⛰️#32 - The Good Old Days, A Solution To Help Minimise Rescue Callouts, Hut Updates, & More.

And we are back with the 32nd NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday/Friday. In fairness, it’s always Friday lately. But I’ll surprise you all one day.

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.

Feel free to email me, [email protected] or message me on Whatsapp +642041702764 with anything and everything. I enjoy the feedback and info you have to share.

Alright, let’s get into it.

🗒️ Track News Etc.

• The Taranaki Alpine Cliff Rescue team announced that the season for summiting Mount Taranaki has finished until the following summer season due to day-long ice on the summit. While they can’t physically stop anyone, they give you an idea of what gear you need and what conditions you can expect if you attempt the summit now. Read the full post here.

  • Less than 48 hours after that post was released, the Cliff Rescue team was involved in a rescue after someone took a fall while descending from the summit. Source.

• Which leads me to this…while I don’t use the All Trails app, it’s a very popular app, especially for overseas visitors to NZ. So perhaps the recently announced Public Lands program could help reduce some of the rescues that happen in NZ? The press release about the program states there’s been a 66% decrease in rescues in Olympic National Park since they’ve partnered with All Trails.
  
  Here’s a quick snapshot of the benefits:

It’s great that the Taranaki Alpine Cliff rescue team made the season-ending announcement on FB (which is also on the DOC website), but if they could put an alert on the All Trails App, perhaps they reach more hikers who aren’t so familiar with the area.

• I stumbled across a post on the Federated Mountain Club page the other day describing Stewardship Land. It’s one of those terms I had heard of but had no idea what it really is. In short: it’s Public Conservation Land (it’s under DOC care), that hasn’t been classified into a category such as a National Park, Conservation Area, or Nature Area. This classification determines how it’s managed. Turns out that’s 1/3 of the total conservation land.
  
  There’s stewardship land on the West Coast that has been going through the classification process over the last few years, with a result expected in the middle of this year.

  • If you want to learn more:

    • https://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/our-role/managing-conservation/stewardship-land/

    • https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/resources/stewardship-land-explainer

    • https://wilderlife.nz/2017/02/stewardship-lan/

• If you’ve done some of the popular day walking tracks in Queenstown like Bob’s Cove, Sunshine Bay, or Mount Crichton, you may enjoy the write-up about Nick Clark, who helped build these tracks. Back in the days when there was no red tape as he says, you just went and got on with it. It’s not the best reading experience, but it’s page 16 here.

😹 Hiking Funny

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🛖 Hut News.

• I’ve been enjoying Ollie Clifton’s regular updates on the new Brass Monkey Hut. In what is a milestone of the project, the hut in its prefab site near Christchurch was flown by helicopter up to its final location. A team then started putting the puzzle together which is documented in this great set of photos. All going well, the hut should be getting its first visitors in the next few weeks.

• Waitewaewae Hut (Tararua Forest Park) had been overdue to get a paint job, but instead it got a brand spanking new roof. Lucky hut. A little later a team went in and spent a week painting the roof, interior, and exterior of the hut. It’s looking good now. I bet some of the Te Araroa hikers who use this hut have no idea how lucky they are. More details and photos.

• Wharepapa Hut a.k.a. Joe’s Hut (Remutaka Forest Park) got a wee makeover recently. exNZFS staff have an agreement that they’ll maintain this hut. This is great as it has seemingly never-ending little jobs given it’s a “character” hut, as John McCann called it. It’s one less thing for DOC to have to worry about. More details and photos.

• Yeats Ridge Hut (near Hokitika). This is a simple 4-bunk hut, but it had lots of work done over 5 days in late March. A full paint job, toilet hole dug and toilet installed (check that toilet…hope you don’t get stage fright?), drainage system cleaned up, and plenty of track work done. More details and photos.

• Wheel Creek Hut (Victoria Forest Park | West Coast) got some assistance over 9 days from a group of DOC staff. They had a big list of jobs to get through at the NZFS70 hut, and all seemed to go well. More details and photos.

  • Benjamin Pigott was one of those who worked on the hut. He had a wee conversation with Kemi & Niko after just coming out of the the Wheel Creek hut. It’s a nifty wee chat you can listen to here (on Instagram).

• Kerin Forks Hut (Mount Aspiring National Park). This hut, which I want to stay at next summer, got a new roof and a new deck. Apparently the old water tank was a shocker, so now it has a massive 2000 litre tank. It took 6 people 3 days to get through the work and what I liked most was that the generous donor was a North Islander, along with a few businesses who helped make the job possible.

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• Jetboil x Dog & Gun Coffee Giveaway - enter here (closes April 2nd)

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

Last weekend I made it to a new peak, Mount Saint Bathans (2,088mm). It’s a little off the beaten path, but for 2,000 metre peak it’s a relatively easy trail (DOC would says it’s advanced), though some of the terrain at the top is rocky and slower going.

The ridgeline around the summit was cool when we could see Mount Aspiring, Mount Cook, and Lake Ohau at the same time.

We camped at a spot that blog posts have dubbed ‘Hidden Lake’. It’s unnamed on the topo map, but I will say it’s pretty good at hiding. The cliffs on the opposite side of where we camped at reminded me of the famous Organ Pipes National Park in Aussie.

If anyone wants the GPX file for the 54km loop, here you go.

Looks like there’ll be a new peak bagged tomorrow which is exciting.

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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