Specifics Event Reviews

Our tramping groups have had a busy winter exploring back and beyond experiencing the awesome sights greater Wellington and the Wairarapa has to offer.

In July Denise, Erin, Chantelle, Luaan, Steph, Angela, DJ, Rose, Catherine and Shane ventured into the Orongorongo Valley on a day tramp. After an early and brisk start they made their way over towards the entry at the Turere Bridge in the Orongorongo’s. The weather was perfect and, after a few hours at an energetic pace they relaxed over lunch on the river bed. The walk was relatively flat, easy and thoroughly enjoyed by all. View all photos from the day

July also saw another group of hearty trampers venture into Powell Hut at Mount Holdsworth, Wairarapa. Darren, Timps, Rose, Simon, Lizzy, Daniel and Shane left early one Saturday morning, parking at the Mt Holdsworth carpark and tramping for 4hrs to Powell Hut. The walk begins nice and gently on a track aptly named ‘Gentle Annie’. It gets progressively harder and steeper as the day goes on. Darren, a reasonably experienced ‘outdoorsy’ type had an uncontrollable urge to sprint up one of the more challenging and steep staircases along the way. When the rest of the group finally reached him, to their concern and horror he was found to be face down on the track, totaled and led to him being nicknamed ‘Mat’.

A walk to the trig at Mount Holdsworth saw some spectacular snow covered peeks with snow for the last third of walk to the Hut. The wind was also slightly more than a gentle zephyr and created some fun at the summit. The group was treated the following morning with the most amazing sunrise. Another great weekend away. View all photos from the weekend

Just a week later another group walked to Holdsworth to find the snow had melted and found a completely different terrain. A late afternoon stroll to the trig they were excited to catch an awesome sunset and a rare opportunity to take some photos without having their camera whipped out of their hands and hairstyles disrupted by 150km per hour winds. View all photos from the tramp

In August a group walked around the Holdsworth Loop starting at the Atiwhakatu track and walking up to Mountain House where they stopped for a leisurely lunch before walking back down via Gentle Annie. The bird life, trees and canopy on all of these tramps is spectacular. The tracks are extremely well maintained and attainable to anyone interested in venturing into tramping. They are generally graded easy in this area. A smaller group this time including Rose, Simon, Karen, Chantelle, Victoria, Erin, Shane and Angela. No one loafing about on the track having a wee nap on this tramp :) View all photos from the tramp

Mid September saw Timps, Rose, Darren (aka Mat) Simon, Chantelle, Luaan, Denise and Richard walk to Totara Flats Hut. The Hut sleeps 29, is fully set up with gas, water and cooking facilities. It was on this tramp that Darren redeemed himself, proving he no longer deserved the nickname Mat. He maintain front of house for the entire way in and out. Fit as a fiddle. We now have to find him another nickname.

This tramp had a theme. The group broke into two teams. Each team prepared a gourmet dinner on Saturday night at Totara Flats Hut. Each team secretly planned their three course meal in advance and humped in kilos of ingredients, which was judged by our own Jamie Oliver (Shane). More about this later.......

The tramp consisted of two quite different routes. The first group, Karen, Chantelle, Luaan, Richard, Darren and Shane set out Friday afternoon from Walls Whare. While this route is graded easy and flat there were some steep gradients and fun creek crossings. It was a different and interesting tramp in comparison to the others.

The second half of the group left on Saturday morning to scale up Cone Ridge. Their wee venture took the best part of the day (9hrs) of hard slog, extreme up hills and steep down hills. Suffice to say they, Rose, Timps, Simon and Denise deserved their dinner on Saturday night.

Back to the dinner.... Once the Harry Hard Outs arrived, exhausted, we all went about preparing our dishes for the dinner. The kitchen was a hive of activity. Not only with our group of 10 but also a delightful group of 12 boy scouts who busied themselves demolishing the kitchen making an interesting version of macaroni cheese. Thankfully no one caught themselves alight and the Hut remained intact apart from an awful mess that only ‘boys’ can make. An intriguing observation was that the four male supervisors spent their entire stay outside and the boys in. Slightly back to front view on things we all thought.

Shane, Richard and Darren had a scout around for something to hunt but never got to use their guns apart from when Chantelle had her first encounter at firing Shane's gun. Firing in a gully sure makes for a good clearing out of the ear drums.

We all made our way out via the 'easy' route back to Walls Whare, much to the delight of the group who did Cone Ridge the day before.

One of the many highlights for us all, strangely enough was the late lunch stop off at McDonalds in Upper Hutt! Not the flashest of spots but we had all worked hard for our burgers. This ended a great weekend had by all and Totara Flats a highly recommended spot to go. View all photos from the tramp

We are now all looking forward to some warmer weather and more exciting adventures over the spring and summer season.

If you are interested in tramping and want to join the group, give Shane a call on 0274616003 or email s.tindall@xtra.co.nz

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