Letter of the month

Poetry in motion 

I have used the last two years of Walk1200km to maintain my fitness, mainly around my local streets. 

In 2022 I felt the benefit by walking the Queen Charlotte Track, and in  late 2023 I completed the Paparoa Track. This completes my set of  Great Walks.

I have always found photographs don’t fully encapsulate my walking experiences, and I have been  inspired to write this poem, named ‘Paparoa Track’.

Warden watches vistas vanish

Hut filling with rain-crowd fug

Wood and coal stoke conversations

Dehy rated,

Soup and noodles by the mug

–

Europe sent a high-tech biker

Plumber, tiler; local reps.

Notwithstanding each relaxing

All had conquered countless steps

–

Bunks were bagged and muscles stretched

Dark at nine all feigning sleep

Soon for-real the bunkroom snored

Those with weaker bladders creep

–

Stoat traps counted, marking distance

Chance encounters, lunchtimes shared

Not so much a stranger seen

Fellow trekkers ever paired.

Bob wins a $220 print of his choice from Bellamy Gallery: www.bellamygallery.co.nz. (featured) Readers, send your letter to the editor for a chance to win.

Done and dusted

I didn’t think I’d complete Walk1200km in 2023 due to days of dangerous winds and sitting in hospitals with my ill father. In 2022 I was so close to 2000km, I was keen to see if I could do it again.

So despite the difficulties, starting with a target of 5km a day and adding some long tramps, I just managed to make my 2000km goal.

My walking, and the Walk1200km badge I wore, has inspired others to join. I’ll sign up again for 2024 and hope that pre-ordering my medal won’t jinx my attempt to obtain the 2000km again!

– Sharon Boulton

Tararua stalwart’s ashes spread on Mt Hector

Readers might be interested to know that in unseasonable November snow, Paul Maxim and I scattered the ashes of legendary adventurer Hugh Barr on top of Mt Hector in Tararua Forest Park. 

Hugh was a stalwart of the Tararua Tramping Club for more than 40 years. He ventured far and wide in the New Zealand mountains and was renowned for leading big Christmas club trips to remote South Island areas. 

Mt Hector was special to Hugh and to all of the Tararua Tramping Club because in 1950, club members carried the huge 70kg wooden cross to the summit to commemorate Wellington trampers who were killed during World War II. 

Many club members have had their ashes scattered on this summit, the eighth highest in the Tararua Range.

Hugh died on December 8, 2021 aged 80. 

– Sarah White

Our routes, your trips

Recently, six wild women completed the Travers–Sabine in Nelson Lakes National Park, including a day trip to Blue Lake and Lake 

Constance and the alternative exit via Angelus Hut, as described in the article ‘Land of lakes’ (September 2023). 

Mt Cedric Track lived up to its reputation, as the article’s author wrote: ‘If you can’t find the humour in Mt Cedric Track, you’ll cry.’   One or two of us may have shed a few tears. 

The rest of the tramp was accurately described, from misplaced signs well before the bushline to the handwritten directions pinned to the wall for the lake lookout and, of course, several days of soggy tramping. Unlike the author’s ‘unceremonious and disappointing end to an unforgettable adventure’ we lucked out with a bluebird day along Robert Ridge. It was an epic trip to the ‘land of lakes’.

Thank you for sharing such tramping routes for us to explore.

– Alanna Dick, Te Anau

– Alanna receives a Real Meal dinner. Readers, when you do a trip that has been published in Wilderness, let us know to receive your prize, too.

Finding waterfalls

Some of us are blessed with a dangerously small knowledge of geology and the ability to pore over maps far too long for our own good. This includes the Hallelujah Flat area (Topo50 BV21 – Otira) where a great lump of rock has been thrust 150m upwards on the east side of Andrews Stream. On paper it looks to be a great place to discover waterfalls.

And so it proved on a recent trip to Arthur’s Pass when my group of trampers from Oxford discovered a 20m waterfall as yet unmarked on the map.

The falls (grid reference 028436) are on an unnamed stream 5.4km along the Andrews Valley Track and about 1.8km from Hallelujah Flat. They are well worth investigating.

BV21 was probably created using aerial photography and stereography, but looking at the aerial photo shows how easy it would be to miss the falls. The falls’ stream is deeply incised and trees grow over it, obscuring it from above. The line of the streambed and the contours have ended up as a series of idealised curves.

After our discovery, we checked with LINZ and it was agreed the falls would be marked on future maps – though it won’t be until 2025 that BV21 is reprinted.

The hunt will continue up other streams in the area for interesting waterfalls and rapids.

– Mike Cornwall

Finally, I’m doing it!

Thanks for the constant reminders and promotion of the Walk1200km challenge in Wilderness. It worked: finally, I’m going to do this.

I loved Wilderness before the challenge began, but now the magazine feels like it’s got this bigger, higher purpose: the everyday elevation of New Zealanders’ health and wellbeing, separate to what’s done on our weekends and in our spare time when we can make it into the wilderness for hikes. It’s this health, fitness and wellbeing on an everyday basis that Wilderness is doing such an amazing thing to promote and encourage.

So thank you – I know there’ll be many people like me who need the friendly and encouraging kick up the backside to get their trainers on and get out for regular walks.

– Toby George