Of Wild and Wonder

The West Coast Névés (Lottie Armstrong) Party: Maddy Whittaker, Imogen van Pierce, Lottie Armstrong, Jamie Gardner, Rebecca Vella King and Conor Vaessen Times are certainly changing. It turns out walking from the Fox Township up the Fox Glacier to Pioneer Hut is not what it used to be! On Waitangi Day, six of us set off from the township and 14 hours later arrived at Chancellor Hut, the first day of our four day trip on the West Coast névés. The crux of the entire trip was getting to the start of the actual Fox Glacier - the point where not all that long ago a road used to go to. Now the road has been claimed by the river which runs hard against a series of bluffs - which involve hundreds of metres of vertical bush bashing to get around including a rock chimney in the forest and some pack hoisting. It is certainly an inspiring country. From the swift opaque waters full of chunks of ice in the rivers to the constant rockfall around the glacier - there is no part of this la...

7/2/2020 Party: Ian Gilmour, Tom Hadley The full traverse of the Tararua Range, also known as the S-K, is a gruelling test-piece of New Zealand mountain running. The history-rich challenge has become established as a challenge by successions of athletes clawing their way across the Tararuas in a bid to knock precious minutes off the hotly contested FKT (fastest known time). The course is somewhere around 80km long and contains a total 6800m vert. There is a fantastic site all about the challenge found here:  https://tararuafkt.wordpress.com/routes/s-k/ . I’d had the SK on my mind for most of 2019, so when I arrived back in Taranaki, my home for the uni holidays, I knew it had to be ticked off before I headed back down to Dunedin. The first struggle turned out to be finding another person who was keen for around 24 hours of punishment in the Tararuas. I was stoked to find that Ian, a friendly guy who I’d met briefly at a race, was keen. In no time at all, we were at Putara get...

Peter leading a pitch on Ship of Fools (Maddy Whittaker) Party: Peter Adler, Mark Herzog, James Adler, Maddy Whittaker, Olivia Truax and Conor Vaessen We had only been home from our 9 days in the Darrans over New Years for half a week before we decided it was about time we went back. Incredible weather was forecast for the next weekend so it was decided - Mitre Peak and Copper Point it would be. We were on the water early. It was a calm and glorious day. This serenity was shattered by the aggressive Sinbad gully sandflies. Onwards, upwards - full of sandfly induced fury we charged into the bush. Peter on Mitre Peak, just above the camp spot. Sinbad Gully is visible on the right (James Adler) It was a hot day to be going up a 1700m peak with no water sources. As we emerged from the bush into the full sun, it became a slog. We dropped packs at our intended camp spot and carried on upwards. The tussock trudge became type one scrambling, with the warm granite falli...