Wilderness July 2020

DURING LOCKDOWN, I interviewed Ieva Laucina, a young Latvian who had walked the South Island with a ridiculously light pack with a base weight (without food and water) of 6.3kg. Not to be outdone, this month I caught up with Roger Parsons (see p16) – another South Island Te Araroa Trail walker – who sits at the other end of the age spectrum. Now 75, Parsons walked the South Island section when he was 71. He’s got dreams of one day walking the North Island section from Cape Reinga to Auckland. Like Laucina, Parsons packs light. His goal is to tramp with less than 10kg, including food and water – any more and he reckons his pack wouldn’t be able to cope. And nor, he says, could his body. He…

RESPECTING OTHERS I am firmly Pākehā, my ancestors having arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand some years before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. I agree totally with the view of Tānia Gaffey (‘Why summits are sacred’, June 2020). What those of us who do not share the indigenous cultural worldview often do not understand is that there are times we need to back off, to adopt the view of the other, and quietly respect it. The operative word being ‘respect’. It’s actually a simple thing to do. - Joe Green, email A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING I wanted to thank and tautoko Tānia Gaffey for her further explanation of the tikanga surrounding maunga. I also found the initial article ‘To summit or not to summit’ (April 2020) by Greta Yeoman interesting. I…

GOOD ADVICE Earlier this year I was considering walking an upper South Island tramp. Settling on the St James Walkway, I searched the Internet for likely access onto the tops from the valleys. Discovering mention of a route onto the Libretto Range from Boyle Flats Hut, a plan started to take shape. Then, glancing out the window and seeing the postie, I took a break from the computer and wandered to the mailbox. There was the February issue of Wilderness. As is my habit when the magazine arrives, I made a cuppa and settled down to read. And there it was! Pat Barrett’s description of Mt Faust, complete with confirmation of the route from Boyle Flats and exit to the car park. Plan complete. The weather delivered. We had a…

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WALKERS PUT OUT BY PAPAROA HUT POPULARITY Paparoa Track bookings have rekindled frustrations for walkers unable to book the Moonlight Tops Hut. Fewer than 30 dates between October 1 and April 30 have bunks available in the popular hut, which sits on the tops of the Paparoa Range. November is completely booked out. Both the Ces Clark and Pororari huts – which sit on either side of Moonlight Tops Hut – have plenty of space. The track encountered the same concerns last year, when five months before it opened, Moonlight Tops Hut was 99.5 per cent full for the season, while Pororari Hut showed nearly 100 nights of availability. The discrepancy in the popularity of the huts is because most mountain bikers choose to ride the track in two days,…

A SEARCH and rescue professional who was in the helicopter that located two trampers lost in Kahurangi National Park in late May said the pair did plenty right during their 19-day ordeal. Dion Reynolds and Jessica O’Connor spent 13 days without food after becoming lost on a tramping trip on the western side of the park. The pair had intended to complete a loop in the Anatori River area but became hopelessly lost and ended up in the adjacent Frazer Stream. Hamish Pirie, who has around 20 years’ experience in search and rescue, was in the helicopter that found them. “They had water, they had good warm gear, they had a reasonably good camp set up, and they had a fire so they had the morale that gives you,” he…