Introduction

We welcome new people at all club activities.

Welcome to Tararua Tramping Club's web site. If you're interested in outdoor activities, conservation issues, or simply need some healthy exercise and want to meet some friendly people, we may have what you're looking for.

Established in 1919, TTC is the longest established tramping club in Wellington. In the new millennium our membership is over 600. We are one of some 300 outdoor recreational clubs and societies affiliated to the national body, Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand.

Although tramping is our most popular activity, there are many other ways you can enjoy yourself with the club. Have a look at our activities page for more details.

What's In a Name?

The club takes its name from the Tararua mountain range lying about 50km north of Wellington and covering 155,000 hectares.

This is a rugged area of steep sided hills covered largely in native beech forest with wind-lashed ridges of rotten rock and tussock grass rising to over 1,500 metres in places. On a fine summer's day the ridges and peaks provide great views not only of the Tararua range itself, but far beyond to Mt Taranaki in the north-west, the Wairarapa valley in the east, south to Wellington harbour and the Kaikoura range and west to Kapiti Island and the Marlborough Sounds. For much of the winter snow blankets the higher bush and the tops - an awesome place to be when the weather is kind!

On the sides of the ranges precipitous streams flow from the open tops, down through the beech forest, combining to form rivers sometimes flowing along open grassy valleys and sometimes slowing to form deep pools in narrow gorges.

The Tararua Range was New Zealand's first Forest Park. By reputation it is a beautiful, but also a potentially dangerous place. Storms sweep the Tararua tops on average 200 days a year and over 40 hunters and trampers have perished there since the early 1900s.

Tararua Range - Looking North from Bridge Peak

Tramping is the Kiwi description for an outdoor recreational activity that could be considered a mix of hiking, river crossing, bush-walking and climbing. One of our members, Tony Nolan, once described it as:

Just to clarify matters, in case you're not a Kiwi, a person who goes tramping (not hiking) is called a tramper (not hiker or a tramp!) and they carry their food, clothes and equipment in a pack (not a rucksack, not even a back-pack ... just a pack).

Organised tramping began in New Zealand with the formation in 1919 of the Tararua Tramping Club and many geographical features of the Tararua ranges bear the names of some of our earlier members.

The Tararua range is a popular area for our club trips but we run trips into almost all the significant ranges, forest parks and national parks of New Zealand. Further afield, club expeditions have gone to almost every continent of the world.

Emblem

The club emblem is a flowering Leucogenes leontopodium - more commonly known as the North Island New Zealand Edelweiss. This distinct little logo appears on our various publications, badges and on the sticker that trip leaders put in hut log books.

However, to see the real thing you'll have to get onto the tops! In the summer months it flowers in abundance and is a familiar sight to anyone who has climbed Mount Holdsworth at that time. It also makes its appearance in the Nelson ranges of the South Island.

Tararua Biscuits

Tararua biscuits, steeped in tradition, (nothing else would soak into them), are not haute cuisine and not for the feeble-jawed. They were developed by an unknown tramper many years ago, specifically to survive the rigours of being stashed in a Christmas trip pack for two weeks alongside crampons, billies, & primuses. They will generally survive well any attempted attack by 'possums, rats or other vermin. Seriously though, they are a useful item on which to base a tramping trip lunch. Spread with whatever takes your fancy. Stories of people having to use ice axes to break them should be ignored and only testify to the lack of judgement on the part of some would-be chefs ... Don't overcook them! Recipes vary, but here's one of them:

Soften the butter and mix ingredients in a large bowl, adding a little water if necessary. Roll out to 1cm thickness, cut into square biscuits and place on a lightly greased baking tray. Bake at 135°C until cooked (dry and just starting to turn golden brown).