⛰️#25 - On Scrambling, Loos With A View, My Hump Ridge Experience & More.

And we are back with the 25th NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday (and sometimes Friday).

I'll let you know what’s going on in the hiking scene in New Zealand, along with other related bits and pieces I find interesting.

Alright, let’s get into it.

🗒️ Track News Etc.

• The remains of missing hiker Judy Donovan were located by a hunter on Monday. The 79-year-old went missing in March 2024 while laying baits with friends in Pureroa Forest near Waikato. The initial weeks long search was called off with no trace of Judy. (source)

• The Te Araroa Trust is inching closer to reaching their goal of building the country's longest swingbridge (120 metres). They’re $150,000 away from the $700,000 goal, with the bridge helping TA hikers (and others) avoid 32km of highway walking just south of Whanganui. More details here.

• Have you had anyone ask you where the best loos with a view are in NZ? (I’m pretty sure there’s a book along those lines). Anyway, I have and it looks like a new suggestion to give out is coming soon. Located in Canterbury’s Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve, Brass Monkey Biv is getting replaced, and early photos indicate hut will be awesome. It’ll still be a couple of months until the hut is open, there are more progress photos and videos in this post. The BCT are also looking for volunteers to help finish the build…if you might be able to help, email [email protected]

• Sadly someone has fallen off a rock into a river in Mt Aspiring National Park. Based on the Rob Roy Track alert on the DOC website…we can narrow down the area where it’s happened. It’s already been close to 24 hours (call out was at 5pm on Feb 6th)…hopefully they can get a good result…but it seems unlikely now ☹️. Police statement.

• “We really do often minimize the real risks when the outcomes are desirable.” - Will Gadd. That was from this thought provoking piece by accomplished mountain man, Will Gadd. It chats about acceptable risks and whether our culture has leaned towards not measuring the actual amount of risk correctly. Specifically as what we all mean by ‘scramble’. I need to think on this as I do use ‘scramble’ when describing trails…perhaps where another word could be more appropriate.

  • A good follow up from that article is this one from Kilian Jornet on risk management. The stuff he often ‘scrambles’ as a norm I won’t be going anywhere near that’s for sure.

😹 Hiking Funny

Also how I sometimes feel sleeping in my bivvy.

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• Wild Walks Aotearoa Book Giveaway - enter here (closes midnight Friday - I think)

• Great Walk New Zealand Holiday - subscribe to their newsletter to get an entry (closes April 30th)

• Splendid Outdoors Photo Competiton - details here (closes midnight February 16th)

• Win a Bushbuck Stashlite Anorak Rain Jacket - details here (closes midnight February 15th)

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

Me and a couple of mates went down to do the Hump Ridge Track last weekend (run/power hike over 1 day). It was my first time seeing the ocean in five months, so that was fun. And the trail itself? Awesome.

We went the opposite (anti-clockwise) way most people walk and were surprised how few were on the trail. Having had a quick look, it looks like the capacity of each hut is about ~32 people, meaning there’d only ever be a max of 96 people on the track at one point (plus day walkers/those doing it in a day).

Compared to the Routeburn which has ~50 bunk huts, in addition to lots of day walkers, and the guided hike groups who stay in private huts…it’s always going to be a lot quieter. Not a bad thing.

The track was cool…probably better than I expected overall. I wasn’t expecting to be under the forest canopy for so long…which as beautiful as it is, for me it makes the section between Luncheon Rock (great name) and Okaka (plys the loop) the best as you’re above the treeline for most of it.

Other Hump Ridge observations:

• the spray painted ‘Ban 1080’ on one of the houses on the sections of private land you pass is odd. It would be awesome to have some signage when you cross back onto public land saying why DOC is pro 1080. Or at least information in the huts.

• There’s a lot of boardwalk to cover, and even more stairs.

• There’s not a heap of spots along the way for water top-ups in streams, so keep that in mind. I’ll list them out when I write the blog post in a few weeks.

• If the tide is out, you can continue along the beach instead of the trail at some points along the coastal section.

• The three viaducts you walk over are pretty cool…they don’t make bridges like that now.

• There’s a wee shop at the carpark, but otherwise, you can get most supplies that’ll sustain you on a 3-day hike at the Tuatapere Four Square.

• The most comparable Great Walk is Kepler. They’re both about 60km long, and feature a good climb to spend time above the treeline before you drop back down for the relatively flat track for 20+ kilometres to finish.

Have a great week, hike it up.

As always, reply to this email (or message me on Whatsapp +642041702764) with anything and everything…I’m happy to chat.

Chur,

Jub

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