Last year I wrote about the upcoming publication of a new Tramping History book, researched and authored by Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean.
The book finally had its launch last week, and is now available. I’m waiting for my copy (all 2.5kg of it) to arrive, and looking forward to browsing through it.
Meanwhile, if you’re interested, check out Kim Hill’s radio interview with the authors last Saturday morning, or the book’s Facebook page.
It’s great to see that Kevin and Jamie will be on-screen again soon, with Intrepid New Zealand: effectively the third season of what was previously First Crossings. The facebook page also has up-to-date info.
In previous seasons of First Crossings, Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald have re-enacted many of the significant early adventurers’ expeditions into New Zealand’s back-country and other places. At times I’ve wished they’d take a step back from the characters and been clearer to viewers during the show about their re-enactments, but it’s still a great show to watch. Despite that fault (in my eyes), I find the show much less patronising than some others which purport to represent the outdoor environment.
Presently, for people in New Zealand, all 8 episodes of last year’s season two are still available for viewing, via TVNZ Ondemand. [Update 1-Oct-2014: Intrepid NZ screens Wednesday nights on TV1, starting tonight.]
In the upcoming episodes of Intrepid New Zealand, I’ve been especially looking forward to their re-enactment of the Sutch Search in the Tararua Range, which I researched from old newspaper clippings and wrote about several years ago (part 1). Also see part 2 and part 3.
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If you haven’t heard, the Walking Access Commission (WAC) is requesting nominations for its 2014 Walking Access Awards. If you have any ideas for individuals, organisations or other entities to nominate, head over here and follow the instructions. Nominations close on 18th July.
The Walking Access Commission was formed with the Walking Access Act of 2008. Its main role is to provide leadership and coordination for negotiating (for example) access across private land and, where possible, aiming to facilitate trusting relationships between people on both sides. One of the coolest and easiest-to-appreciate things which has come out of the Walking Access Commission so far, however, has been the Walking Access Mapping System, also known as the WAMS.
In its early days, the WAC asked recreationalists what the most useful things were that it could do to help people access public spaces. A popular response was that it was very difficult to find out where we’re actually allowed to go, especially in the midst of private land that often surrounds the conservation estate. If you didn’t already know for some reason that there was meant to be public access in a certain place, it wouldn’t always be obvious to try and find out. In 2009, the responses caused the Walking Access Commission to commission creation of the WAMS as one of its first tasks.
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If you’re like me and think the Tararua Range is awesome, nod your head towards Maori Television this Thursday 3rd October, at 7.30pm (alternatively 10.30pm on Friday), for the third episode of the network’s relatively new series, Survive Aotearoa.
In each episode of Survive Aotearoa, Barrie Rice and Chris Kumeroa act out a possible scenario in New Zealand’s outdoors, pull apart the situation for analysis, and calmly consider and convey advice on how to survive. This Thursday, the scenario will have them acting as lost, injured trampers in the middle of the Tararua.
I’ve personally found what I’ve seen of the first two episodes to be fascinating. The show’s been going far beyond simplified advice (like “take a PLB and wait for rescue”) to convey rich information about survival techniques. In a sea of sensationalist broadcasting, it’s a credit to the ability of Maori Television to produce quality and useful programming.
Both episodes which have so far screened can presently be viewed online.
There’s an interesting article on the NZ Alpine Team blog. It’s courtesy of Rose Pearson (thanks!), one of two people who suffered an accident near Zit Saddle, within 1 km of Top Kokatahi Hut, late last month. The pair were ultimately located and rescued after eventually being reported overdue. This followed several days and nights of struggling to survive, with serious injuries, in the open, and with luck on their side as far as weather was concerned.
Emphasis is my own:
So what were our mistakes? We didn’t turn around when we reached the icy south side of Zit’s Saddle, which had significantly more snow that the northern side. At this point we could have still extracted ourselves. The second mistake is my own. I began rushing and didn’t act appropriately given the danger of a fall.
Finally, should we have had a PLB? In our case yes. I had just spent $700 on one. I purposely bought the smallest model so it wouldn’t matter if I always carried it. Why didn’t I carry it? I bought it two weeks prior for mountaineering or solo trips. I did not consider user error, or the possibility that all party members could be immobilised. I also didn’t consider the difference in time between rescue due to being overdue versus rescue as a result of PLB activation. In our case, Nelson’s broken and dislocated wrist became much worse as it began healing crooked and he suffered from frostbite as a result of our five days out.
I also didn’t consider that SAR might act differently as I owned a PLB. They knew I had a PLB and I was told by both the West Coast Police and West Coast SAR that they would have come a day earlier if I didn’t own a PLB. They couldn’t understand why I didn’t activate it.
It’s normal to make mistakes, and hopefully those who do can learn things as a consequence. Unfortunately, for those who haven’t yet made mistakes, there are too few reflective accounts from others in public, and this can obscure some of the most useful learning insight for others. It’s for understandable reasons, but it also means that when someone manages to write about their experiences so that others can learn, it’s valuable material.
The article’s definitely worth a read. It contains some very good, and insightful reflections of the immediate consequences, and on what went wrong, both as individual mistakes and what combined to make a risky situation much more critical.
There are several good-looking books on my reading list right now. To add to it, last week I attended a seminar, by Chris Maclean and Shaun Barnett, who spoke about their upcoming book titled Tramping, a New Zealand History. The book received a grant from the Ministry of Culture & Heritage, who hosted this seminar.
The new book is still in its draft stages, but it looks as if it’ll be a good and interesting read once it’s published. You can listen to a podcast of the seminar via the New Zealand History Online website, or here’s a more specific link. The authors have also created a Facebook page to help collate material and discussion of the book.
Both authors are well accomplished. Chris Maclean has authored a variety of histories, particularly based around the Wellington region. He’s probably best known in tramping circles for his detailed history of the Tararua Range, titled Tararua: The Story of a Mountain Range, first published in 1991 and which continues to pop up on Trademe on occasion, but more recently he authored an historic biography—Stag Spooner: Wild man from the bush. Shaun Barnett has a collection of well-authored titles, including co-authoring the recent Shelter From The Storm. He’s also well known for his scenic photography, and for activities such as editing of Wilderness Magazine (formerly) and the Federated Mountain Clubs Bulletin,
Very quickly, it’s great to see that, as of today, the Met Service is providing more comprehensive mountain forecasts under its commercial contract with the Department of Conservation. Jacqui Bridges has helpfully detailed the changes in a post on the MetService Blog.
Also, and I mention this in particular because I think the Tararuas are so awesome, Tararua Forest Park now has its own mountain forecast. Apparently there’s rain coming.
Federated Mountain Clubs, in its October newsletter [PDF], notes the appearance of fake Department of Conservation signs around huts at the Otago/Southland end of the country. Some have political undertones and some just prompting cheap laughs. I’m not aware of any appearing elsewhere, but FMC is keen to know if you’ve spotted any.
Josh Gale of Wilderness Magazine has since picked up the story, suggesting that at least one source of these signs is strongly suspected.
DoC comes under recurring criticism for its proliferation of signs in the back-country (more on some of the history here). In this light, I think the most amusing aspect of this whole story for me, so far, has been a particular quote of Department of Conservation Senior Media Advisor, Herb Christophers, who was reported in Wilderness to have said:
“Most people wouldn’t even read the thing because they’d think it’s just another DOC sign.”
To be fair to Herb Christophers, Josh points out that he was freestyling at the time of the interview, and also said “I’m not too worried about it, it’s just some funny way people like to express themselves”. I just think it’s a gem of a snippet to come from one of the senior people involved with DoC communications. 🙂
Two months ago I wrote about Te Araroa (The Long Pathway), and it seems apt to point out that there’s now a set of forums which attempts to build a community of people wanting to discuss walking of the route. I heard about it during a typically tangenting discussion on the NZ Tramper website, which caused me consider more clearly what Te Araroa is for me.
I guess it’s possible to perceive that Te Araroa is (or should be) a top-down consistently-designed, clearly-marked and well-managed walking track. Perhaps this will be the case some day with sufficient motivation throughout its length, but presently it’s a bottom-up effort to link together a massive collection of smaller walk-ways. Much of Te Araroa already existed, but the project (approaching 20+ years of effort) ensures that individual routes and walkways are connected and defined as part of the network. In places where there’s been no reasonably direct or useful connection between sections, access has been negotiated or built to complete the continuity.
Being a bottom-up creation rather than a top-down creation, Te Araroa is not automatically a sparkly, consistent and necessarily easy-to-locate walkway for the entire length, despite ongoing efforts to improve it. What it does mean, however, is it’s actually possible to walk legally between any two places along the route with the exception of occasional bodies of water. At no place is it necessary to stop and get a bus, or drive a car between two points.
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For people who, like me, are interested in recreational walking areas in the vicinity of Wellington and the Manawatu, I noticed this morning that Matty T of the Wellington Region Cycleways blog, has an interesting photo heavy post which shows off the Levin to Palmerston North section of the Te Araroa trail.
Matty walked the route in reverse from how it’s presented on the Te Araroa website, so it’s necessary to sort-of read each of the following pages in reverse, but the sections covered from south to north were (I think): The Arapaepae Lookout Track, The Mangahao-Makahika Track, Burttons Track and Fitzherbert Bridge to Burttons Track.
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