Tramping, Tales, Training and Travails
Walking Te Araroa was my goal for almost a year, a grand odyssey walking and soaking up the length of my homeland. Those following know my right ankle had other ideas, cutting me down at Paihia, only 250km into the 3000km journey. I made the hard decision to return to Wellington to heal, and I have for many long... Continue Reading →
With blood in my eye and twigs in every cranny we finish an 11hr 30 day firmly in the dark, having struggled mostly offtrack in this adventure to unmarked Island Forks Hut - an overnight trip very much a 'tale of two tramps'. J and I leave the Otaki Forks carpark at 8:45am. I had intended a solo trip to... Continue Reading →
It's a forest reminiscent of 1940's Europe: the ground is churned mud, pocked with thousands of holes. The culprit is not mortars but a different entrenched enemy, pigs. We're heading up the less traveled Carrington Ridge to join the popular Holdsworth Track and it's a place more hunters should really come and do their thing. Our trio sets off at 10am.... Continue Reading →
Cold thigh-deep pools on me lead to shorter members' shorter members, but we get there on a Wellington Tramping Meetup overnighter to South Ohau Hut - a trip with a bit of everything. We park at Poads Road, crushing condoms beneath mighty tires. We are down to seven after a last minute sniffle attack on one who saw it'll drizzle... Continue Reading →
A impassable rock cliff drops to a deep pool at the end of the narrowing riverbank before us. Do we forge around, off-track and wet feet 10 minutes from the car, or back-track? This is my dilemma, facing the slippery riverbank of the Waiotauru River at the southern Otaki Forks campsite. We're not ten minutes in and I've... Continue Reading →
I picked up a NewTopo Map of the Tararua Ranges a while back. It's a great planning map - the whole range is there, including estimated walk times on various routes, and it marks various things unfound on some other modern maps. What sets us on our journey today is a point of interest W of... Continue Reading →
Only after I began peeing over the fence did I notice the periodic zap of the electric line mere inches from the action. We're at the farm carpark where the Ruamahanga river meets State Highway 2, a bit below Mt Bruce. We miss the road in the first time, as it looks like a driveway. I... Continue Reading →
At 3 on Friday P's van pulls up with a honk and a wave and we four Meetup trampers are off, over the Rimutakas enroute to tramp the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk. We are: P, a job-taking Welsh immigrant T, a job-taking Canadian immigrant J, a kiwi with problematic knees Me, also with problematic knees After a... Continue Reading →
R eyeballs the Pinnacle Ridge in the mid-Tararuas as a place to get some off-track navigation practice. He collects some of his friends who're keen to do similar, of which I am one - so I head off for the first trip I haven't had to do anything for in ages. When you haven't been in the back seat... Continue Reading →
With a week off work and still stiff from a tramp on Sunday, I plan an adventure on Monday morning, pack the car and drive to Stratford in Taranaki, 4.5hrs north of Wellington. Tonight I hunker down in my tent at the Stratford Holiday Park. "Hope you have a good sleeping bag" the host cheerfully says, as... Continue Reading →
The Atene Skyline Track is a 6-8hr loop track on eastern side of the Whanganui river, about 45 minutes north of Whanganui. It catches my eye as a day trip while returning from walking the Pouakai Circuit. Leaving a cabin bright and early, I drive 45 minutes to the start of the walk. The road itself... Continue Reading →
'Tramping in winter you need crampons and ice axes' I've heard. I haven't tramped in the snow but I want to go have a look. With a small dusting on the Tararua ranges, the Holdsworth-Jumbo circuit is the go - I put an ad on Meetup and a party of five gathers. I wake at 5am and stumble... Continue Reading →
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