A wrap of the biggest stories and best writing about the outdoors from New Zealand and around the world.

Bad news for trampers wishing to access parts of Kaimanawa Forest Park, and an example of antisocial behaviour affecting us all. Two gates have been put up along Waipakihi​ Rd and Rangipo Intake Rd, both of which currently lead to the Waipakihi River Valley area of the park.

The roads cross private land blocks between Desert Road and the park and are administered by Lake Rotoaira​ Forest Trust on behalf of Māori owners.

Although the Trust has not explained why the gates have been put up, Stuff says it’s been told people have been taking 4WD vehicles up the riverbed and dumping rubbish. It’s also been told there are plans to fly mountain bikers into the park for commercial trips with Helisika, and the trust wants to protect its assets. Read more at Stuff. 

The 82-year-old who’s completed an extraordinary mountain feat

As with hut bagging in New Zealand, mountain bagging in the UK can become an obsession. One of the most coveted achievements on that side of the world is climbing all 282 Munros – Scotland’s summits over 3000ft high.

It can take people years to achieve it, so starting the challenge at the age of 80 is bold, to say the least. But that’s what Nick Gardner did two years ago. And this week, he’s just completed the final summit.

A guard of honour welcomed him to the top of Cairn Gorm to his utter delight. “I have never experienced anything quite like it,” he said. “It’s like a little boy opening his Christmas presents.
I was walking through the archway thinking, it’s all for me.”

Nick decided to take on the challenge after his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis. “I couldn’t look after my wife any more. She had to go into care and I had to get a project to refocus my life.” Read more at the BBC. 

Decades old bodies and plane wreckage found in Swiss glaciers

It’s not just in New Zealand where glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. In Switzerland a low-snowfall winter has been followed by two summer heatwaves where melting point has been as high as 5184m, compared to the usual 3000-3500m.

And the melting glaciers are revealing secrets they’ve held for decades. A body was found on Stockji glacier, near the Matterhorn, with 80s-style neon-coloured clothes.

Then a week later two French mountaineers found human bones and a plane wreckage on Chessjen glacier, also thought to have been there since the 1970s or 80s. Read more here. 

Ferret believed to have killed three kiwi

Conservationists in Taranaki are devastated at the loss of three kiwi in the Kaitaki Ranges. The birds were among 20 being protected in the area.

An autopsy has shown they were likely killed by a ferret, but a cat can’t be totally ruled out until DNA testing is completed. Either way, the culprit is still out there.

“It has been a rough few days,” said Peter Morgan, chair of the Kaitake Ranges Conservation Trust. “Our 100-plus volunteers and broader community have worked really hard to provide a safe haven for the initial 20 kiwi on Kaitake and their offspring. They are part of us. We know their names, if they’re breeding and where they’ve settled.” Read more at Stuff. 

“Our ancestors would be saying, ‘Wow. You did what we couldn’t do.’”

It’s five years since the Whanganui River was recognised as a living person. Here’s a lovely article talking to people about why they love the river and why that decision was so important.

It includes a chat with Jula Teki, known in the community as Auntie Sugar, who says the personification of the river would have made her ancestors proud.

Ngahuia Twomey-Waitai is another to whom the river has played an important role all her life. “I tend to come down here quite often to cleanse myself, especially when I’m going through some big, huge changes in my life, regardless of them being good or bad,” she says. “The river always makes things better for me.” Read the full feature.