Wilderness dec 13 preview

igital ven d ges e s f a o One ing pack ! mapp rth $300 wo

33 UPLIFTING SIGHTS THAT MAKE YOU GLAD TO BE ALIVE

DECEMBER 2013

know more, do more, live more

SUMMER REVIEWS

Overnight packs and sleeping mats

WHY MAORI, PACIFIC ISLANDERS AND ASIANS DON’T GO TRAMPING PERSONAL LOCATOR BEACONS

The words you don’t want to hear: ‘I’m so sorry, I left it in the car!’

Campground entertainment for the kids The Nelson Tops mapped in 3D The Wilderness Outdoor Awards Epic 26-day South Island traverse www.wildernessmag.co.nz NZ $9.95 Aust $9.95 INCL GST

TOP TIPS

FOR SPOTTING NATIVE BIRDS + The island sanctuaries

where you’re guaranteed to see them

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE Presents for the rugged people in your life

HOW TO BUY YOUR NEXT KNIFE From razor-sharp blades to stub nose pliers

contents December 2013

REGULARS 4 Editorial

5 Pigeon post

Letters to the editor

6 Last weekend

What did you get up to last weekend?

8 Walkshorts

News and events

12 Five reasons to get outside this month 12 Wilderness Word

Enter our crossword competition to win great prizes

14 Gear News

68

The latest in gear tech and innovation

15 Comment

Hut visitor books offer a window into the past

42 Off the Beaten Track

80

A 26-day traverse of the South Island proves adventures in the vein of the earlyexplorers are still possible

86 Out There

Is your tramping buddy a psychopath?

88 Hotshot

Last of the winter snow

THE MANUAL Trips, skills, health, gear

WILD TRIPS

66 Kelly Range and Taipo River,

Arthur’s Pass National Park

67 Peach Cove Hut, Northland 68 Coach Road Track, Torlesse-

Korowai Tussocklands Park

70 Rangitoto Coastal Track, Hauraki Gulf Marine Park 71 Wild Range

The Nelson Tops, Lake Sumner Forest Park

74 Overnight pack review

Four weekend packs perfect for nabbing those perfect views

76 Lightweight sleeping mats

A review of three ultralight sleeping mats for above the bushline camping trips 2 - December 2013

77 Hiking clothes guide

The best clothes for summer tramps

78 A buyer’s guide to

pocket knives and multitools Multi-purpose knives and tools for backcountry adventures

80 Skills

How to infer what the map doesn’t tell you Summer entertainment for camping families Top tips for spotting and approaching birds

81 Wild Cuisine

Gourmet macaroni and cheese

42 Cover: Camping on Cascade Saddle in Mt Aspiring National Park – possibly the best Southern Alps view?

Photo: Shaun Barnett

YOUR TRIPS, YOUR PIX What did you get up to last weekend?

Jenny Finlayson celebrated her 80th birthday climbing to the tops above St Arnaud with son Rob and daughter Helen

Jenner Johnson hurled snowballs on Woolshed Hill

Lois, Jean, and Jenny visited Nina Hut near Arthur's Pass

Shannon Deuchars encountered some snowy weather in Tongariro National Park

Temiko Jager took her friend’s six year-old son Toby hiking to the top of Mt George on the West Coast

Deb Hughes and Tommy the Border Collie explored the Lewis Pass Tops

Denise Farr overnighted at Kahurangi NP’s Chaffey's Hut

Gaylene Mulligan visited Dalys Clearing Hut with her group of Duke of Edinburgh trainees

North Shore Tramping Club went to Central Whirinaki Hut

SEND YOU

Peter O'Connor captured part of an iceberg from the Hooker Glacier Lake in Aoraki/Mt Cook NP Lucas Man climbed to Fanthams Peak at Egmont NP

6 - December 2013

R PIX Get your ‘Last we ekend’ photo published here and you’ll receive an original Spork co urtesy of www.ampro.co.n z.

Head to www.wildernessm ag.co.nz – search ‘last weekend’ – for full submission criter

ia.

WAYPOINTS

A hiker on Gerturde Saddle with Milford Sound beyond

New Zealand’s

BEST VIEWS NICK GROVES

We live in a country filled with best views, piled one on top of the other. Every time you need a break in the hills there is a best view somewhere. There’s no golden rule as to what makes a view stunning – often it is the magic of the light, the season, how open our eyes are to seeing what there is to see.

Wilderness asked outdoor writers to share their favourite views so you can add them to your bucket list.

22 - December 2013

Waypoints

Gertrude Saddle, Fiordland National Park, Southland A perfect day trip surrounded by some of the steepest and most impressive mountains in New Zealand The vertiginous landscape of Fiordland does not offer many easily accessible viewpoints from where you can gaze over the rugged wilderness of improbably steep mountains and deep, narrow valleys.

Gertrude Saddle is one destination reached in about a 3hr hike from the main Milford Highway, offering some outstanding views across the seriously glaciated landscape that makes Fiordland National Park famous throughout the world.

The view from this 1410m saddle is reward enough for the effort made, although the sure-footed can scramble up along the ridge to Barrier Peak, from where Milford Sound and Mitre Peak are framed by the granite precipices that rise above the Gulliver and Cleddau Valleys.

Grade Moderate Time 6-8hr return.

- Nick Groves www.wildernessmag.co.nz

23

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

THE TRAIL 42 - December 2013

ANDY CLIFFORD

Christian climbs Mt Gladstone’s rocky ridges in the final days of the expedition; Opposite page: Alice and Rachel on the scree traverse

The explorative days of Charlie Douglas and Thomas Brunner might be in the distant past, but opportunities for adventure still abound in the New Zealand bush, as Christian Martin discovers on a 26-day traverse of the South Island

arkness approached as we continued our slow ascent of the beech-clad ridge towards Mount Faraday. At the bushline, the glowing sun dipped from view.

“Well, I don’t reckon we’ll make the tarn,” said Andy, stating the obvious. “Dry camping it is!” Alice replied. We were a long way from water. We set up camp and began rationing the water we had left. The joys of exploring new, untracked, terrain.

In January 2013, Alice, Ari, Andy, Rachel and I set out on a cross-country traverse of the South Island along the 42nd parallel from south of Westport to Kekurengu on the east coast.

We called ourselves Project 42ude and we aimed to spend as much time as possible in remote, mountainous, untracked terrain. The resulting expedition took 26 days and encompassed 280km of travel, including 19,000m of vertical gain. The trip provided ample time to become acquainted with the intricacies of both off-track bush bashing and orange triangle-marked track walking. www.wildernessmag.co.nz

43

ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN THE HILLS...

WHERE IS IT? Matthew Pike asks why we’re not used to seeing different ethnic groups in the hills and what can be done to change it

48 - December 2013

Tramping is a sport that traditionally appeals to European New Zealanders

www.wildernessmag.co.nz

49

CAN

SAV E

L I F E r you

Lost or injured in the backcountry? You may think it could never happen to you, but then that sounds like famous last words. With mobile phone-sized personal locator beacons becoming more common, why tempt fate when the press of a button can have you whisked from the hills within hours after disaster strikes. By Edith Leigh.

54 - December 2013

BRIGHT IDEAS ELB

that

www.wildernessmag.co.nz

55

CHRIS PRUDDEN

Activate a beacon and a helicopter is often quickly dispatched to bring you to safety

feel the LUVSEAT™ difference

Built into every pair of Chacos, the unique LUVSEAT™ platform is derived from a simple idea:your footwear should properly align and comfortably support your entire body.

For Stockists Ph. 0800 95 95 93 or visit www.nevada-sport.co.nz 90 - December 2013