Camping gear reminder:
- tents, poles, pegs, hammer
- groundsheets
- canoes, paddles, life jackets
- body boards
- camp tables, chairs
- gas, cooker, lights, lantern
- kitchen kit
- chilly bin
- milk, butter, tomato sauce
- drinking water
Family and club camping trips to Morison Bush [1] [2]
Twice a year the Tararua Tramping Club used to visit the Wairarapa for a club, family and friends camp and get together at Morison Bush, on the first full weekend of March
It's a great trip for young families, teenage families, and club members old and young, who just want to catch up and chill out.
TTC always organises a great weekend, so come and enjoy a relaxing weekend in the sun, lazing by, swimming in, walking along, or kayaking on the Ruamahanga River. It is a self catered weekend where you need to be totally self-sufficient.
People come and go as they please (but please tell the trip leader your arrival and departure plans), some arrive Friday night, most on Saturday morning. Most return late afternoon on Sunday.
Morison Bush is a camping spot in a bend of the Ruamahanga River.
Some of the many activities are: swimming; games (cricket, volleyball); kayaking; blackberry picking (in season); walking; biking; and sometimes playing on the hay bales. Of course you have to bring the equipment with you.
There is a camp fire (conditions permitting) on which you can barbecue for dinner on Saturday night, or bring your own gas cookers, and the kids often have toasted marshmallows for dessert. Accommodation is camping. The camp site is a large flat area under Manuka trees, adjacent to a large loop on the Ruamahanga River. It's a very relaxing spot, there are no facilities, except a temporary long drop toilet which may be put in.
Personal gear reminder: Please bring, in a bag or pack, the following:
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Bring your own food (not too much)
You may also like to bring:
Family, friends, colleagues, and neighbours
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Local activities
- Martinborough(approve sites)
- Lake Ferry(approve sites)
- Putangirua Pinnacles(approve sites)
- Walls Whare(approve sites)
- Holdsworth(approve sites)
- Cape Palliser(approve sites)
- Ocean Beach
- Remutaka rail trail
- Stonehenge Aotearoa
Guidelines for kids
We have some basic guidelines for while we are there
- if you go out of sight, tell an adult where you are going and when you will be back.
- tell an adult before you swim
- you must swim and kayak where an adult can see you
- bike with helmet and shoes on
- sunscreen and sunhats must be worn
See you there. Any queries just give the trip leader a call.
To get to Morison Bush follow SH2 over the Remutaka Hill through Featherston to Tauwharenīkau. Turn right off SH2 at the Tin Hut Pub and continue to head east on to the gravel road. This takes you across to the Greytown to Martinborough road (substation on the corner). Keep going straight ahead past Bush House. Just past here the Greytown - Martinborough road turns right and Glenmorven road is on the left. There is also a sign post "Ruamahanga River Access". Follow Glenmorven road past the wool shed, down the hill and out across the river flats until you reach a gate on the stop bank. From this gate our usual campsite is in the direction of about 10.00 o'clock to just north of where the power line cross the river.
The initial proposal to alter Morrison Bush to Morison Bush was received from Mr. George Holmes, a Wellington resident that annually submits spelling corrections to the NZGB. Evidence was provided to the NZGB supporting his contention that this locality was named after Hugh Morison (1784 ‑ 1872), who was a pioneer settler of the Wairarapa district and who occupied a property on the west bank of the Ruamahanga River from c1846 until his death in 1872. Mr Holmes provided copies of early electoral rolls, newspaper obituaries, cemetery records, extracts from reference books (Maori Place Names by Johannes C Andersen; The Reed Dictionary of New Zealand Place Names; The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography; Wairarapa An Historical Excursion by A G Bagnall; Greytown Borough Jubilee Souvenir Booklet; Early New Zealand Families), information from the Alexander Turnbull Library, the will of Hugh Morison, a death certificate for Duncan Morison (son of Hugh Morison), and a death certificate for Hugh Morison. The majority of early official maps and survey plans had shown the spelling as Morrisons Bush.
At its meeting on 12 September 2005, the NZGB agreed to accept the spelling correction as an 'intention to assign', seeking any objections to this proposal from the public over a 3 month period (closing 20 January 2006). No objections were received and the alteration was notified in the New Zealand Gazette on 22 June 2006.
Mr Holmes also made a submission proposal to correct the spelling of Morrison Hill to Morison Hill or Hakeke Hill or Hakeke/Morison Hill, being after the same Morison. At its meeting on 12 September 2005, the NZGB deferred its decision on this proposal to give consideration to the possible original Maori name for this feature, Hakeke. An action arising from the meeting was for Te Puni Kokiri ‑ Ministry of Maori Development to find out more information on Hakeke and whether the local tangata whenua wish to have it localised to the hill or whether it should apply to a wider area. At its meeting of 8 November 2006, the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (the Board) confirmed its earlier decisions to accept Morrison Hill to Morison Hill, and notified the alteration in the New Zealand Gazette on 18 January 2007.
- Decisions of The New Zealand Geographic Board 22 June 2006
- Notice of Final Decisions to Assign or Alter Place Names 22 June 2006
- Morison, Hugh, 1790?-1872