Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: SOTA

Pukepoto

This summit is one that I have access to through work – so one Saturday we decided to do a site inspection – with the portable radio gear of course. Pukepoto is a drive up – if you have permission and a key as one of the gates nearer the top is locked. It does suffer a bit of QRM from the microwave / pager …

Mount Te Aroha

This summit has been on my to do list almost from the outset. But I have feared it – on the map it shows 900 m of straight up – not a friendly walk. Well I was at 99 unique summits and had a day to myself so thought I would knock the bastard off to quote another famous climber. 4 hours of uphill climb …

Rimutaka ZL1/WL-054

While on a course in Wellington I had the chance to catch this summit just North of Upper Hutt. Rimutaka summit looks over the high point of the Rimutaka road and is a short sharp walk up to the trig. However the day I chose was very windy – so the shack was a little down from the true summit in some natural shelter. With …

Maungatawhiri ZL1/WK-173

For the Summit to summit event we chose Maungatawhiri. With a long weekend we planned to stay in Pauanui so this looked to be an easy one to accommodate a descent in darkness. We grabbed fish and chips from Whitianga and ascended the summit for dinner in the bush. The track up is 4WD only – and if wet is probably quad bike only. Dont …

Rocky Range ZL1/HB-112

In the Hawkes Bay for more teaching, I have to look harder now for a new summit to do that will not involve an expedition to achieve. Rocky Range, on Ridgemount road was one I had been looking at for a while. A trip to the summits location to try and find a land owner to get permission from was first on the list. Although …

The Desert Road

We decided to tackle ZL1/MW-034 which is on the eastern side of the desert road. Not knowing what we would find we brought all our winter gear to keep warm however the day turned out to be a bright clear day. The puddles were ice but there was no snow on the ground. All the way up we were treated to magnificent views of Ruapehu …

Waipu Forrest Summit

The weather forecast this weekend looked horrible for New Zealand Auckland south, so we decided to make a weekend of it up North. For the first summit we decided to attempt ZL1/NL-039. This is an unnamed summit on the Eastern end of the Brynderwyn ranges. I worked Soren ZL1SKL from here a few months earlier while on ZL1/AK-005 Tamahunga so I was keen to get …

Mount Cameron

Back in Hawkes Bay chasing hills…..The end of the electrical teaching season left us with a free Saturday afternoon to fill and fill it we did.    After a bit of door knocking to gain permission to enter private farm land, it was up another summit we ventured.    Mount Cameron Summit is shared by two land owners on either side.   We had success with the 2nd …