The South Island’s oldest tramping club is celebrating its centenary with 100 tramping trips over 12 months.

After five years of planning, Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club’s centenary trip programme begins on October 16.

Club secretary Debbie Pettinger said the 100 trips, the brainchild of her husband and club president Antony Pettinger, would recreate iconic walks from the club’s past. 

The first is a tramp in the Silver Peaks, where in 1922 it was decided there was enough interest to start a tramping club. The Dunedin-based club held its first walk on September 1, 1923, from Ross Creek to the top of Flagstaff. Pettinger said a reenactment of this trip on September 1, 2023, would include the unveiling of new seating and signage at Pineapple Point to celebrate the centenary.

The Milford Track is also part of the centenary programme. Before club members staged a walk of protest in 1965, access to the Milford was limited to people on Tourist Hotel Corporation guided trips.

The Pettingers met through the club in the 1980s, and their daughter is the fourth generation of the family to belong to OTMC, which has about 160 members.