Tuhua is very near one of my work’s radio sites. A fault at this site had me make plans to spend a few days at the site, repairing the fault and installing new equipment. There is no vehicle access to this radio site so access is done by helicopter. I was delivered to site Thursday afternoon and planned to be picked up again Saturday morning. …
ZL-Sota
Whakaahu (or just Kaahu as the locals call it) is a sharp summit to the East of Whakamaru and Mangikino. Due to its prominence it hosts a cell site towers as well as a SCADA repeater for the local power company – of which I am an employee. So one unassuming Saturday morning I opted to scale Whakaahu without the aid of a helicopter (which …
For our second “double double” summit, we decided to try access to Opotiki. A fellow local ham put me in touch with the land owner and he granted us permission to walk accross his land to the summit. The road is quite windy – but the walk only took about 15 minutes from the road edge. The only indication that there was a trig is …
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 …
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 …
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 …
For about a year I have been pestered by a certain youngling to do an overnight hike to a summit. Emma, having done this track when she was young herself, recommended this one as an entry level overnight hike. So on Sunday the 21st we set off to the hut with all of our overnight gear. The walk to the hut is marked as a …
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 …
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 …
Earlier this year we lost Andrew ZL3CC to a sudden and unexpected heart attack. To remember him, we decided to have a day of SOTA activity on the Saturday following his birthday. This year that fell on Saturday the 15th of September. I decided it was high time to tackle Pouakai ZL1/TN-002. I was joined by Kyle ZL2KGF who had done the summit earlier in …