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How Mt Haast lost its top and why the Southern Alps will do the same
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Pest free NZ
Is the dream of conservationists ever likely to become reality?
Climber's high
With a syringe and vial of steroids, reaching the summit has never been easier
Winter huts
Three cosy huts to beat the cold in
Reviewed 5 lightweight down jackets tested
» Four weekend
trips to try right now!
» Food for long july 2013
www.wildernessmag.co.nz NZ $8.95 Aust $8.95 incl GST
distance trails
» How to wash your
sleeping bag
» Sandflies – NZ’s best keep secret
contents July 2013
14
FEATURES
28 Pest free New Zealand Can New Zealand protect its surviving native species by ridding the country of pests forever? 36 Collapse!
Alpine landslides are occurring more often – and a warming climate is being blamed
42 Climbing highs
Are climbers who use performance-enhancing drugs cheating
their way to the top or simply trying to survive the extreme environment found at high altitude?
WAYPOINTS 12 Places
Mt Ngauruhoe, Tongariro National Park
14 See more
Three places to see rifleman
16 Top 3
Warm winter huts
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42
34
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Your trips, your pix
What did you get up to last weekend?
Members of Torbay Sailing Club did the ‘Kepler Shake’ at Iris Burn Falls on the Kepler Track
Natasha, Kirsty and Juliet enjoyed the view from Mt Matthews in the Rimutaka Range
Julien, Sandy and Eoin (taking the picture) walked up to the pylon on the Cascade Saddle route
Dennis Price climbed Mt Egmont
Carron and Emmeline tried to stay warm at Rangipo Hut, Tongariro National Park
Send your
Will, Henry, Joe and Josh climbed Mt Xenicus in Mt Aspiring National Park
Caroline Gates climbed the three highest summits in the North Island
Naomi Begg took her dog for a walk along the Central Otago Rail Trail
pix
Get your ‘Las t weekend’ photo publishe d here and you’ll rece ive an original Spork courtesy of www.ampr o.co.nz. Head to www.wilderne ssmag.co.nz – se ‘last weekend ’ – for full subm arch ission criteria . Diane Glennie kayaked in Pelorus Sounds
6 july 2013
Mieke van Drunen cooked breakfast on top of Mt Lodestone, Kahurangi National Park
Adrienne Cooper and Elizabeth Hannah walked the Nydia Track in Marlborough Sounds
Jenner Johnson tramped in Craigieburn Forest Park
Approaching the summit of Tara Tama with the summits of upper Griffin Stream and lower Taramakau Valley beyond
18 july 2013
Tough time on Tara Tama Third time proves a charm for Pat Barrett as he snares an elusive Westland peak
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www.goodnature.co.nz
Auto resetting traps are the latest tool to combat predators – more such innovations are needed to make total predator eradication possible
28 july 2013
New Zealand’s
greatest challenge Every year introduced predators kill an estimated 26 million native birds, yet ending their reign of terror might be easier than you think, writes Josh Gale
or the 850 residents of Great Barrier/ Aotea Island there are two main topics of conversation: crap and rats. “We’re off the grid out here so we manage everything ourselves,” says local Judy Gilbert. “Waste is a big issue for people and so is the impact of rats on our houses which is something incredible. “They eat their way through the walls, live out of your pantry and ravage your gardens. “They are here in extraordinary numbers and are highly tenacious.” In the last 14 years in one corner of the 285km² island, a conservation project Gilbert manages, the Windy Hill Rosalie Bay Conservation Trust, has trapped 40,000 rats and poisoned unknown scores more. But this has hardly made a dent in the island’s total population. “The rat is king on the Barrier,” she says. In the early 1970s when Gilbert was a 19-year-old student hippy she and a group of flower power friends decided to return to nature. Together they purchased a 230ha block of land on the island in the south-east corner called Windy Hill. They were attracted to the island’s alternative communities and dreamed of starting their own collectively owned one. But Gilbert never expected they’d be living alongside a thriving rodent community. “From the moment we set foot on the island we were affected by rats,” she says. “In the place we rented while we built our house we had rats running around our bed at night. “It was just hideous.” Disgusted, Gilbert placed five traps under her house and caught 60
rats over two autumns. “I thought if this is how many are around my house then how many more must be out in the bush,” she says. In 1998, her five traps jumped to 100 after she received the go ahead from the Little Windy Hill Company to start a predator control project on its land. With no clue about what she was doing and with only one worker to help, Gilbert laid the traps in a grid. One of her neighbours was inspired by what he saw and joined the project. “Then it morphed on me,” Gilbert says. In 2000, the Ministry of the Environment released its New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy and a year later opened its contestable biodiversity funds specifically to encourage the management of indigenous biodiversity on private land. This funding, plus more from Work and Income, ASB Trust, Auckland Council and lotteries has meant Gilbert’s trust could pay workers, a boon on an island where volunteers are thin on the ground and unemployment is historically high.
What started as one woman doing her bit for biodiversity is now a community-wide project with eight employees. Two landowners became 14. The area expanded to 620ha. It includes 80km of tracks and 5000 trap and bait stations. In 2004, after an absence of 140 years, the trust released North Island robins into its land. The number of kereru and kaka has increased. The project’s success surpassed Gilbert’s wildest expectations. But, while pockets of the island are now bird havens, the bad news is avian life on the rest of it is facing annihilation. Great Barrier Island Trust chairperson and conservationist John Ogden recently estimated cats and rats slaughter 86,500 native birds on the island every year. “The forests of Great Barrier Island may still look beautiful to visitors,” Ogden wrote recently, before quoting Victoria University professor of ecology Charles Daugherty. “But, ‘basically our forests are dead. Yes, there are still trees in them, but they’re quiet’.” www.wildernessmag.co.nz
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Anna Seybold on Aoraki/Mt Cook the day after the Haast rock slide
36 july 2013
C ol p e mark watson
Are the Southern Alps coming down around our ears? Climber and photographer Mark Watson, one of three climbers on the slopes of Aoraki/Mt Cook during the massive rock avalanche off Mt Haast, looks at the causes of alpine landslides
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wild
Climbing
Climbers at high altitude between Camps 3 and 4 on Mt Everest
42 july 2013
climber'sh
Adventure Consultants
i g h
Are climbers who use performanceenhancing drugs cheating their way to the top or simply trying to survive the extreme environment found at high altitude? Paul Hersey investigates
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Grant Helgeson airing out his Ascension skins at the Basin Hut, Purcell Mountains, British Columbia.
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