November 2023

Wilderness

New Zealand’s magazine of the outdoors

Wilderness2 min read
The Wonder Of It All
THERE HAVE been ancient wonders, natural wonders, modern wonders, but as far as I know there have never been tramping wonders. There’s a sense that when you go in search of wonder, you have to travel far or go to great effort – think the Pyramids of
Wilderness1 min read
Wilderness
EDITOR Alistair Hall [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Kathy Ombler, Ricky French GEAR EDITOR Matthew Cattin ROVING EDITOR Shaun Barnett COPY EDITORS David Hall, Imogen Coxhead WALKSHORTS AND WALK1200KM Samantha Mythen and Ameli
Wilderness3 min read
LETTER of THE MONTH
This was my second year doing the Walk1200km challenge. Last year I did 1359km, this year, 4025km. I started out this year with the aim of joining the 3000km club, but partway through the first quarter I thought if I really put my mind to it, I could
Wilderness1 min read
Last Weekend
YOUR TRIPS, YOUR PIX What did you get up to last weekend? Get your photo published here to receive a meal from Real Meals worth $17. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz. Learn more about Real Meals at www.realmeals.co
Wilderness1 min read
Items For A Tramping First-aid Kit
Hato Hone St John has first-aid kits designed specifically for outdoor activities such as tramping. Buy online or make sure your own first-aid kit is up to date with: ▭ Good quality plasters ▭ Crepe bandage 7.5cm × 4.5m ▭ 2x Aerofix Island Dressing 1
Wilderness1 min read
Treating Simple Injuries
BLISTERS: At first indication of a blister, stop and cover the area with gauze or a gel dressing and tape. If a blister is enlarged, drain fluid by piercing it and then cover to prevent infection. Padding can help too. A piece of sanitary pad with a
Wilderness1 min read
Brain Tumour Treatment For Roving Editor Shaun Barnett
Wilderness mag’s roving editor Shaun Barnett is facing a tough battle after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour earlier this year. The long-term outlook is fragile and Shaun is the last person to ask for help, but friends of his have set up
Wilderness2 min read
An Ovary Long Walk
A former elite cyclist is walking Te Araroa Trail to raise funds and awareness for gynaecological cancer. Kate Wightman, 29, was diagnosed with three different types of cancer last year. She was lucky: “My cancer was found at a stage where curability
Wilderness1 min read
Give Blood, Save Trampers Lives
In 2019, keen tramper Monica Bean fell through a glass table and sliced the tibial nerve in her right leg. The past four years have been arduous and excruciating as she gradually got on her feet while dealing with CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome
Wilderness2 min read
Unexpected Moments Of Joy
I was a couple of hours into the first day of the South Coast Track on Rakiura Stewart Island and had spent the walk down Mason Bay unsuccessfully searching for ambergris, the valuable whale fecal matter that is known to wash up here. A few minutes a
Wilderness2 min read
Canyoning Season Begins
With the spring snowmelt gone, temperatures warming and summer arriving, most of New Zealand’s canyons are ready to be explored. A canyon is ‘in season’ when its water flow is at a suitable level for a descent, with both the air and water temperature
Wilderness2 min read
How Walk1200km Helped Me Prepare For Te Araroa
I LIKE GOING for walks. It’s a simple and accessible form of exercise that doesn’t require any special equipment. When I decided to walk Te Araroa Trail (TA), its 3000km allure was exciting, but I was unprepared. A thru-hike is no easy task, and I ha
Wilderness2 min read
Walking Is The Reward
BACK IN HER early working days in San Francisco, Kathryn Reed would take an extra pair of shoes to work to go for a walk at midday, then gobble her lunch when she got back. She’s been a walker her whole life – in the city, around the orchards after s
Wilderness1 min read
#microchallenge 34-36 winners!
#microchallenge34: JUMP OVER SOMETHING PARTNER PRIZE: Bridgedale Midweight Merino Performance Fit socks Winning ENTRY #microchallenge35: WALK THROUGH A TUNNEL PARTNER PRIZE: Rab Nexus Pull on Winning ENTRY #microchallenge36: STAND BENEATH A TALL STRU
Wilderness3 min read
Te Araroa, slowly
WE WERE inspired by Geoff Chapple’s book Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail, and began our walk in 2002. My wife Susan and I, now into our late seventies, began at Cape Rēinga and planned to complete the trail over a few years, a definition that stretc
Wilderness4 min read
Plans Thwarted? That's Okay
EVEN THE MOST meticulous of plans can be thwarted. Rather than sticking doggedly to one goal, part of the planning process should involve a consideration of the ‘what ifs’. This means having not only your holy grail Plan A, but also one or more conti
Wilderness4 min read
High Achievers
RICHARD ACKERLEY started young, eagerly devouring stories about veteran Kiwi mountaineers. His youthful reading sparked an ambition to test his outdoor skills, mental fortitude and stamina. Like kids in a candy shop, he and his older brother Kevin co
Wilderness3 min read
See more … ACCESSIBLE WILD COASTLINES
WHEN TRAMPERS think of wild coastlines, what usually comes first to mind are those on our most famous tracks: the nīkau-studded coast of the Heaphy Track, the great sweeping beaches of Martins and Big Bays at the end of the Hollyford Track, the famou
Wilderness1 min read
Mountain Solitude
ARTHUR’S PASS VILLAGE is widely known as an adventure location and a scenic stop on the route from coast to coast. Busy cafés and short walks attract tourists, however. Avalanche Peak is the place to be. With the highway and alpine village out of sig
Wilderness2 min read
Mt White, Hāwea Conservation Park
IT’S A JOYFUL TIME when spring days are finally upon us and longer, warmer trips in the hills become a possibility. Spring is a great time to tramp up peaks, and snow is still covering scree and rotten rock, at least in parts of the South Island moun
Wilderness2 min read
Mangatainoka Campsite, Kaweka Forest Park
Access Makahu Road, Kaweka Forest Park Grade Easy Time 2–3hr to Te Puia Lodge; 45min to campground and Mangatainoka Hot Springs Distance 9.47km to campground Total ascent 368m Topo50 Map BH37 MANGATAINOKA HOT SPRINGS is the most popular drawcard in K
Wilderness3 min read
McGregor Bivouac via Baldy, Tararua Forest Park
FROM HOLDSWORTH Campsite, take the easy Atiwhakatu Track to Atiwhakatu Hut. The track is well-groomed and levelled with bridged streams. It’s designed for families and is about 1.5 hours on cruise control to the hut, which is an inviting modern shelt
Wilderness2 min read
Mt Torlesse, Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park
Access Carpark just off SH73, before Porters Pass Grade Moderate– difficult Time 8–9hr return Distance 16.6km return Total ascent 1416m Topo50 map BW21 Further information Permission to stay at Kowai Hut can be sought from Brooksdale Station, 03 318
Wilderness6 min read
Adventures In Karst Land
The chain led my gaze down a steep, craggy gut to the abyss. Bolted into the limestone of South Twin, it begged the question: ‘Are you up to following it?’ As Wilderness roving editor Shaun Barnett and I munched on lunch, I answered out loud, “I thin
Wilderness1 min read
The Everyday Wonder Of Tramping
Everything takes on more meaning when we tramp. It might be the food, the friendships fostered, the sky’s light, the bed slept in, the birds seen and heard, the plants and trees walked past or the simple, basic act of moving. Perhaps, when outside, w
Wilderness3 min read
The sanctuary OF A HUT
It took until I tramped Te Araroa Trail for me to appreciate the diverse collection of huts dotted along New Zealand’s public tramping network. The tremendously varied geography of New Zealand is undoubtedly Te Araroa’s highlight, but the trail also
Wilderness8 min readMusic
The Soundtrack Of A Tramping Friendship
It was 1987. I was in my first year at Massey University in Palmerston North, and U2’s album The Joshua Tree was taking the world by storm. I loved the black-and-white cover photo, and the music filled our hostel. Echoing through the corridors betwee
Wilderness2 min read
Tripping The Light Fantastic
Our planet is a wondrous thing. Year after year it spins around the sun, as it has for aeons. We are intimately attuned to the waxing and waning of light, to how it energises us in the morning and puts us to sleep at night. At least, that is how it i
Wilderness3 min read
Feathered Encounters
Birds can make any tramp more memorable, especially rare or unusual ones. Many trampers will recall their first sight of a whio (blue duck) or rock wren (pīwauwau/tuke). It will stay with them long after other details of the trip have faded. Some of
Wilderness2 min read
Nature's Alarm Clock
The warbling and chiming of tūī reached my ears and my steps faltered, brought to a halt by a warm rush of familiarity. I smiled and paused for a moment, eyes closed, lost in a world of birdsong, moss-laden beech boughs, streams stained by coppery ta
Wilderness3 min read
The Great Taste Of Tramping
It's possibly the best cheeseburger I’ve ever tasted. We had just condensed two days of Te Araroa’s thru-hike into one. It was an epic 46km power push from dawn till dusk through the squelching marsh and kneedeep mud of Southland’s Longwood Forest. T
Wilderness3 min read
The Wetter The Better
“It looks like rain. You’re going to get wet,” said the elderly woman collecting her post as I hurried past towards the ridgeline of the Brynderwyns in Northland. Not long after, with a muesli bar halfway to my lips, I realised the sky’s gathering da
Wilderness2 min read
Alone Doesn't Mean Lonely
French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.” When I’m tramping alone, I consider myself to be in rather excellent company; we (me and my other personality, Susan) chat to ourselves, stop
Wilderness3 min read
What's Age Got To Do With It?
A wonderful attraction of tramping is that it’s something you can always do. Body parts willing, that is. Whatever your age, you can embrace the physicality, the friendships, the beauty and the simplicity of walking in the great outdoors. The blowing
Wilderness2 min read
Everything's An Adventure
It became clear, just two hours into our walk to Nina Hut in the Lewis Pass, that we weren’t going to make it before dark. We’d set off at midday and the track was rougher than expected, boggy and crisscrossed with tree roots – no problem for adults,
Wilderness3 min read
Nature's Healing Power
‘Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.’ This quote is often attributed to naturalist and mountaineer John Muir, and I can relate to what he says, for spending time in nature has helped me heal, build confidence and self-reliance, an
Wilderness3 min read
How To Really Notice Plants
A great joy of tramping is being amidst the iconic landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand. Flax swamps, tussock grasslands, montane beech forests and alpine cushion-fields are stunning backdrops to the most gratifying outdoor experiences. Such landscapes
Wilderness2 min read
Important Gear For Your Next Day Walk
WE ARE NEVER FAR from mountains and the sea here and both elements affect New Zealand’s weather. Many established bush walks are in or near mountains, where the weather can change from warm to cold, blue skies to mist or rain, calm to windy in a very
Wilderness1 min read
Coconut Cacao Breakfast Oats
IF YOU’VE RUN OUT of milk powder, or want a taste change, why not plan ahead and soak desiccated coconut in water overnight. Coconut milk can be delicious, especially when combined with oats. If you like your oats sweet, add some dates to the overnig
Wilderness2 min read
What's in MY PACK
The seed for Dennis Radermacher’s love for the outdoors was planted during childhood vacations in the European Alps. In his mid-20s he rekindled this passion in New Zealand, and has been exploring the backcountry ever since. Challenged now by the ind
Wilderness5 min read
Mapping Apps Part II
Features: LINZ Topo50 maps; route-recording; full offline use; DOC tracks and huts included; AR peak identification. Maps: This app displays high-resolution maps and aerial photography for New Zealand only. When zoomed out, the app shows 1:250,000 ma
Wilderness7 min readArchitecture
The Best Three-season Tents Of 2023
The number of people a tent can accommodate is indicated by the number at the end of the tent’s name – e.g. MSR Hubba Hubba 2. Most brands have a single, twoperson and threeperson version of the same tent. Two entrances and vestibules provide a more
Wilderness3 min read
The Best Daypacks Of 2023
This pack fits close and moves with the user. It has Rab’s Air Contour X carry system with adjustable back length and forward pull hip belt, TipGripper walking pole attachments, ice axe loop and expanding stretch pockets. Fabric 50% recycled 70D x 14
Wilderness3 min read
Saving The Planet By Thinking Audaciously
Ultrawilding – what is it and should we really do it? Ultrawilding is an extreme city version of rewilding. Rewilding means helping wild ecosystems return to landscapes; ultrawilding is helping wild ecosystems return to high-tech cities, so that we’r

Wilderness

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