Tramping, Tales, Training and Travails
Late one night many months ago as I scrolled about the topomap in search of tramps I spotted the Papatahi Crossing, the Orongorongo valley's longest DOC trail. It's a long tramp and needs a break in the middle. I investigate the sole-occupancy Papatahi Hut and find it free on a Saturday many months in the future... Continue Reading →
We meet at Platform 9, Wellington Rail Station - there's five of us on this eight person Wellington Meetup Tramping group trip after some uncool last-minute quitting by various 'attendees'. We struggle to know who's coming - there's a bunch of other trampers here loading up as well. Eventually introductions are made and we decide to take... Continue Reading →
With my mate R we took a car-swap tramp out to Totara Flats Hut, organised via the Meetup Wellington Tramping Group. R's party of four came from Holdsworth Roadend, and mine came from Waiohine. I have shown my groups timing in my photo, but we were bloody casual about our pace. Stopping for rests, views,... Continue Reading →
My Tour Aotearoa was a success and on the way I got to know Claire, an amazing lady I met tramping a while back. I am writing the whole adventure into a book hence the silence, but I still want to record my tramps in the meantime so here's one Claire and I did on a little... Continue Reading →
The Remutaka Cycle Trail is the obvious choice for a proper bike excursion before I set off, collecting many of my training routes into one large 115km loop. Brother Dave and I set off from Mums. Dave arrives via a mountainbike route over the Western hills. His bike is built for mountains, with the front and... Continue Reading →
The bags I bought for my bikepacking tour of NZ arrive and I am mad-keen to trial them on an overnight bike ride. With inclement weather and the chance of problems I opt for something light; the Rimutaka Incline. For my tour I have opted for a set of bikepacking bags from Apidura. With my... Continue Reading →
Tour Aotearoa - 3000km of road, bike path, beach and track leading from Cape Reinga to the Bluff. This is what I want to do, going from borrowed-bikes to completing one of the bigger items on proper cyclists' calendars in under four months. New goal decided there's no time to lose. I shove my much... Continue Reading →
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 →
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