Wilderness May 2023

EDITORIAL ‘IF YOU ARE in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.’ I would like to lay claim to these words, but they're older than me. They were spoken by Hippocrates, the ‘father of medicine’ who ambled here and there circa 400BC and who proclaimed that ‘walking is man's best medicine’. It seems nowadays, that everywhere you look there are stories about the benefits of walking. Last month I wrote of a study that analysed health data for more than 30 million people which showed that an 11-minute, or longer, daily walk could lower the risk of premature death by 25 per cent. It's worth a go, right? Then, just recently, the New York Times added another contribution…

FINDING A QUIET MATTRESS In reading ‘2023's guide to sleeping mats’ (April 2023) I think one important consideration has been omitted. I've owned a variety of mats and have learnt the hard way that one of the most important considerations is how noisy it is. I say ‘the hard way’ because it wasn't something I initially considered. I am a light sleeper and a side sleeper at that and turning over in the night on a noisy mat does not make for a happy wife/tramping companion! In a crowded hut, it becomes an issue for others too. Currently, I am using an Exped Ultra 7R mummy mat which is certainly one of the quietest I have used while still remaining reasonably light and warm. – Trevor Geddes VIEW FROM HELEN'S…

The May 2022 article ‘Gone but not forgotten’, included the story of my uncle Lester Tweeddale, a police constable who died in 1969 while trying to climb Mt Holdsworth. An unofficial memorial to Lester was built on High Ridge in 2019. It had been a plan of mine to visit the memorial site with family ever since it was built but the idea of tramping up to Mt Holdsworth with little experience was daunting, so when a good friend offered to be a guide we all jumped at the opportunity. One day in March, we set off before dawn from Masterton with everyone excited and determined to reach the memorial. We walked along High Ridge, taking in the beautiful scenery, and with the sun beaming down. When we came across…

Get your photo published here to receive a meal from Real Meals worth $17. Learn more about Real Meals at www.realmeals.co.nz. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz.…

A volunteer backcountry hut repair group is anxiously awaiting a funding decision from DOC. Permolat Southland is a network of volunteers looking after some of Southland's most remote huts. The group's chairperson, Greg Wilson, said huts they worked on in the deep south needed everything from a quick paint job to a total rebuild. Their funding has primarily come from the Backcountry Trust (BCT), which is supported by DOC. Volunteers like Wilson are concerned they haven't received assurances that funding will continue after May. DOC's West Coast operations director Mark Davies said the department had invested more than $4 million in the Backcountry Trust since 2019. He confirmed BCT had applied to the DOC Community Fund, and the application was currently being assessed against the fund's criteria. Since its inception…

The Hokitika River cableway is open again after repairs to its hand-winding mechanism, which failed this summer. DOC Hokitika district operations manager, Owen Kilgour, said the cableway became inoperable due to the bearings in the hand winding mechanism failing. “The main structure and carriage were unaffected.” DOC reopened the cableway in mid-April. The cableway spans the Hokitika River, which is usually impossible to ford. It provides access to Rapid Creek Hut and the Whitcombe Valley beyond. The Whitcombe Pass Track follows rugged bush-clad valleys of the lower Hokitika and Whitcombe Rivers to the Main Divide. Generally, cableways were built in New Zealand when a river was too wide or expansive to span using a conventional footbridge. Few cableways remain in use today. In the Tararua Range, for example, cableways once…