Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i Wilderness

An American woman who recently survived five days lost with her mum in the backcountry is now working with New Zealand outdoor safety groups to promote safe tramping. Rachel Lloyd, 22, and her mum Carolyn Lloyd, 45, became lost while on a day-tramp on the Kapakapanui Track in Tararua Forest Park in April. Rachel came to New Zealand in February to study at Massey University for one semester, and her mum was here on a short visit. While they’re experienced trampers in the United States, Rachel said the unfamiliar trail markings were the primary cause for confusion. They followed orange markers to the Kapakapanui summit, but on their descent they lost sight of the orange markers and began following blue markers. However, the blue markers are intended for possum traps…

Images from the immediate aftermath of a devastating avalanche at Everest Base Camp are on display in Auckland as part of the World Press Photo Exhibit. The avalanche struck on April 25, 2015, killing 22 people and injuring many more. The avalanche was triggered by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 8000 people elsewhere in Nepal. Photographer Roberto Schmidt recorded the avalanche and its aftermath. His images are now part of the World Press Photo Exhibition, a collection of the year’s best photojournalism, on display in Auckland at Smith and Caughey’s, Queen St from July 2 to 24.…

GET CLOSE Photographing the subject from up high will often result in a flat photograph, so get close and at eye-level with the subject. If you are photographing something on the ground, that is where you need to be. FILL THE FRAME For good close-up photographs you will need a lens of 50-200mm to make the subject fill the frame. Most longer lenses can be used for close up work, but for true macro photography, you will need a macro lens with a close-focusing ability. You could also use macro extension tubes/filters. ADD A BACKGROUND Find a background that complements or contrasts your subject and position yourself to line up the subject with this pleasing background. CONTROL THE DEPTH OF FIELD You want those viewing the photograph to easily identify…

As thousands of trail riders will attest, mountain biking the Heaphy Track in Kauhurangi National Park is a fantastic trip. But then again, the tens of thousands of trampers who have walked it over previous decades would have told you the same thing. The Department of Conservation has proposed an extension of the Heaphy Track’s mountain bike season by three months, from April 1 until November 30, excluding Easter. Unlike other mixed-use tracks, for instance the Queen Charlotte or Wharfedale, the Heaphy lies within a National Park. Consequently the Kahurangi National Park Management Plan must be amended, and DOC is calling for submissions from now until July 12. The Heaphy Track is characterised by variety. Open tussock lands, classic West Coast bush, a stunning section along the Heaphy River and…

I’m a keen skier. Each year, I buy a season pass to Ruapehu and get down there as many weekends as possible. I feel like I know the mountain and its surrounds pretty well – the tracks, the huts and, in particular, the Bruce Road. A few weekends last winter proved spectacular in terms of snowfall on the road. One weekend, approaching the Top of the Bruce was like being in Ice Road Truckers. Absolutely everything was white, and when I was forced to stop near the top car park, my car began sliding backwards, slowly, non-responsive, and I had to steer it past a line of parked cars and into a snowbank. I was quite happy with my emergency reversing skills. One weekend there was a road restriction –…

The journey to Mt Guinevere tarn asks a lot of a tramper. Good navigation skills, proficiency at river crossings and healthy stamina are just a few of the required attributes. Add a knowledge of first aid and you have a short summary of our trip to this rugged alpine tarn. With boots strapped to our packs and sandals on our feet, we departed Klondyke Corner. The Waimakariri River was an ever-changing network of meandering branches and by the time we reached the Crow Valley Track, we had crossed the river several times. After crossing through a short section of forest, the track turned north and stayed on the true left of Crow River for 1.5km. Where a small stream from below Lyell Peak flows into Crow River, we had to…

The Olivine Wilderness is one of New Zealand’s premier wilderness areas. The landscape here is in grand proportions: ice, mountains, forests, flats and gorges. It is a playground for the fit and adventurous, those looking for big challenges and able to look after themselves on nature’s terms. There are no huts and tracks in the entire area, and air access is not allowed. For 65km, the boundary runs along the western crest of the Main Divide from above the Rock Burn to the Wilkin. This ‘land of beyond’ includes tributaries of the Pyke, Cascade, Arawhata and Waiatoto rivers, and the Red Hills, Olivine and Haast Ranges. The area is best approached on journeys of a week or more duration. The Five Pass trip would be the most used route (though…

A weather chart can be an elusive mess of squiggles on a map, but understanding the meaning behind the symbols and patterns can turn you into a competent weather predictor. Here’s a crash course from the MetService’s Ciaran Doolin in reading what he calls ‘a surface chart’. Isobars The lines on a weather chart are known as isobars. They show areas of equal pressure and give meteorologists an indication of wind direction and strength. Charts also show pressure systems, with an ‘H’ for high and an ‘L’ for low. In the Southern Hemisphere, the flow is clockwise around the low pressure systems, and anticlockwise around the high pressure systems. Low pressure systems typically mean inclement weather. When you’re trying to discern a prediction from a weather chart, “locate areas of…

PROFILE Makes 12 mini muffins Prep time 10min Cook time 12-18min Cost $8-$10 INGREDIENTS 1 large carrot ½ cup jam (I use sugar-free raspberry) 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp water ¼ cup sunflower seeds ¼ cup pumpkin seeds 1 tsp egg replacer 1 cup spelt flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp cinnamon METHOD Grease a mini muffin tray and preheat oven to 180°. Grate carrot into a bowl and mix in jam, oil, and water. In another bowl, mix together seeds, egg replacer, flour, baking powder and spices. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined. Spoon mixture into muffin tin. Bake for 12-18min until golden and springy to touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes…

A MAGAZINE FOR ALL LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE I HAVE BEEN reading Wilderness for a couple of years now. The photographs and insight into wild New Zealand has been a most inspiring adventure and a chance to discover what is out there through the escapades of others. I love the great outdoors and tramp with friends, albeit on a rather simple scale in comparison to some of the more avid trampers whose stories are told in the magazine. I did feel for a while that Wilderness was only talking to the most experienced outdoor experts, pitching the walks and articles at a totally different level to mine. I lost interest and thought I was so out of my depth, I should look to another magazine to encourage me to keep up…

Kathmandu has come under fire after employees at the Takapuna, Auckland, branch were seen slashing and throwing away faulty gear. Auckland journalism student Nicole Barratt discovered the employees had thrown away tents, backpacks and clothing. One witness reported seeing staff cut up a six-man tent before tossing it. Images of the destroyed gear show a cut-up backpack, footwear and a sleeping pad. The news sparked an outcry amongst those who believe the store should be donating the gear, not trashing it. Kathmandu released a statement saying it had done an investigation into the disposed gear, which they say was faulty. Some gear was former display stock, which was badly damaged, or gear returned by customers. “Faulty product is product that has been evaluated and deemed not fit for purpose,” the…

The snow at Chancellor Dome was perfect for making igloos, so while our group snuggled into their tents, two of our companions set about building their shelter for the night. We had travelled to the West Coast from Christchurch the day before and flown to Chancellor Hut – the foot access up the Fox Glacier no longer an option with the glacier in retreat. From the hut, we walked to Chancellor Dome to camp for the night. There is a relatively easy route, walking the true right of the glacier, but taking this would have put us in avalanche territory so we took the high route to the headwaters of Alf Creek and then on to the dome. It took two hours to build the igloo, cutting blocks with snow…

There’s a crucial ingredient in every tramping trip that goes beyond gear, food, and navigation devices. It’s trust, and it can make or break a tramping group. Luckily for Rathkeale College’s Tramping Club leader Joe Nawalaniec, his students lived up to that tramping necessity when he found himself with a broken wrist and injured back in the middle of a tough five-day trip in Tararua Forest Park. Halfway through the trip, Nawalaniec slipped on a rock and fell several metres, and as the only adult on the trip in a very remote area, he was reliant upon the boys to look after him. “I was confident enough in these boys to where if I became incapacitated, I could trust their decision-making,” Nawalaniec said. His students were “exemplary”, which he says…

Most trampers lace up their boots for the same reason: to get away from it all. No crowds, traffic lights, or bright screens to distract, irritate or pollute the air found on the top of a mountain or tucked away in a cozy hut. However, there’s one caveat to the hard-earned peace and quiet: while pondering life on a snowy summit, you’re increasingly likely to get buzzed, repeatedly, by a tourist-packed helicopter. That’s exactly what happened to avid outdoorsman Wayne Clark, who says tramping is his religion. “Being in the mountains is one of the few times when you might say I’m having a decent spiritual experience,” he says. He was on Mt Luxmore on the Kepler Track in January, when his communion with the mountains was broken, not once,…

When trying to make a last-minute booking for a Great Walk over a long weekend, one has to be flexible. But with its plethora of huts and campsites, Lake Waikaremoana offered a perfect choose-your-own-adventure circuit for our four-day tramp. The 46km Te Urewera Great Walk can be walked in either direction: the popular option is clockwise, starting from the Onepoto car park and heading straight up the hill to the 1180m Panekire Hut, catching a water taxi on the last day from Hopuruahine landing back to Onepoto. Or, one could opt for counter-clockwise and take a water taxi from Onepoto to the other side of the lake, which saves the uphill slog for the end. It seems most people choose to tackle the hill first, because Panekire Hut was completely…

1 Sit on the floor, hold onto your knees and tip back slightly to lift your toes off the floor. 2 Lift your chest up and focus on a long spine with shoulders relaxed down from your ears 3 To work harder, let go of your knees and reach your arms forward. (Top photo) 4 Keep breathing. 5 For more work, lift your feet up to the height of your knees. (Bottom photo) 6 Hold the pose for 20-30 seconds. Take a rest and then repeat 2-4 times.…

“The river became more and more beautiful. Each bend seemed lovelier than the last. Some places it was so narrow we could just see the sky. You couldn’t imagine anything as beautiful as the reflections, every leaf and fern perfect.” So wrote Whanganui riverboat traveller Winifred Rendell in 1914. The same could be written of the river today. What has changed is that there are now so many more ways to explore this deeply-gorged and densely-forested river country than by lounging on a riverboat. Whanganui National Park encompasses 742km2 of riverside environs and tributary valleys throughout the Whanganui basin. Tracks, old roads and the river itself traverse the most remote spots. So grab your paddle, bike and boots and start planning. First, a notable point. Yes, the essence of Whanganui…

SEND YOUR PIX Get your photo published here to receive a set of four Light My Fire Sporks – one for you and three for your friends! Learn more about Spork at ampro.co.nz. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz…

Mt Fell Hut has been plucked from its precarious home and relocated to more stable ground. Thanks to a group of trampers, DOC and the New Zealand Air Force, the six-bunk hut in Mt Richmond Forest Park was recently airlifted from an unstable slip area to a new spot just 250m away. DOC has been monitoring Mt Fell Hut for years; 15 years ago the area was deemed relatively unstable, and about 18 months ago, DOC officially closed the hut because of the slip danger. Since then, Matt Flynn, supervisor of recreation and historic in DOC’s Wairau-Renwick office, has been working with Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) and the Air Force to come up with a plan to save the hut. Since the official closure, Flynn said trampers continued to use…

Anyone who has done any tramping in the South Island will, in all likelihood, have had the pleasure (or displeasure) of meeting a kea or two. I say ‘pleasure’ because they are probably New Zealand's most curious, inquisitive and friendly bird. ‘Displeasure’ because they have a notorious reputation for wrecking gear – from pack straps to tent fabrics right through to car wiper blades and window seals. Male kea can grow up to 50cm long and weigh up to 1kg (females are 20 per cent lighter) and have a wing span a metre wide. Juveniles can be recognised by their yellow ‘cere’ (fleshy part at the base of the upper bill and which houses the nostrils) and also by their calls which are less stable in tone than the adult’s…

Everyone knows the Te Araroa Trail covers some of the most spectacular landscapes New Zealand has on offer, from the sweeping beaches of the north to the soaring peaks of the south. It includes places keen Kiwi trampers put high on their bucket lists, such as Nelson Lakes National Park. Yet for those seeking a taste of the Long Pathway, away from the crowds, it includes quiet, hidden places that are spectacular in their own right. OMAHUTA AND PUKETI FORESTS Northland, 1-2 days Together with the Herekino and Raetea forests, the Omahuta and Puketi forests make up a notorious forest belt stretching from Northland’s west-to-east coast. The forests are known for their extremely rough tracks, bush bashing, slow going, and ever-present and often knee-deep mud. Puketi is the least brutal…

Impenetrable is not a term I use lightly when describing vegetation; one can usually insinuate a way forward with a little care and application. Patagonian bamboo thickets come close, and a Tasmanian horizontal scrub gully can also be challenging, but the dense interwoven stems of wind-pruned scrub on the steep slopes of Haystack on the coast north of Milford Sound had us beat. Glen and I came to this remote coast after being flushed out of the Darran Mountains by Fiordland’s infamous weather. We figured conditions on the coast would be more benign and, if we couldn’t traverse over the mountains, we might be able to complete a low-level circuit around them. The challenge of this planned route, and the biggest attraction, was the wild and untracked coast between Milford…

What do an ancient Spanish castle and Captain Cook have in common? On the surface, not a lot. But for Akaroa-based entrepreneur Grant Ryan, the castle and the captain were the inspiration for a device that has the potential to transform pest control in New Zealand. The self-confessed “tech guy” is the founder and driving force behind The Cacophony Project, a collaborative project that’s using computer software and the cloud to change how bird and pest populations are monitored. The Spanish connection comes from a sabbatical Ryan took in late 2015. Sitting within view of a thousand-year-old castle, Ryan had something of a revelation. “I was looking out at this castle and thinking that we’re never going to have a castle from the 11 th century in New Zealand,” he…

The March 12, 1891 issue of the Christchurch Star is a snapshot into another world. There’s advertisements for tea (imported, of course); a detailed account of a society wedding (the bridesmaids wore straw hats) and on page four, six column inches summarising the inaugural meeting of the New Zealand Alpine Club. The attendance register reads like a ‘who’s who’ of 19th century alpinism. Explorer Arthur Harper was there, as was George Mannering and Malcolm Ross. Membership was only granted to those with a record of mountaineering. Lofty goals were set: ‘the study of alpine regions to minimise the danger of climbing’, ‘the photographing of alpine scenery’ and ‘the development of orographic and topographic information’. It was an auspicious start, but the club has changed markedly since. Immediate past president John…

Westland was arrayed below us in all its incredible glory as we laboured slowly up the rough snowbound track from the edge of beautiful Lake Kaniere. Our destination was Mt Brown Hut on the Newton Range overlooking the Styx and Arahura rivers. It was now a fine warm day, although there had been a severe early frost in the sheltered Lake Kaniere basin. The chill forced us to pack away the tent and gear pretty quickly in order to have breakfast and get moving to ward off the cold. It was a small price to pay for the view of the Westland landscape as we climbed the range. Such colour and diversity is unequalled anywhere on earth; from the lofty summits to gorges, river plain and the Tasman Sea in…

STRAPS Wide enough to support the weight of the torch and easily adjusted to prevent the torch from bouncing around or sliding down while you’re moving about. A top strap is common on models with a heavier, rear-mounted battery pack. ON/OFF Most switches are on the head unit, though some dimmer switches are on the rear-mounted battery packs of heavier models. Check for glove-friendly on/off. RUN TIME Battery life is related to output and the more powerful the torch, the more power-hungry it is. Run times shown in this feature are for the headlamp’s lowest light setting. OUTPUT AND RANGE Measured in lumens, light output ranges from between 25 to 2000 lumens. Output also dictates range. Low-output one, two or three LED models are useful work lights around the campsite…