⛰️#35 - Pee Cloths, Book Review, Most Popular Easter Weekend Tracks, & More.

And we are back with the 35th NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday/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.

p.s. I did finish the Mount Titiroa post if you want to have a scroll.

Table of Contents

• 🗒️ Track News Etc.

• 😹 Hiking Funny

• 🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• 📚 Book Review

• 🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

🗒️ Track News Etc.

• Mike Scott writes great long-form articles, and he’s written a great account of the search and rescue efforts that went into locating Hector Artigau in February. Hector slipped into the glacier stream near the Rob Roy Glacier Track (Otago) and as of today, his body hasn’t been located. That’s not without trying, though, with 40 Wanaka SAR volunteers collectively spending 823 hours looking for him. The article has eye-opening photos of what the searches have to deal with in terms of how the canyon has formed. 100% must read.

• You can check out Wilderness Magazine’s Wilderness Outdoor Photographer of the Year finalists here. The overall winners photo is potentially controversial with the publicity the Brewster Track has received over the last few months?

• I opened up this article not expecting to find anything of too much interest, but apparently (well according to AllTrails), last years Easter Weekend was the most popular weekend for hiking in 2024. I didn’t expect that!
  
  And what were the 10 most popular tracks of that weekend? The top 3 are all but a given…the most surprising one on there for me is the Robert’s Point Track (I rate it). With Rob Roy reopening this year, I’d say that’d make its way into the top 10 this year…weather permitting.

  1. Hooker Lake via Hooker Valley Track (Aoraki)

  2. Roys Peak Track (Wānaka)

  3. Tongariro Alpine Crossing (Tongariro National Park)

  4. Mueller Hut Route (Aoraki)

  5. Queenstown Hill Walkway (Queenstown)

  6. Ben Lomond Track via Skyline Gondola (Queenstown)

  7. Mount John Walkway (Lake Tekapo)

  8. Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain Track (Wānaka)

  9. Lake Marian Track (Fiordland National Park)

  10. Robert's Point Track (Westland National Park)
      

• Have you heard of a pee cloth? I was surprised after asking friends that most hadn’t, so maybe you’ll learn something new. In short, it’s reusable toilet paper. I did listen to a good podcast (Spotify link) with Anastasia Allison, the Founder of Kula Cloth, the most prominent company selling pee cloths (yes, you can make DIY options). I’m not in the market for a pee cloth, but maybe you are…and it’s not as gross as it sounds. Interesting nonetheless.

  Kiwi Ultralight also sells a pee cloth the Bush Cloth.

• There have been a couple of hiking-specific podcasts released on the Aotearoa Adventures podcast recently:

  • 132: Nine Months of Solitude Walking Northbound on Te Araroa with Naomi Arnold (Spotify link)

  • 133: Tramping the Heaphy Track from Karamea to Collingwood with Jacq Nesbit (Spotify link)

• The Lake Brunner Trail is one step closer to completion with a key bridge now in place. Funding is still needed for the final 3.6km to finish the loop…it’s hoped the trail will be open by the end of the year. More here.

• In what seems like an easy way to give kea a chance to thrive…“the Arthur’s Pass Wildlife Trust have made submissions to the Selwyn District council seeking a bylaw to ban kea feeding on non-conservation land except for a conservation purpose.” This seems like a no-brainer, a fine for feeding kea would work a treat. Article here.

😹 Hiking Funny

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• Easter Beanie Giveaway with LiveLifeNowAdventures - enter here (closes April 21st)

• JetBoil x Real Meals Giveaway - enter here (entries close midday April 25th)

📚 Book Review

The Book: Gone Bush: A Life in the Backcountry and Beyond by Paul Kilgour

(available at some book stores and Kindle, I picked up a copy from the local library).

Yes I have a soft spot for Paul as he’s a fellow bearded lad, but this book has gotten me out of a reading slump, yay. It’s cool that he was 70 when the book was written (published in 2021), so any thoughts/advice/opinions in the book have come from decades of experience…compared to some memoirs written by a younger crowd may change with added context as they age.

Paul has had a life which most would deem as a pretty good life, with a classic kiwi upbringing but it was his childhood where he came across swagmen who inspired his sense of adventure. The hut bagger has bagged over 1200 huts, and has a few notebooks of adventures he wants to do (I like this idea of actually writing down tracks and routes people mention…my memory bank has no doubt forgotten many).

It’s an easy book to pick up and read for 10-20 minutes when you get a chance, with no issues in starting up again the next time I picked it up.

His adventures are primarily in the South Island, and it was fun to jump on the topomap to see where he was at times, while other times he was on tracks I’d been on and found myself nodding in agreement, like the climb from Tummel Burn Hut towards Shotover Saddle:

A great memoir, would recommend. As Paul says, “One step at a time is really good walking.”

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

I had a relaxing week as I was up in Waikanae doing life admin things. I did get to join a friend for a stroll up Mount Kaukau, which has to be one of the best views of Wellington.

It was a classic, “you can’t beat Wellington on a good day”, day with plenty of others up there hanging out as well.

This weekend I’ll be doing a backyard ultra, which some of you may be aware of. In short, it’s a last person standing race…with everyone running 6.7km loop on the hour every hour. We start at 9am on Saturday, so if you finish the loop in 51 minutes, you have 9 minutes until you’re back on the start line. It’s an interesting format and I’m not sure how I’ll go…but it’s a fun format with lots of chats, stories, snacks, pain, and if all goes, minimal sleep.

Hopefully you’ll be up to something better this weekend, but you can track results here (I’m not on the start list yet).

Have a great long weekend!

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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