Its not often we will re-blog a summit for Warren’s SOTA blog, though sometimes there is reason to make a little extra effort, like when April fools day rolls around and we decide that walking up 1349 Steps seems like a good idea!! When SOTA kicked off in ZL, Warren was not able to be out on a summit due to other commitments so back …
Category: Ham Radio
With thanks to Wynne ZL2ATH and Ray ZL2RAY we had an opportunity to access Colonial Knob ZL1/WL-107. I also invited Ben ZL4BEN new to SOTA to join us and work some DX SOTA. The weather was cloudy and windy so we weren’t expecting great views. However this summit had not yet been activated so it was a nice one to put in the log, and …
Work brought me to Wellington for a few days so I thought I would add some extra time in to experience some of the local summits. Boulder Hill ZL1/WL-118 was first up, on my way through Upper Hutt. Unfortunately the views were obscured by low cloud and fog so the scenic photos are limited. However the walk up was relatively easy with the cool breeze …
So we were off on another adventure, this time of the musical variety and a weekend in Wellington catching up with Friends, but of course Warren had plans that meant another summit needed to be ticked off and squeezed into our schedule. Sometimes we have to wonder where we manage to find the time for all of these hill tops, but it must be possible, …
On our last day of the long weekend we thought we would activate Kauri Mountain before heading home. This track is part of the Te Arararoa Trail, or New Zealand’s Trail. However for some reason it does not show on DoC’s file of walking tracks (ftp://public:public@ftp.doc.govt.nz/Public/GIS/KMZ_Files_For_GIS_Software/DOC_Tracks_2017_01_26.kmz). We got our info for this summit from another blog here https://nzfrenzynorth.wordpress.com/c12/ before we set out. At the carpark …
Queens Birthday is well known in New Zealand as NZART conference weekend. This year conference was held in Christchurch and it meant of course that on the Monday, Warren made sure that he had time to tick off another SOTA summit and get it into his log. We got some great views up the top looking out towards the Southern Alps with their dusting …
Out the back of the country lands between Cambridge and Matamata, lies Maungakawa Summit. Warrens selling point for today was to tell us (and just quietly i think he had himself fooled too) that the hill was not much bigger or harder than Kakepuku which we can see from home and that walk is certainly easily achievable to scale. In all fairness and to …
The launch of Zl3 on May 1st 2016 was not something that was on our list of yes we must do’s this year in terms of SOTA activation’s, however when Andrew got in touch and said he was going to be there and invited Warren to join him for a joint activation as ZL3 went live, the opportunity was too good to miss. Andrew (VK3ARR) …
Rainbow Mountain is homed in the Bay Of Plenty, not far from the geothermal wonderland of Rotorua and from its summit you get a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains and lakes. We left home today at 5.30am and set off on our hike around 7.30am. The summit track is labeled as an advanced track, although it is not overly difficult there are some …
Just to the south of Rotorua is Waipa State Mill. nestled in this forest is an area of bush that is home to Kakapiko summit. I managed to visit this summit after finishing teaching early in Rotorua. A quick check of the maps, I drove south on SH5 from Rotorua and just after the SH30 turn off is a turn to the left towards the …