Tramping, Tales, Training and Travails
We meet at the Waiohine carpark. We're a party of six randos from the Meetup tramping group on a repeat of my first meetup tramp. To mix things up and make the most of the weather we take the loop in the opposite direction from last time. We've got Kev, Mark, Mich, Nik, Carol, me and Carol's young... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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