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 …
Category: ZL-Sota
General information about ZL-Sota
Somewhere out between Te Kuiti and Taupo on DoC land, Pureora Summit calls itself home. Getting to the base car park was easy driving (metaled road) and the tramp to the summit was gentle for the most part, although as you near the summit there are a lot of steps. Conditions were perfect for a tramp until we neared the summit and light drizzle came …
Today’s adventuring saw Warren dabbling his SOTA feet on the hills and air-waves of Taihape. This morning we left home at 4.30am to meet up with other HAM’s for a visit to Irirangi to see the workings of the army radio operations sites. There was a good turn out for this event and after lunch at the Waiouru Army Museum Cafe we high tailed it …
This morning we set off from home at the unsavory hour of 5.15am. That meant an even more unsavory wake up of 4.30am, in order to reach Tauhara at not long after 7am. The day was perfect for tramping – overcast and warm but cool at the same time. The worst part of the tramp was in fact the beginning, the part that goes …
Due to arrival time at the summit, the only photo taken from this trip can be seen in the cover photo for this entry. Light faded much quicker than we had anticipated and we arrived about half an hour over our expected time, in part due to missing the true summit and having to backtrack about 1km. This was a drive to summit with no …
Today’s adventure had two purposes. Ticking off another SOTA activation and amateur repeater maintenance at the Maroanui site. Last year we had ventured to the site and found the 675 repeater needed proper filtering and so that worked in well with managing to get on the air once again for SOTA. We left home mid morning and made the 1.5hr drive to the site, where …
After another weekend in Hawkes Bay, this time for the annual Bay MC, One Night Stand Motorbike Rally with Warren and a couple of his friends working the sound station for the event, we had plans for an attempt to tick off a summit on our way homeward bound on Sunday afternoon. At first it seemed that the powers that be were not going to …
Our last summit ended with a well deserved swim at Pauanui Beach before packing up and making the short drive from Pauanui to Tairua for an earlyish dinner to restock our energy levels and head up to Paku Hill and claim another summit in the activation log. Paku Hill stands high above Tairua and you can follow the road up a good chunk of the …
When you think Pauanui, you think sandy beaches and surfers, swimming and relaxation. Though as Warren had discovered before joining my family in Whangamata for the last week of the school holidays, Pauanui is also home to Mount Pauanui and that Mountain is another SOTA Summit, one we intended to tick off while in the area. One day out of 4 were set aside for …
Kahuranaki – home of the 670 repeater site is probably our last Hawkes Bay SOTA summit for this trip as we head back to home on Thursday and back to the realities of life as we know it. We arrived at the summit as the sun was starting to go down and Warren set up at speed to get himself on the air before it …