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For the last few years my daughter Sarah, her fiance Sach and myself have been completing a great walk every summer. This year Sach managed to get a us a booking on the Milford track which was pretty exciting. I had thought about walking the Milford track years ago but gave up on the idea when I realized how booked up it was so I was really thrilled when Sach managed to get a booking for us in early February.We set off Te Anau on the 1st Feb with the weather outlook looking pretty gloomy …

We had originally planned to walk the Waikaremoana track in Februrary 2022 but with uncertainty over when the track would reopen after being closed in 2021, we cancelled and walked the Routeburn instead. This year we were determined to get to Waikaremoana. We had initally booked for new years weekend but had to change our booking to the 20th Jan due to clashes with work commitments. Then cyclone Hale struck causing extensive damage in the Tairawhiti region with a nother storm front due to hit on …

We were going to walk the Waikaremoana Track this February but had concerns that the track might not reopen so we cancelled and booked the Routeburn instead for the 10th to 12th Feb.  As the date approached, the West Coast was hit by a major storm front with another storm forecast just when we were about to head off. Fortunately, as we were heading off to Queenstown, the 2nd storm was being pushed further north and it looked like we would get some fine days. When we arrived in Queenstown on …

One of my favourite summer routes to climb Taranaki is East Ridge starting from the Stratford Plateau. I like this route becauseIt's quiet - not many people climb this side.Half the climb is on old lava flows, steep but great climbing with no loose scoria to climb through.You come out on the top of Sharks Tooth which provides great views to the east and of the summit and crater.The only downside is that the steep rock lava flows make it a hard descent so the normal way down when climbing east ri …

I hadn't done a sunrise climb for a few years so decided it was about time to experience the dawn from the summit of Taranaki Maugna again. I prefer to climb under a full moon when I'm doing a sunrise climb. For about a week after the full moon the moonlight is strong enough to climb by the moonlight without needing a torch.  Saturday morning was 5 days after the full moon and a perfectly clear night so I set off from home around 1:40am and arrived at the North Egmont visitors center around …