Tags
Alpine, Crampons, Hauhungatahi, Ice, Leica elmarit-m 90mm, Mangatepopo Valley, Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu, Sony A7RII, Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Tongariro National Park, Zeiss Loxia 21 mm, Zeiss Loxia 35 mm
In my teens, New Zealand’s mountains were a frequent focus of the day-dreams that I sometimes used to escape the hum-drum of suburban life. This interest was fostered by tramping trips with school friends in the nearby Rimutaka and Tararua Ranges near Wellington where I grew up. Later I was to do several training weekends with the NZ Alpine Club, leading to high-country adventures in the mountains of Nelson and Canterbury, where we climbed a number of the less challenging peaks, particularly in the Travers Valley. While many of those trips were memorable, I ended up following a career that not only shifted me to the central North Island but also involved extended periods of field-work. This, coupled with a developing family, pushed high country adventures progressively out of reach and they largely disappeared out of my life for the next 30+ years. Only in the last decade have I revived my interest in exploring New Zealand’s back-country solely for the pleasure of being out there. Continue reading
