MAY 2016
see more, do more, live more
WIN
Tongariro National Park
Quiet tracks, remote huts and a hidden waterfall – a guide to NZ’s oldest park
DARING
a Marmot PreCip jacket worth $230 18 up for grabs!
FORAGED and found A foray into the world of edible plants
the
High-wire bridges, fishing for supper, huts galore. Is there a better track than the Dusky?
THE RETURN OF KAKAPO How science and technology are saving this rare bird HOLY MOUNTAIN A pilgrimage to Mt Wakefield with an obscure religious group Re-proof your raincoat REVIEWED: DAYPACKS
Your go-to guide for wet weather gear Trips to Glenorchy’s Whakaari Conservation Area, Marlborough’s Mt Richmond Forest Park, Sea kayaking in the Bay of Islands
www.wildernessmag.co.nz NZ $9.95 Aust $9.95 INCL GST
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contents May 2016
FEATURES
36 You’ve got email
Kakapo are making a comeback, thanks to devoted scientists, volunteers, and fancy little gadgets
40 Aoraki’s holy mountain
Mt Wakefield is ‘not your average mountain’, according to the Aetherius Society
46 Foraged and found
From backyard weeds to hilltop shrooms, foraging is on the rise
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62 The perfect week in
Tongariro National Park The best tramps, huts, climbs and hideaways in New Zealand’s oldest national park
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WAYPOINTS
22 The Agony and the ecstasy Eric Bivouac, Te Kahui Kaupeka Conservation Park
24 Descent to Travers
Travers Valley, Nelson Lakes National Park
26 See more
National park monuments
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52 Win one of 18 Marmot PreCip jackets worth $230!
www.wildernessmag.co.nz
1
YOUR TRIPS, YOUR PIX
What did you get up to last weekend?
Amelia, Philippa and Jo Geary walked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Ciaran Huntley climbed Peak Hill in Canterbury
David Gaston visited Asbestos Cottage, Kahurangi NP
Beverley and Dick Dinsdale stopped for a photo on the TraversSabine Saddle
Claire Ash celebrated climbing Waikato’s Mt Karioi
Chris and Juliette Gasson tramped the Sabine River, Nelson Lakes NP
Cousins Brian, Mackenzie, Alexandra, Georgia and Marcus walked Abel Tasman’s Inland Track
Ben, Will, Cathy and Mark climbed Mt Technical, near Lewis Pass
Lucy Worthington enjoyed the sunshine on the tops above Jumbo Hut, Tararua FP
Eve Lawrence was up early to catch the dawn view from Pouakai Tarn, Egmont National Park
SEND YOUR PIX
Get your photo published here to receive a set of four Light My Fire Sporks – one for you and three for your friends! Learn more about Spork at ampro.co.nz. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz
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MAY 2016
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
SO FAR AND SO GOOD Ray Salisbury survives New Zealand’s hardest hike – Fiordland’s Dusky Track
Supper Cove was named by Captain Cook on his first voyage in 1770
W I L D C O N S E R VAT I O N A female warms her egg – one of 120 laid in the busiest breeding season ever
You’vegot
The most successful kakapo breeding season on record is thanks to the hard work of scientists, rangers and volunteers – and gadgets that might have come straight out of James Bond’s Q Branch. By Alistair Hall
H
ow do you grow the population of kakapo when kakapo can’t do it themselves? Email helps. Each morning during the kakapo breeding season, which runs from late summer to early autumn, Dr Andrew Digby turns on his computer to get the latest updates. He’s not hoping to hear from family and friends, though living in a tent for several months on the remote Whenua Hou/Codfish Island near Rakiura, you could understand if that was the case. What he’s really hoping to see is a graph with a simple red line on it. Simple as it may appear, the red line is significant: it means kakapo on Whenua Hou or at Anchor Island in Dusky Sound have mated. The emails are generated by a little device attached to each kakapo that measures activity, recording the length of time an encounter with another bird lasts (up to an hour!), which bird the encounter was with and, on a scale of zero to 99, how vigorous that encounter was. The information is then sucked from the device by one of several remote data loggers and sent via satellite to Digby’s computer, where it’s decoded and presented in graph form. “It’s brilliant,” says Digby, an astronomer turned conservation scientist working on DOC’s 25-year-old Kakapo Recovery Programme. “It’s saving us a lot of time running around trying to get signals from birds on the ground, which is really intensive. We just check the email in the morning and we know who has mated with whom.” Technology like this is having a big impact in the fight to save kakapo from extinction. There are just 123 kakapo remaining, up from a low of 51 in 1995 but down from a high of 125 in late February when two adults died. “We need to get the population up – we’re www.wildernessmag.co.nz
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WILD WAY S
MARK WATSON
AORAKI’S
The view from the ridge of Mt Wakefield – easy to see why some believe the peak is spiritually charged
HOLY
Mt Wakefield in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park is ‘not your average mountain’, according to members of a worldwide spiritual organisation. A skeptical Anna Pearson joins the Aetherius Society on a mountain pilgrimage
MOUNTAIN
WILD FOOD
MEGHAN WALKER
Karamu berries can be eaten fresh off the plant
THE
Foraging for food isn’t about looking through rubbish bins, it’s about finding organic and healthy fruit, herbs and even roadkill in wild and urban environments. Meghan Walker goes in search of dinner
LIFE