I had a free day to kill so decided I would give Motere a go. While the day was sunny it was still quite cool under the canopy. That said it was still a pleasant day for a walk in the bush. Motere is East of Taumaranui. The track starts accross farmland and then turns into a quad bike track. There are a few stream …
ZL-Sota
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 …
Te Paki is the highest of the 4 summits at the top of mainland New Zealand. We decided since we were already so far north that we should see Cape Reinga and attempt a summit. The drive from the Bay of Islands is about 2 hours so it is still a fair hike. We eyed up Hiriki ZL1/NL-082 first however the track shown on the …
While Emma caught up with friends in Kerikeri I thought I would duck out to do a quick activation of St Paul’s Rock ZL1/NL-090. Sadly becuase it was night time there are no photos so the photos here are ones found on the internet. Night time activations are tricky because the bands are totally different than day time conditions. As such 3.7 MHz was where …
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 …
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 …
Our second activation on the Monday of Queens Birthday weekend 2018 was Mount Stuart. This is a drive up summit. For this summit the cloud had dissipated and left clear views to the ranges. The air was still very fresh though and there was heavy frost in the shady. The kids enjoyed finding puddle ice and smashing it. Kyle took a wrong …
With the annual NZART conference being in Mosgeil this year, of course it was yet another perfect opportunity to activate a couple of untouched Otago Summits before we jumped on our plane and headed home. The SOTA presentation at conference was well received and hopefully it may encourage some new SOTAteers in the future. Monday morning bright and early to rendezvous with Kyle ZL2KGF and …
Gisborne’s closest and publicly accessible summit is Town Hill. For my annual training trip to Gisborne I thought I would add this one to my list. The weather looked sketchy but I figured I would risk it. Half way up dark clouds gathered on the horizon. However I still favoured pushing on – what is a little rain anyway right? Fortunately the rain left me …
Earlier this year we had made a disappointing effort to conquer this summit, however due to rain setting in we had turned back about half way. The night before had brought heavy consistent rain to the area and the track was becoming boggy underfoot, so with safety in mind we had abandoned ship. On Anzac day without the usual work obligations stopping a mid week …