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JANUARY 2014
NEW ZEALAND'S WORST TRAMP
MCMURDO
personal locator beacons worth $600!
Prepare for mud, blood, sweat and tears
TRIED and TESTED
Three season tent review
THE PROTEST WALK THAT SAVED THE MILFORD
STARTER TRIPS A beginner’s guide to tramping
BACKCOUNTRY STOVES
Gas and liquid-fuel cookers for all budgets and group sizes www.wildernessmag.co.nz NZ $9.95 Aust $9.95 INCL GST
PLUS: Luxury walking on Auckland’s Kaipara to Kaipara track › A buyer’s guide to walking poles and water filters › Four weekend trips to try right now!
contents January 2014
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FEATURES
40 The walk that saved the Milford
The world-famous Milford Track was once the domain of private enterprise, but that all changed thanks to a group of rebellious trampers
44 Hidden huts of the Orongorongos
A quirk of history has seen dozens of private huts built in the Orongorongo Valley in Rimutaka Forest Park – but for how much longer will they stand?
50 New Zealand’s worst tramp Can there be a more pointless tramp than this boggy, viewless and overgrown Coromandel shocker?
54 From south to north by kayak, bike and foot
How a childhood spent in the outdoors led Ginney Deavoll on an epic 2000km South Island adventure
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WAYPOINTS 20 Places
Lewis Pass Tops, Nina/Doubtful Rivers Conservation Area
22 See more
Four rock cairns that provide a link to the past
24 A twitcher’s paradise
Whether you tramp on the coast, in the bush or on the tops this summer, you’re bound to spot some of these birds
26 First steps
10 easy trips for those just starting out on their tramping journey
31 Starter kit
Essential gear for your first tramp
57 SUBSCRIBER PRIZE Subscribe to Wilderness this month and you’ll go in the draw to win one of four McMurdo FastFind 220 GPS personal locator beacons worth $599! www.wildernessmag.co.nz 1
YOUR TRIPS, YOUR PIX What did you get up to last weekend?
Lorraine Osborne went mountain biking up the Ahuriri Valley
Sue, Angela and Ann Marie went walking in Cable Bay, Nelson
Brent Andrews enjoyed a weekend trip along the Zampa tops near Lewis Pass Christopher Tait went for a quick run up Little Mount Peel, South Canterbury Marcus Bai was stoked to reach the summit of Aoraki/Mt Cook on his fourth attempt
Lynda Rabel found some sunshine above an inversion layer at Lake Hawea Conservation Area
Jordan Watson posed beneath the Footstool in Aoraki/Mt Cook NP
Andre Adam cooled off in Lake Mackenzie while tramping the Routeburn Track
SEND YOU
R PIX Get your ‘Last we ekend’ photo published here and you’ll receive an original Spork co urtes of www.ampro.co.n y z. Head to www.wildernessm ag.co.nz – search ‘last weekend’ – for full submission criter
Denis McEntyre went kayaking in Milford Sound
ia.
Russell Gent discovered fresh snow en route to French Ridge Hut
6 - January 2014
Mackinnon Pass Shelter on the Milford Track
40 - January 2014
THE WALK THAT SAVED THE MILFORD TRACK Matthew Pike learns how a group of young trampers opened the world-renowned track to the masses
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HIDDEN HUTS OF THE
ORONGORONGOS
A quirk of history has seen dozens of private huts built in the Orongorongo Valley in Rimutaka Forest Park. Ricky French examines what will happen when occupancy licences expire in 2050
There’s a place where you can spill an array of luxury items from your pack onto the floor and settle into your private holiday house for a night or two, knowing that no unknown clomps at the door will be heard as you’re preparing dinner, or stacking the furniture for a game of hutcricket.The walk in is easy; an undulating stroll of not much more than an hour. Think of it as a reward for all the long ordeals you’ve endured in the bush, or think of it as a gentle introduction to tramping for children or outdoor novices; free of hardships, taking the good with the good. It’s tramping, but not as we know it. It’s tramping Orongorongo-style. But amongst the ferns, the beeches, the huts and the river rocks a grand stoush is brewing.
ALAN SHEPPARD
There’s something quite strange about opening the door to a bush hut in New Zealand and knowing it’s yours exclusively for the night. Booking a hut is usually something that only happens when venturing into Great Walk huts in peak season, but even then you are only guaranteed a sleeping spot, not run of the roost. We are taught to make late-comers welcome and not spread our gear everywhere; to be aware that huts are shared spaces where strangers huddle under one roof. But there’s a pocket of bush near Wellington where this doesn’t happen.
Flag Inn
44 - January 2014
Shamilar Hut
X
Xanadu Hut
Cookies Hut
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FROM SOUTH TO NORTH
BY KAYAK, BIKE AND FOOT A childhood spent in the outdoors leads to a grand 2000km South Island adventure for Ginney Deavoll
54 - January 2014
W
hen I was a teenager, my bedroom walls were covered in pictures I'd cut out of magazines: mountains and seascapes, trampers on razor sharp ridge lines, climbers scaling impossible faces, hidden river gorges and rare wildlife. My friends' rooms had photos of nice looking people and parties. I grew up by the beach in Christchurch in an active and creative family. Some weekends we’d get up in the dark, and drive west to the snowy slopes of the Southern Alps or we’d load up the bikes and tackle the hills of Bottle Lake Forest Park. There weren’t many days when we didn’t visit the beach, even if it was just to peer over the dunes to get blustered by sand and sea spray. Creative projects occupied our time when the weather forced us indoors. I used to draw a lot. Dad introduced me to watercolours when I was nine and I suppose this was the beginning of my painting obsession. I never really stopped after that. I knew that my life would be consumed by the outdoors, adventure and painting but it has taken a while to discover how they would all meld together. The latest journey, last year with my partner Tyrell, was a milestone, and resulted in a book and an exhibition.
Early risers in Bligh Sound; Above: The timeless landscape of the Canterbury high country
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Patagonia ambassador Chloe Lanthier shifts into a faster gear and leaves the morning fog behind. Mount Revelstoke National Park, British Columbia. STEVE OGLE. © 2011 Patagonia, Inc.
90 - January 2014