Returning from the misty Tararua Peaks. Photo: HOT PIXELS PHOTOGRAPHY

Tararua dreaming

Features, Off the Beaten Track

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Ray Salisbury

Ray is an author and photographer living in Nelson, and a longtime contributor to Wilderness.

By Ray Salisbury

Not even record rainfall can dampen an eight-day mission to bag huts and peaks along the spine of Te Ika-a-Māui.

Mention the Tararua Range to veteran trampers and it will evoke memories of remote river gorges, steep spurs, goblin forest, historic huts and razor-sharp ridges. Storms sweep the tussock tops about 200 days a year, increasing the risk of hypothermia and making navigation difficult. There was unfinished business in those hills north of Wellington. Years […]

About the author

Ray Salisbury

Ray Salisbury is an author and photographer living in Nelson with his wife and cat. He studied design and photography and has been contributing to Wilderness since 1997. His books include Tableland: The history behind Mt Arthur and EPIC: Adventures across Aotearoa. Ray began tramping with a camera more than 50 years ago and has visited over 500 backcountry huts.