton, where we scattered in about five different directions to explore the smorgasbord of culinary options there. We eventually got to the road end, at around 10pm. After a splash through the river, and taking a wrong turn, the GPS was consulted and we … Read more
Our tramp got off to an interesting start with Craig educating me in the week leading up to the tramp on what to do if I was ever chased by a bear since we had been talking about his Alaska trip. I was seriously hoping I would never have to put his advice into action. … Read more