The final check

October 2025

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October 2025

Photo: Mark Watson
What’s the last thing you check before heading into the hills? We asked the experts. Tanya Bottomley Ultra runner and mindset coach After years of adventuring, my packing runs like clockwork. Everything has its place and goes in my pack before it even reaches the car. Everything but my phone, that is: that’s always the […]
Leigh Hopkinson

About the author

Leigh Hopkinson

Wilderness deputy editor Leigh Hopkinson spends the weekends in the hills with her whānau and weekdays as a journalist and editor. She has a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from the University of Canterbury. A keen tramper, rock climber and newbie mountaineer, she has written for magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Tasman. She’s originally from the West Coast and now lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

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