Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
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
The goal was to get to Top Gorge hut in the Ruahines where none of the group had been before. The forecast was variable, however it was predicted that the main issue was going to be the condition of the snow on the tops as the route involved a long day with a number of … Read more
First decision to be made was should we go SH1 or SH2?? Which will have less traffic and be the quickest? Majority said go SH2 so we did, although our first driver was a bit unsure as we got to some heavy traffic with a “Delay accident ahead” sign. But it all cleared very fast! … Read more
The Howlett’s Hut loop trip via Te Hekenga has been on the schedule for a while now, repeatedly postponed by weather, and it was great to finally knock it off. After driving up with the Rangi Hut trip group and having a good feed in Levin we stopped off at Mangaweka campsite for a few … Read more
Leaving platform 9 an hour later than usual turned out to be a smart decision, with most of the Friday afternoon traffic already gone it was a smooth drive to Levin where we stopped for some food and to check out the public toilets with background music… really weird. Back on the road again we … Read more
Maarten – We met at the Railway station and introduced each other whilst packing the van. It is always nice to meet new people on the trips. When all were present we, along with the Easy group, set off up north. After about 30min I remembered what was suggested at the club a week earlier, … Read more