Construction of the printed guide.

• document originally typed in Word.
• Times New Roman font was used for text and main headings,
• Arial was used for trip headings, and
• MS Sans serif was used for for comments.

In 'trip gradings', the letter Q is added in front of the grading, to aid replacement by their pictographs. e.g. QFG , QOT , and QBN .

Sample of Document Styles used in original book.

The original fonts are not used in the wiki.

The lower Mangahao Gorge presents a special hazard, as the spillway gates on the reservoirs may dump up to 3 metres of water without warning.

The spur from below Twins was the traditional approach to this trip, and the campsites near the scrub/forest interface in the Ruamahanga W headwaters are about 8 hours from Blackwater Junction.

Women are on average better insulated than men, and fit young men are less well insulated again, as are older people. Everyone needs special watching for the effects of hypothermia.

Only two gorge trips (21.4 and 21.6) are graded FG. It is important that family groups should all be confident swimmers, wetsuit-equipped and with a 

>>note<<
Coming S along the Main Range from Pukematawai, the Te Matawai Hut turn-off is 2 minutes from the summit. Less than 10 minutes South from the summit, a branch spur leads straight ahead to provide good access to the Park headwaters. If this is not 
>><<

>>note<<
Pukematawai is a European-generated Māori name meaning 'hill at the head of the waters'. This refers to the Ōtaki, Mangahao, and Waiohine, all of which originate here. If one extends the vicinity slightly to include Arete and flanks of both peaks then you pick 
>><<

! 20 MAJOR CROSSINGS

!! Blackwater Junction vicinity 

!!! 21.10 Lower Mangahao

!!!! Old Smith Shelter and swimming hole 

[[#kaitokecarpark-smithshelter]]
!!! 10.1 Kaitoke carpark to Smith Shelter [[#sec10.1]]

See [[#kaitokecarpark-smithshelter|Kaitoke carpark to Smith Shelter]] or [[TauwharenīkauValley#smithcreekwaterfall|Smith Creek Waterfall]]

General targets of book format

• There are no photos so as to keep the cost down. Similarly for colour. [Apart from cover.]
• The paper should not stick together when wet. [This almost militates against photos as well.]
• The 'gathers' [i.e. the group of leaves grouped together before binding] should be sewn together. NOT the glued construction of a 'perfect binding'!
• The free corners of the guide should be chamfered or rounded so as to minimise damage when in the pack.
• The outer cover should be waterproof/plastic coated.
• Make your own index - don't rely on the publisher.
• Identify the photos used on the cover.
• In creating the guide, I went by myself mainly, and talked into a tape recorder - as if to a companion beside me. And in mainly fine weather. This gave a consistent travel standard. Then typed up the text.
• For my layout, I eventually decided upon the "round the ranges in a clockwise direction";
  • then "up a valley by track group node";
  • then at each track group node "deal with them in a clockwise order".
• Try and minimise duplicate descriptions.
  • Consequent upon this is that, e.g. the 'Northern Crossing', the description will start at Pukematawai Hut and finish on top of Mitre. The portion, 'up to Pukematawai Hut', will be dealt with in the Ōhau Valley section, and the section 'beyond Mitre', will be dealt with in the Waingawa Valley section.
• I have deleted the 'Escape Routes' section that were in edition 1, and incorporated that material in the main body of text.
• I have applied strikethrough to all map references, and phone numbers. And added notes for the new editor throughout the text. I have organised the following as if for pages, but you’ll probably produce it as a ‘run on’ document. As an interweb document, someone competent will have to moderate suggested corrections or additions.
• But Hey this is your document now.

Status

Merv Rodgers has generously donated the text of Tararua Footprints to the Tararua Tramping Club under a Creative Commons Licence.
This was supplied as the original Word document with some amendments.

Currently the conversion to a website is completed apart from minor details. The following tasks were undertaken to make the work available. The guide is now open for editing and improvement with the intention of it being maintained by club members and the wider tramping community as the definitive Tararua Ranges route guide.

• create table of contents with basic structure of the guide (from original chapters) ✓
• create look and feel based on original guide using CSS (see above) ✓
  • revisit headings style (colour, size, font, style) ✓
• make pages printable ✓
• load content using copy and paste to website with simple formatting ✓
  • introduction ✓
  • tararua overview ✓
  • appendices ✓
  • quotations ✓
  • glossary ✓
  • hut index ✓
  • guide sections ✓
• review all [notes to ed] and update ✓ - work in progress as part of ongoing maintenance and updates
• improve sidebar layout (include high level contents) ✓
• improve page layout/template (top menu bar)
• add Topo50 grid reference to the NZMS260 grid references ✓ (done using the NZ map reference converter, see also the online coordinate conversion service) ✓
• add map illustrations from Topo50 maps
• add anchors/bookmarks for all section headings ✓
  • note anchor (bookmark) conventions: #from-destination and #sec9.99, always lower case ✓
• replace cross-references to sections(e.g. see 13.4) and sections with hyper links to bookmarks (e.g. See Kapakapanui from Maymorn Junction) ✓
• then remove section numbering (note sure we want to do this after all, at least not in the short term?)
• add links to DoC huts and other referenced points of interest ✓
• add feedback page ✓
• add index
• add hut index ✓
• new graphics for trip difficulty ✓
• check pages print OK ✓

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.