New photos show eruption devastation
The Mt Tongariro eruption on August 1 badly damaged Ketetahi Hut and DOC says it does not know when it might be reopened. DOC closed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (TAC), Ketetahi, Mangatepopo and Waihohonu huts immediately after the eruption. Two days later Waihohonu Hut was reopened, but as Wilderness went to press, the other two huts and the TAC remained closed. DOC’s Ruapehu Area Manager Nic Peet said it is too early to determine when trampers will be allowed back on the popular Tongariro Alpine Crossing Track. “We need to be satisfied the volcanic threat has eased before this track re-opens and we will take advice from the GNS experts on this,” he said in a media statement. “We are keen to get people back onto the Tongariro Alpine Crossing but we need to make sure the volcano has settled down first.” DOC’s media relations spokesperson Robyn Oxford said if anyone had been staying in Ketetahi Hut on the night of the eruption they would have been seriously injured. “A couple of large boulders have gone through the roof and through the mattress, top bunk and through the mattress, bottom bunk and through the floor. It would have been pretty horrendous had anyone been in there.” Three men who were staying at Mangatepopo Hut on the night of the eruption were found safe and well by search and rescue on Tuesday morning. – Alistair HallCoromandel mayor wants new Great Walk
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Wild Poetry competition
To celebrate National Poetry Day on July 27, Wilderness asked readers to share their outdoor themed poems. Here’re three of the submissions we received. Silver Peaks summer They call them silver, but I see golden ridges of tussock and rock. Blazing heat today Not the icy cold that cuts Or kills with silent wrath Or fog that cloaks the flax and soaks the skin as I push through tussock to a haven For today, falcons soar And I forget the cold and wet And remember only days like this. - David Barnes Big Hill Up, crunch through beechy forest, breathe, Step over roots and follow your nose to the sky-line: golden tussock awaits upon arrival. Skirting the edge of the world we track the side Of this feathered slope, sidling up to the saddle. Pause only to hop, skip over rocky stream. Hold out hands to help one another. Through the looking glass and into the sunshine, those tussocks whir and shimmy below. Sweet snack and sense of accomplishment before we begin our descent, homeward leg of our trail. River cross and squelch before the valley of burnt yellow trees. You are tired now, you limp a little, but only I know and With a wrinkly smile you keep up to the others. The road continues interminably after the rise and fall Of previous paths. Over the bridge, And just as footsteps fall heavy and enough is enough, The twinkle of Arrowtown beckons through the leaves: pointing us to the pub, a fire and our edible medals of pie and chips. Cheer and high five that 22-k of a late afternoon. The only casualties were the corpses of two decimated sheep. - Jo Haim Boulder hopping Reading by moonlight tramping to ice seems the stories around campfires have ended up in books no longer a communal fire but now you talk to the characters in the book, The quest for new and interesting people and places, no different from the communal fire light, the red flame, now captured in pages of black and white. Yesteryears dark places, the flicker of light and sparks now the spaces between words and paragraphs where the mind finds a place for its self. No longer in a race to reach skyward and join the stars above, a book lovingly read, like a campfire stoked, final prod of embers turning to smoke. A good novel like memories of a night too young to put to bed stands on a bookshelf like a campfire ashes in the morning light. I would like to have a conversation as interesting as the books I have read instead of the blandness of neutrality often said. We have replaced the unknown with the known, belief with certainty quoted by some and now the camp fire has gone we live with smoke in our eyes The daydream has been lost, tossed as yesterdays clothing, everyman in his garage had his favourite jumper with darned holes to prove his love and commitment to the cloth. Something worn becomes part of you, as indeed does the landscape long may the rivers run. - Kevin DeanGas removed from huts
Gas cooking facilities have been permanently removed from Mitre Flats, Totara Flats and Tutuwai Huts in Tararua Forest Park. The Department of Conservation said the facilities were removed due to health and safety and economic reasons. According to Craig Harrison, visitor assets manager for the Wairarapa conservancy, it costs $12,000 a year to supply all three huts with gas and regular inspections. “These huts all require the gas to be lifted in by helicopter and both Tutuwai and Mitre Flats are expensive because of the distance,” Harrison said. Harrison didn’t expect the removal of gas from the huts to affect usage. “The Department has received positive feedback from members of the public regarding gas removal,” he said, adding that “Jumbo and Powell huts will still have gas” if that is an issue for some users. DOC will continue to supply firewood to the three huts, which will provide heating and also a cooking source via the woodstoves installed. Harrison said these heating and cooking methods are far safer than gas: “There is a possibility of gas being left on or a leak which could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. Gas is highly explosive and the gas is unvented. The woodstove is a vented and closed unit, [so] a lower risk to hut users.” The three huts will remain listed as 'serviced' huts.Book-a-bunk at Welcome Flat
