This trip was to be one of many firsts: my first as a trip leader, and the first club trip for both Aaron and Ellis who had recently joined the WTMC. The other ‘first’ was the red lining planned. The primary goal of the trip was to get to Arete Forks Hut via Table Ridge, … Read more
Mitre Flats – a little gem A guide to hikers wanting to visit Mitre Flats in the Tararua – with descriptions of the track and hut. Some people don’t like the track into Mitre Flats. It’s named on maps as the Barra Track after the bushman that first cut it and it does seem to … Read more
We met our crew of 9 trampers at Wellington Train Station on a beautiful morning and Jeremy drove us in the club van over the Remutuka Range, into the Wairarapa. Lovely to see some Autumn leaves and the morning mist rising over the water. We stopped at Clareville Bakery in Carterton for the most amazing … Read more
Mitre Flats – tramping with science A hiking trip into Mitre Flats, Tararua Range, to use some simple experiments to explain everyday phenomena in the hills Wind chill (W) = 13.12 + (0.6215t) – (11.37k0.16) + (0.3965tk0.16) Have you ever wondered why a rainbow disappears when you view it through polarised sunglasses? Or why the rivers … Read more
Tararua Range –what are some of its faults? The Tararua has many earthquake faults, and the Wellington Fault and the Wairarapa Fault have left many obvious geomorphological features visible to the hiker. 🌧 One of the faults of the Tararua Range is that it rains a lot and there are only about 80 sunny days per … Read more
Mitre Flats and Mitre Flats Hut – and floating the Waingawa River On a fine warm day it’s so much more fun just floating down the river than walking down the track to get from Mitre Flats to the road. What better way to spend a fine weather Sunday than an easy WTMC day walk … Read more
I have been determinedly Tararua hut-bagging for a couple of years now, having realised I’d haphazardly visited about three quarters of them. Carkeek Hut is one of the most difficult to get to being right in the middle of the range with no DoC-maintained tracks to it. I was waiting for a good weather weekend … Read more
With Wellington returning to Level 1, and club life starting back up again, I was very keen to get out into the bush on a proper club trip. As the week progressed, the forecast dampened my enthusiasm. Not only was there going to be extremely high winds (between 40 and 90km/h on the Saturday and … Read more
The plan: a two day traverse via an interesting looking spur from Bannister to the Ruamahanga. 4.30am Saturday – the cell phone buzzes. Mike has dragged himself out of bed and is heading my way. It’s pleasant to have company for the trip to Poads Road and good to be walking by 7am under lights. … Read more
Organising and leading an easy club trip can often be a bit fraught. It usually starts with a full trip list at closing date but by payment time people suddenly have other plans, admit they had forgotten they actually signed up at all and now don’t have time to get themselves organised, or they just … Read more