With Mother’s Day around the corner, we asked two readers what they love about tramping with their mothers.
Lila and Hiromi Adams tramp together every summer when Lila comes home from Australia. They choose trips close to the family farm in Marlborough.
“Tramping is a neat way to spend some mother–daughter time,” says Lila. “It’s something I didn’t appreciate as much when I was growing up, but now that I live away from my parents, I really value it.”
They started the tradition in 2022 when they visited Kahurangi National Park, staying at Balloon and Salisbury huts and exploring Lake Peel, Gordons Pyramid and Mt Arthur. This year they headed into Richmond Saddle Hut and summited Mt Richmond.
“Mum never complains, even if I choose a really challenging track,” says Lila.
She was 10 when her family went on their first overnight tramp. “My younger brother and I carried small packs with our own sleeping bags. I remember being so excited, and making scroggin before we left.”
These days, Lila takes the lead.
“It used to be ‘mum looks after kid’. Now it’s ‘kid looks after mum’,” says Hiromi.
She most values Lila’s confidence as a tramper. “I can trust her and just enjoy the relationship between us.”
“It’s been cool seeing my mum’s confidence in track finding and her own abilities increase after these trips, too,” says Lila. “She has even started going on a few longer tramps with her friends.”
Nicola Bowman inherited her love of tramping from her mother Noeline and has passed it on to her own daughter, Molly.
“Mum organised for the two of us to hike Waikaremoana to celebrate my twenty-first birthday,” says Nicola. “Our next hike together was for my thirtieth and Mum’s fiftieth. We walked the Queen Charlotte Track.”
They also tramp with their extended family. “We all believe in outdoor adventures and the power of nature to stimulate joy, wellness and connection,” says Nicola. “For us, it is the journey that is most important, not getting to the huts.”
Nicola and Noeline both live on Waiheke Island and have a similar sense of humour, Nicola says.
She finds walking with her mum “incredibly inspiring”. “She is fantastically fit, strong and healthy for her age – and sets a swift pace.”
In 2024 they tramped the Tongariro Northern Circuit, and next year they plan to walk the Pekoe Trail, a 300km track through the central highlands of Sri Lanka.
Noeline says they have a lot of fun on the tramps. “It’s great to be discovering new places together and making wonderful memories. Nicola is also a good organiser, so the trips are hassle-free for me; I just have to turn up and start walking!”
Nicola has, in turn, shared her love of the outdoors with her daughter Molly. Before Molly went to Germany as an exchange student, they walked the North–South Track in Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park.
“I loved this one-on-one time with my daughter. We saw no one else for three days.”
Molly says this trip has become “a core memory”. “Recently I drove past [Kaimai Mamaku] with my partner and told him all about it. About the night we weren’t going to make it to a hut and had to set up our tent in the bush. About the uncontrollable laughter Mum and I shared over the wild pigs and big spiders and the very sleepless night.
“Every day we discovered a new swimming hole and would rip our clothes off in the blistering heat. I told him about the shock of the cold as we jumped in and had to jump out immediately. I described the often-interesting dehydrated meals we ate and the dodgy rainwater we had to drink.
“I’ll always remember those three days alone in the bush with my mum.”
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