South Westland is many things.  Steep, green, wet, bluffy, gorged, tangled, wild, bouldery….  The list goes on.  But it is not always hot.  After our trip in February this year though, I think I will associate South Westland with hot for quite some time.  It was like Bikram yoga with less attractive companions.  The ...

First trip of the year. I'd had vague plans involving the Orongorongos, but my new flatmate Morgan mentioned some plan involving the uni club and the Tararuas, which sounded just as vague, but more interesting. My other new flatmate Curtis was keen to come too. Curtis is a Canadian exchange student. Bless international students. They come mentally ...

A Monday afternoon in the rain at Rasberry Flat.  Quentin, Emma and I met Eric and Graham and sorted our gear.  Emma was a late addition to the team so we threw in a bivy bag and tents for 4. The Matukituki was a usual slog up a cow valley, and at Pearl flat we headed up to Liverpool biv which was a nice quick climb with heavy ...

I'm lying upside down with my legs in the air. My pack is jammed against the slippery log I had been standing on five seconds earlier.  I stand up wincing and kicking myself for rushing. Up ahead I can hear Quentin burrowing into another thicket. The boat is only 10 minutes behind us but may as well be on the other side of Lake Te Anau. A few ...

Feb 07 Calling in at tramping mission control in Kumara, Quentin mentioned that he was doing a trip with Andrew McCrorie an ex HVTC member now living in the UK and asked if Hannah and I wanted to come.  Their plan was to cross from the Styx to the Waimakariri so Andrew could get the bus back to Christchurch and fly home.  A three passes ...

Late February saw Quentin and I roll into the Matakitaki valley looking to check out the lesser visited parts of Nelson Lakes National Park.  We stayed the night at the Nelson College facility just up the road from Mt Ella station.  It was locked but the big verandahs make for a good place to stay if you're down that way.  There ...

By Ben Clendon   If for some bizarre reason you woke up one day and decided you desperately needed to have a one on one wrestle with mother nature, and more importantly you were not afraid to lose I've got just the place for you...   To start your mad rush at mother nature, you'll first need to locate a few obviously dimwitted ...

No hats were bagged, or bugged for that matter. But, hat bugging sounds like a new hobby I could take up. Also, my the next hut bag mission is Centennial Hut on the Franz neve (believe it or not) - pretty much the other end of the bagging spectrum! I'll try and get a photo to prove it, because no one will believe me. 

Powell-Jumbo Loop   Joe Prebble (scribe)  Ben Clark, Richard Davies   A fairly light sleep in Powell Hut on Friday night, as a group from the Wainui Christian College shared bad jokes and saliva into the night. Not helped much by their teacher, who took a Ned Flanders approach to discipline, attempting to pull them into ...