2026
Photo: Fiona Mc Kinney
6, 13, 20 January Kia pai te wā ō pōhutukawa nui
Ka kati te whare karapu.
The clubrooms will be closed.
27 January TTC pop-up picnic / BBQ - summer tramping recollections and planning for the rest of 2026!
Food and drink : byo
03 February Ungulates reaching plague proportions Hera Cook
Mammals with hooves - deer, goats and pigs - have stripped much of New Zealand's forest understory and moved into farms, forestry plantations and suburban gardens. Why are these pest populations still not under control?
10 February Writing about the backcountry Kathy Ombler
For many years Kathy has been a freelance writer on conservation, tramping and outdoor recreation, most recently for New Zealand Wilderness, FMC's Backcountry and Forest & Bird magazines. She is a trustee of Ōtari-Wilton's Bush.
17 February A search for water on the Kahurangi tops Nina Sawicki
A love of the Kahurangi tops drew Nina back to venture across the peaks and ridges. She started this trip with an undiagnosed stress fracture of her femur and the party struggled to find water.
24 February The newest Great Walk, The Hump Ridge Track Jonty Crane
Jonty has walked The Hump Ridge Track twice and puts it in his top five tramps. The three day circuit includes epic beaches, panoramic views across the bottom of the South Island and Stewart Island, historic wooden bridges, and the remains of a forestry settlement. The accommodation is also rather nice…
Jonty is author of The Tramping Life podcast.
03 March An alpine panorama challenge Andy Buchanan
Andy’s self-imposed retirement challenge was to climb all 133 peaks visible from the Cashmere Hills and named on a panorama sketch published in 1967.
10 March Trekking in Tajikistan Jenny Cossey
Jenny took a break from bikepacking the Silk Roads and headed into the mountains to tramp and camp.
17 March Threading the needle in Kahurangi Chris Munn
Over three long, hard days four club members slogged their way across rough, untracked country from Blue Shirt Creek on the Heaphy Track to Kahurangi Lighthouse.
It was a trip they vowed never to do again.
24 March Cycling from Ship Cove to Dunedin Ross Bidmead
Unfit and unsure of their health, Ross and Frances cycled from Ship Cove to Dunedin. It proved to be a rejuvenating ride.
31 March End of the earth: the far south of South America Peter Barry
Tierra del Fuego is a wild land of mountain ranges, islands, glaciers, never-ending fjords and a myriad of lakes. The Darwin range offers both serious, remote mountaineering and scope for good tramping trips.
07 April Campaign against Ruataniwha Dam proposal Trevor Le Lievre and Gren Christie
Trevor and Gren are veterans of the campaign to stop a dam being built on a tributary of Tukituki River, now made possible under Fast Track legislation.
What is the Ruataniwha Dam, and why is it such a disaster?
14 April Sea lions, seabirds and sea sickness Andy Maloney
Andy has spent many summers with the DoC sea lion team on the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island researching sea lions and photographing the wildlife and wild landscapes. Don’t miss his tales of working in some of the world's most isolated and special islands.
Postponed 21 April Tour te Waipounamu (TTW) Darryl Carpenter
- due to the weather tonight's talk is postponed to a later date
Tour te Waipounamu, an ultra-distance (mountain) bike packing race the length of the South Island, is gaining a reputation as the toughest bike packing event in the world. Darryl competed in the 2026 event.
28 April Murchison Mountains – home of the takahē Sarah Fisher
After volunteering at Burwood takahē centre, Sarah dreamed of visiting the Murchison Mountains, the protected home of the takahē.
Her Fiordland trip had everything: a bog that tried to swallow the entire team; a circus of kea; a steep bush bash, clinging onto moss under bluffs; a wild boat ride; a climb to the summit of Mt Irene - and just one extremely lucky encounter with a takahē.
05 May Jonty’s journeys in Ladakh Jonty Crane
Jonty’s epic three-week journey through Ladakh, following remote trails to ancient monasteries and palaces, included around 40 river crossings, breathtaking (literally) mountain scenery, and an ending that didn’t quite go to plan.
Jonty is author of The Tramping Life podcast.
12 May Walking and cycling in Portugal Pete and Trish
Pete and Trish went walking between Sintra and Cascais and around Pinhao in the Duoro Valley before cycling from Porto to Santiago de Compostela on the Caminho Portugues de Costa.
17 May Taking a hike in Japan
Peter Clough, his wife Nanette and TTC member Liz Aston explored parts of the 400-year-old Nakasendo Way(approve sites) linking Tōkyō and Kyōto and did country walks on back roads of Japan, sampling cultural and historic attractions along the way.
26 May The Great Wall of China Les Molloy
Les Molloy discusses the history of the wall(s) over 2,500 years and their effectiveness as a defensive barrier with a focus on the rarely-visited Qin and Han Dynasty remnants in the remote, arid, NW provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia