: New Zealand's magazine of the outdoors since 1991
know more, do more, live more
Win! Victorinox Spartan Knives (80 to be won)
Room with a view
Top 3 alpine lakes to camp beside
Finding
solitude Where to go for peace and quiet in busy national parks
Going with the flow
Why it’s worth slowing down on the new CATLINS RIVER WALK
The ultimate winter buyer’s guide Insulated jackets, crampons and ice axes june 2013
www.wildernessmag.co.nz NZ $8.95 Aust $8.95 incl GST
Living the dream Swapping traffic jams for mountain trails
» Four weekend trips to try right now!
» Simplify your navigation » How to tramp with your slow-coach buddies
» Tops travel in Lewis
Pass national Reserve
contents June 2013
34
18
41 FEATURES
28 Slowing down in the Catlins A new walk in the Catlins Coastal Rainforest Park promises to make the region a popular overnight destination
Victorinox Subscriber give away
34 Remote corners
Looking for a bit of solitude in busy national parks? These four remote corners hold plenty of potential
42 Moving to the mountains Does the dream of escaping the rat race for a better lifestyle in a mountain town live up to reality?
42
WAYPOINTS 14 Places
Upper Wye Creek Basin, Remarkables Conservation Area
16 See more
Three places to see tuatara
18 Top 3
South Island alpine lakes to camp beside
www.wildernessmag.co.nz
1
contents June 2013
THE MANUAL Trips, skills, health, gear
WILD TRIPS
48 Broken Axe Pinnacles, Tararua Forest Park
49 Cattle Creek Hut, Ruahine Forest Park
50 Thompsons Flat Hut,
67
Lewis Pass National Reserve
52 Mt Sinclair Tarn, Mesopotamia Station 53 Wild Range
Barrier Range, Ahuriri Conservation Park
56 Gear Review
72
Five overnight packs field-tested
58 Skills
REGULARS 4 Editorial
5 Pigeon post
6050
59 Cuisine
Simple Thai stir fry
56
60 Shop window
A guide to buying: 60 Down jackets and fleeces 64 Ice axes 66 Crampons
Letters to the editor
6 Last weekend
What did you get up to last weekend?
Simplify your navigation How to deal with slow coaches Ask Steve: which bivy bag is best?
59
8 Walkshorts
News and events
11 Five reasons to get outside this month
11 Wilderness Word
Enter our crossword competition to win great prizes
12 Gear News
The latest in gear tech and innovation
13 First look review
Wilderness gets a first look at the latest gear to hit stores
20 Comment
Some hut wardens really turn on the welcome while others make you wish you were any place but there
2 june 2013
21 Comment
Why we should pay hut fees
22 People
Marty Schmidt is the best climber you’ve mostly likely never heard of
24 Off the Beaten Track
A week-long trip over a route less travelled from Lewis Pass to St Arnaud
70 Out There
Restructuring for Dummies
72 Hotshot Straight up
Cover: Finding solitude in Tongariro NP is as easy as summiting Ruapehu. Photo: Fraser Crichton
Your trips, your pix
What did you get up to last weekend?
Jaroslav Cips went to Mueller Hut in Aoraki/Mt Cook NP
Caitlin, Liam, Briana and Belinda Sullivan enjoyed a night at Myttons Hut, Kahurangi NP
Bri Scott, Gracie Whiteman and Abby Blanch explored Woolshed Canyon in Mt Somers Conservation Area
Caroline Johns traversed the Broken Axe Pinnacles in Tararua Forest Park
Karen Hofman’s family tramped the Abel Tasman Track with three other families
Years 1, 2 and 3 from Carncot School and Stanford Junior Prep tramped the Sledge Track in the Kahuterawa Valley, Manawatu
Rachel Shurrock honeymooned in Doubtful Sound with husband Paul Kennedy
Pete Prue camped alongside Waggon Creek in Paparoa NP
Gail Edwards visited Ruapae Falls in Tararua Forest Park
Send your
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 .
6 june 2013
Emily Maxwell from Auckland and Ashleigh Clement from Opunake tramped the Travers Sabine Track in Nelson Lakes NP
Matt Swailes visited Lake Marion with his class from Horizions Unlimited
John, Angus and Alice Quigley hiked the Summit track to Kapuni Lodge in Egmont NP
PROTECTS TOES ON TRAILS
MOLDED MIDSOLE FOR ALL-DAY COMFORT
DURABLE FOR TOUGH CHALLENGES
KEEN.DRY WATERPROOF, BREATHABLE MEMBRANE
STABILIZES ON ROUGH TERRAIN
TARGHEE II MID THE ULTIMATE DAY HIKER Available in Men and Women. www.wildernessmag.co.nz
7
With eight days to spare and a dodgy forecast hot on her heels, Lorraine John takes the route less travelled from Lewis Pass to St Arnaud
Climbing steep tussock to gain Paske Saddle
24 june 2013
Richard Davies
Descending from Enid Pass
Pass
hopping
to
St Arnaud www.wildernessmag.co.nz
25
Remote
corners
Aoraki/Mt Cook and the Hooker River from the east side of Hooker Valley
34 june 2013
Searching
for solitude How to escape the crowds in our busiest national parks. By Mark Watson
Moving
to
mountains the For outdoorsy people, living in a city far from the mountains is like a yachtie living in Mt Cook Village. Josh Gale finds out what it takes to up sticks and move from the traffic jams
Mountain towns like Wanaka provide easy access to the outdoors
42 june 2013
www.wildernessmag.co.nz
lake wanaka
t happened to me while sitting at traffic lights in Auckland. It was 5pm gridlock. Semitrailer trucks were squeezing me in and coughing out fumes. The traffic light went green, two trucks went through and the light prematurely went red. In the lane next to me, a middle aged suit in a Ford Falcon exploded and screamed abuse at the traffic light. His face reddened, his neck tightened as he slammed his steering wheel and swore loud enough for me to catch every insult. Right then, I had a moment of clarity: “What in seven heavens is this all about?” I asked myself. There we were, one person to a car, pumping out carbon, yelling at inanimate objects while global warming heats the planet. As I sat there, I remembered something American writer Mark Twain had said: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” While not on the side of the majority, the quote made me question what I was doing spending day after day in traffic amongst it. An overwhelming desire to escape the city came over me. For some time I had been entertaining the fantasy of moving to the mountains to live a quieter life and have easy access to an alpine environment. But something changed that day in traffic; it was no longer just a childish dream, it was something I wanted to make a reality. A week after this revelation, I was still mulling it over. My wife pointed out I needed to get out of my head and into the outdoors, so we packed our bags and drove to Ohakune, the closest mountain town to Auckland. I decided I’d find out firsthand what it takes to move to the mountains. I’m by no means the only city dweller to have got to this point. In fact, I imagine most have at some stage experienced a similar moment when they question what they were doing with their lives. Take Aucklander Joanne Miller, for example. She and her partner Phil have made moving to the mountains part of their five year plan.
43
Straight up Two climber’s scale Margaret’s Leap ice fall at Tukino ski field on Ruapehu. This was shot on a cheap point and shoot when I didn't know much about photography. Now I carry an expensive DSLR. What I've learnt since switching over, is that it doesn't matter which camera you carry: light and composition are what really matter and that's a lifelong learning process. Shot on a Canon Ixus 870, 1/1600sec at f/6.3 ISO 200. - Fraser Crichton
Submit your hotshots to editor@lifestylepublishing.co.nz
72 june 2013
74 june 2013