Letter of the month

The story ‘Revitalised hut remembers hunter’s tragedy’ (August 2023) warmed my heart, but not just because it shared great info and a beautiful photo. My best friend and I stayed at Kapakapanui Hut in 2010 for a weekend leg-stretch and escape from Wellington city life. Yes, the track is steep, but it’s easy to navigate, and from memory it took us the full three hours.

The following day we climbed through that incredible mossy beech forest and  onto a lookout with expansive views across the southern Tararua Range and beyond.   It was such a moving landscape that I asked my friend to marry me. It wasn’t a leap year, but I figured a girl could die waiting … He said yes. (He actually said, “s’pose”, and I still rib him for it.)

Cancer prevented us getting into the hills for a while, but we worked as a phenomenal team to come through relatively unscathed and now are fully healthy and back at it, excitedly awaiting new editions of Wilderness for ideas of where to adventure next, and what cool stuff we might need for the trip.

So thanks, Wilderness, for that lovely pictorial reminder of the place that I hold  so dear. We live in the South Island now, and can’t imagine getting back to Kapakapanui any time soon.

Here’s to making memories in our extraordinary wilderness.

– Jen Clement

What a lovely story, Jen. You’ve won three pairs of Thorlo Classic Hiking socks worth $135 from www.thorlos.co.nz. Readers, send your letter to the editor for a chance to win.

Gear storage

‘Oh the luxury of having a garage’ is what I thought when reading ‘Where gear resides’ (August 2023). My multi-day pack is stored in a pillowcase under my bed, my daypack in the spare wardrobe, and all my gear is carefully stowed in two drawers of an antique Georgian chest of drawers.

My MSR Hubba Hubba tent is under the drawers, too. I have a lot in those two drawers.

– Karen Baeyertz

– Thanks for sharing your gear storage solution, Karen. As promised, we’ll send you a Back Country Cuisine meal. Readers, send your gear storage solutions to the editor to receive a meal, too.

Alpine huts anthology

I am writing a book to celebrate the alpine huts in Aoraki Mount Cook and Te Tai Poutini Westland national parks. It will be a collection of historic and contemporary material including facts, building accounts, photos and anecdotes.

I would welcome contact from anyone with photos, stories or other material for possible inclusion, or just to help me better understand people’s relationships with these special huts. I’m particularly after older photos inside huts, such as Tasman Saddle, and personal memories, such as funny moments.

This is an ongoing part-time and monumental project, supported by my husband, Dean. We met when working at Aoraki in the 1980s. My goal is a book that is historically accurate as well as a fitting social history and tribute to these huts, some of which are being lost to glacial erosion.

– Sandy Nelson, sandyjanenelson@gmail.com

Hardly stupid

Hazel Phillips wrote an amusing and entertaining piece titled ‘Stupid tramping’ (September 2023).

Although I appreciate her piece was quirky and tongue-in-cheek, I beg to disagree on the overall idea.

In my opinion, there are very few stupid tramps, and I don’t think Hazel could have picked a worse example than Rakimaurikura / Harper Pass. I have tramped this route on numerous occasions in various seasons and enjoyed it every time, always for different reasons, even during inclement weather.

This pass, located right in the heart of Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, features historic huts diverse wildlife, and a real contrast between west and east in both the ecosystems and vegetation.

But more significantly, it is one of the most historic tracks in Aotearoa. Firstly, for Māori, the route over Rakimaurikura was one of the most important pōunamu routes over the alps. The Pākehā name for the pass comes from Leonard Harper, who was the first European to cross the alps on foot, from coast to coast, back in 1857. Leonard was the father of Arthur Harper, later famous as the co-founder of both the New Zealand Alpine Club and Federated Mountain Clubs.

During the mid-19th century, the route became extremely busy as gold miners flocked to the burgeoning goldfields of Tai Poutini / the West Coast before the road was built over Arthur’s Pass. Then, a century afterwards, during the 1940s, track development was sponsored by the government in an attempt to encourage more people to tramp – including families and less-experienced people. That’s when many of the huts were first established.

If we don’t appreciate the wildlife, ecology and history of where we are tramping, then the duller sections of track or inclement weather will take all the emphasis.

– Shaun Barnett

What we’re losing

I enjoyed ‘A short little guide to glacier anatomy’ (August 2023). I was left saddened by how your romantic 19th-century illustration is now a disappearing feature of alpine mountains and ice caps. Could Wilderness commence a regular feature on what we are losing through environmental degradation? Wilderness could become an objective observer of our current and prospective losses, thus helping to raise awareness.

Mā te manaakitanga tātau e kōkiri whakamua – we will get through this together.

– Rev Jon Hartley