Wilderness July 2017

THE DRAGON’S TEETH – a hair-raising route in Kahurangi National Park – is on many tramper’s radar. Many more won’t have heard of it, or, more likely, have no desire to do it. One of my favourite parts of this job is reading about the tramping adventures had by others, in parts of the country so grand and beautiful; only the most dedicated, hardened and experienced trampers can reach them. They take not just days of effort to complete, but years of accumulated tramping experience to notch up the navigation, decision-making and knowledge to complete successfully. The Dragon’s Teeth is one such place and our article this issue, in which veteran Teeth’s traverser Warwick Briggs describes the route in detail, is one of the most enjoyable ‘tramping vicariously through the…

E-bikes no conundrum ANTI-RATIONALISTS always seek to establish the idea that there are valid counter-arguments for every plain fact, and that to ignore such arguments is to trample roughshod over the very spirit of the political process. In this light, by positing the ‘E-bike conundrum’ (June, 2017), Wilderness places itself alongside industrialists who appeal to the ‘debate’ over climate change and the deluded hypochondriacs who appeal to the ‘debate’ over vaccines. But, with respect to e-bikes in national parks, there is no debate. No good can come of encouraging motorised transport to penetrate further into national parks. If Wilderness thinks there is a conundrum, I can only conclude its eye is on the long game and future e-bike gear reviews. So, hooray for e-bikes, but the conservation estate is for…

Get your photo published here to receive an Opinel No.5 folding knife worth $20. Learn more about Opinel at ampro.co.nz. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz…

IVORY LAKE HUT: IT’S A HARD-WON JOURNEY TO OUR HUT OF THE YEAR LAST YEAR, Ivory Lake Hut was named ‘Hut of the Year’ in the Wilderness Outdoor Awards. There’s no doubt that it’s stunning; perched on a polished rock bench above Stag Creek and overlooking Ivory Lake. But perhaps what makes it even more special is the arduous journey to reach the hut. Since Wilderness crowned the hut, several tramping parties have required rescue from the rugged and sometimes treacherous route. Colin Rolfe of Nelson has been to Ivory Lake twice this season, and he said it’s likely that people underestimate the difficulty of the route to the hut. It’s about 30km to get to Ivory Lake Hut, which typically takes people two to three days. “But there’s no…

The Olympics can turn a hobby into a profession IT’S AN UNCOMMON origin story; how does one go from being a professional flautist to one of the best rock climbers in the country? Auckland born and raised, Sarah Hay, 32, was playing the flute in the Royal New Zealand Navy Band about a decade ago when a friend took her to a couple of outdoor crags. “I was immediately hooked,” Hay says and she began climbing every day, using her daily physical training session to head to the climbing area at Auckland’s Mt Eden quarry. Around the same time, she started working part-time in the evenings as a climbing coach at indoor climbing gym Extreme Edge. Eventually, she began competing and, in the last couple of years, she’s dominated every…

The goal is to see if we can engage 100,000 New Zealanders. We think that will have a massive impact FOR FRASER McConnell, getting people to care about conservation involves more than taking pretty pictures of birds and providing grim statistics on declining populations. “The question was, how could we create the most transparent and engaging experience?” McConnell says, crouched next to one of the GoodNature sensor-enabled traps set up in Matuku Link in the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. The answer: “By being really clear about where the money goes, but also being engaged with it every step of the way.” McConnell, a 24-year-old mechanical engineer, teamed up with a group of young entrepreneurs in late 2016 to launch Squawk Squad, a predator control programme that, using sensors on traps,…