Wilderness

a good rat is a trapped rat

THANKS TO my colleague Matthew, I now have a wooden box in my garden housing a rat trap. Baited with peanut butter, it’s primed to come down hard on any rat that pokes its head in.Unfortunately – and to the dismay of my daughter, who checks it first thing every morning – we have yet to catch a rat. Matt, on the other hand, has caught four. It’s not a competition.In the week since we bought the trap, inspired by Matt’s story ‘Beginning the backyard battle’ which you can find on p20, my daughter has reported on our kills. It’s always the same: “It’s empty!” (Though one day she said “Ants! There are ants in the trap!” It seems they like peanut butter, too.)In truth, I don’t expect to…

wilderness

EDITOR Alistair Hall alistair@lifestylepublishing.co.nz DEPUTY EDITOR Matthew Cattin matthew@lifestylepublishing.co.nz ART AND DESIGN Pelin Hall pelin@lifestylepublishing.co.nz ROVING EDITOR Shaun Barnett shauncbarnett@icloud.com ADVERTISING SALES Cherie Final Cherie@lifestylepublishing.co.nz PUBLISHER David Hall SUBSCRIPTIONS Andrea Cowan subscribe@lifestylepublishing.co.nz Mandy Mattison Mandy@lifestylepublishing.co.nz COLUMNISTS Pam Hutton, Sarah May Little, Maddy Bellcroft, Heather Grady, Megan Sety, Matt Winter, Mark Wilson CONTRIBUTORS George Driver, Pat Barrett, Dave Mitchell, Zhi Yuen Yap, Neil Silverwood, David Barnes, Jo Stilwell, Kathy Ombler…

letter of the month

WEED CONTROL WEBSITE NEEDED THE STORY about the hut bagging website (Walkshorts, April 2019) got me thinking about doing something similar for noxious weeds and wilding pines.I admit I have a bit of a thing about weeds in our beautiful backyard. I really don’t like them. Being a tramper for over 50 years has meant personal observation of the results of weed infestation and it’s not pretty.Recently, while on a mission to enjoy the easy tops access of Hanmer’s Jacks Pass and to knock off a few conifers while I was enjoying the exercise and view, my mind wandered to getting more people actively involved in weed control.There are now all sorts of websites where the word can be spread and progress noted. For example, there are…

your trips, your pix

Alasdair Burns and Jennifer Ross traversed the Tin Range on Rakiura/Stewart Island Taine Staples got a little muddy climbing Mt Pirongia in the Waikato Sisters Isla, Zoe and Adele Dunning overnighted at Woolshed Creek Hut, Mt Somers Lana Marquand crossed Awaroa Inlet on the Abel Tasman Coast Track Louis Brown walked the Heaphy Track barefoot with his dad Richard Martin and Eliza Anderson, with Annabel and Liam Pawson, visited Camp Creek Hut on the West Coast Andrea Coburn visited Pfeifer Bivouac, Arthur's Pass National Park Fraser and Emily Whineray enjoyed the first day of their Routeburn Track tramp Warda Bousah from France climbed Mt Taranaki Alison Walton tramped the Princess Mountains in Fiordland and found this view of Lake Poteriteri GET YOUR PHOTO PUBLISHED HERE TO RECEIVE A TUB…

age no barrier to five passes tramp

Keen tramper Susanne Brighouse, 76, walks a multi-day hike with her siblings every year (MATTHEW CATTIN) AT 76-YEARS-OLD, Aucklander Susanne Brighouse is proof that age is no barrier to experiencing the backcountry.The keen outdoorswoman – who started tramping at 52 – plans a multi-day tramp every year with her siblings, and in March completed the seven day Five Passes route in Mt Aspiring National Park.She likened the gruelling track of more than 4000m ascent to childbirth – painful at the time, but less so in hindsight.“Looking back on it, it never seems so bad – I think you forget how painful it was, and just remember the good parts. Some people just remember the bad parts, but I remember the good,” she said.It’s hard on young knees, and Brig-house…

rebuild with accessibility in mind

The Manson Nicholls Memorial Hut as seen from Lake Daniells THE MANSON NICHOLLS Memorial Hut is set to be rebuilt with an emphasis on accessibility.Located on the shore of Lake Daniell in Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve, the existing hut was completed in 1976 to commemorate three trampers who died in the area in 1974, when a landslide destroyed the Lake Daniell Fishing Club Hut.DOC works officer Cameron Jones said the new hut will be ideal for people who may not have tramped before, school groups and families, and the design will include features to improve accessibility for users of all ages.“These include having lower bench heights and basins for children, grab rails in the toilets, decks flush with hut floor level, lower heights for some of the bunks and…