Bill’s Playground 24/03/2012
 Over the ponga and kauri trees, beyond the Lower Nihotupu Reservoir you can see the settlement of Parau - where Bill Beveridge was born. Bill had an adventurous childhood. He would ride his horse to the Upper Huia Dam to go hunting or to Paratutai Wharf to go fishing. His first solo pig hunt was at the age of ten. when he was just big enough to fire a single barrel shotgun without being knocked off his feet. Local knowledge, common sense and bushman’s skills made Bill the ideal park ranger, and the go to man when there was trouble. Bill undertook everyday tasks, such as park and track maintenance and possum control as well as the tough jobs...fighting bush fires and finding lost trampers. PS We did bits of the Hillary trail on this tramp. Did you notice in Wilderness mag how they panned the trail? See under the heading “The Pilloried Trail” It seems that some walkers haven’t enjoyed the mud, describing the Hamilton track thus’ “I remembered the fifth circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno in which the fallen fight one another for all eternity while drowning repeatedly in muddy waters. By the time we emerged from this hell our legs were coated and we were exhausted” Add Comment News from the Committee 24/03/2012
 Club cards – the club has producing business cards which we can use to promote ourselves – thanks to Pierre for this. Massimo café has already expressed an interest in having some on hand for those who ask about the big yellow bus outside! Maps of Waitakeres. New maps are being ordered and will be available at the next social meeting FMC Safety in the Mountains FMC has updated these booklets and they also will be available at the next social. Highly recommended for all trampers, especially new ones, this is an invaluable guide to safe tramping practices. New bus driver. Alan Spencer drove his first trip recently and did a great job. Thanks, Alan. New members Welcome back to Peter and Beryl Utting. FMC Photo Competition – Entries are due to FMC by 16 April. Ian agreed to co-ordinate. 3 members entered last year. Committee Minutes will be sent out via email as a trial – as a way of keeping you up to date with developments. Projector – needs to be replaced as it is not economic to repair the old one. Website Traffic – December and January have been the busiest months ever with traffic up 50%. The proportion of new visitors has grown from 50% to 65%. Guidelines for Lost Trip Parties/Members – the loss of one person from a group on a recent trip highlighted that there are no guidelines for trip organisers and leaders about what to do when a trip member or party goes missing or is overdue. Helen will write up some recommendations. Club Open Day – A Sunday trip on the Okura walkway in May will be promoted to help build interest in the club. See What's On for details.  Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated another book to the club library. If the quest for Mount Everest began as a grand imperial gesture, as redemption for an empire of explorers that had lost the race to the Poles, it ended as a mission of regeneration for a country and a people bled white by war. Of the twenty-six British climbers who, on three expeditions (1921-24), walked 400 miles off the map to find and assault the highest mountain on Earth, twenty had seen the worst of the fighting. Six had been severely wounded, two others nearly killed by disease at the Front, one hospitalized twice with shell shock. Three as army surgeons dealt for the duration with the agonies of the dying. Two lost brothers, killed in action. All had endured the slaughter, the coughing of the guns, the bones and barbed wire, the white faces of the dead. In a monumental work of history and adventure, ten years in the writing, Wade Davis asks not whether George Mallory was the first to reach the summit of Everest, but rather why he kept on climbing on that fateful day. His answer lies in a single phrase uttered by one of the survivors as they retreated from the mountain: 'The price of life is death'.Mallory walked on because for him, as for all of his generation, death was but 'a frail barrier that men crossed, smiling and gallant, every day'. As climbers they accepted a degree of risk unimaginable before the war. They were not cavalier, but death was no stranger. They had seen so much that it had no hold on them. What mattered was how one lived, the moments of being alive. For all of them Everest had become an exalted radiance, a sentinel in the sky, a symbol of hope in a world gone mad. Thank God Your Here! 09/02/2012
 In 1993, long term NSTC member Dora Couwenberg was tramping with the club in the Waitakeres when she slipped and fell over a cliff. By shear luck, Carl Dickinson of the South Auckland tramping club Toi-Toi Trekkers saw Dora go over the edge and went after her. Carl found Dora seriously injured and face down in a creek. Carl pulled Dora from the water and ended up flying with her by helicopter to hospital. Dora made a full recovery and still tramps with the club most Sundays. Dora and Carl met each other by chance for the first time since the accident when their paths crossed on a track in the Waitakeres at the end of January. FMC January 2012 Newsletter 01/02/2012
 The Federation of Mountain Clubs January Newsletter is now available here. Next Newsletter 01/02/2012
Thanks to all the contributors to the newsletter. Remember that this year newsletters will be bi-monthly so the next one will be the April/ May one with a deadline of 18th March. Please keep contributions coming in …. Trish Clean your shoes to save our kauri 01/02/2012
Kauri forest is a unique part of the Upper North Island forest and majestic trees tower above the canopy and give life to a distinctive ecosystem. However, they also survive in fragments from a history of logging and now face another threat from kauri dieback disease, a soil-borne disease killing kauri trees in Auckland and Northland. “The disease is serious, but the message is simple,” says Dr Nick Waipara from Auckland Council Biosecurity. “This disease is soil-borne and can be spread by people on shoes and equipment. Everyone working in or visiting kauri forest should make sure their footwear and equipment is clean of soil when they arrive at kauri forest and clean it again when they leave,” he says. “This is the most important message right now while we research treatment options.” In Auckland, it has been confirmed in the Hunua Ranges, the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, council land in West Auckland and Awhitu Peninsula, Department of Conservation reserves at Okura, Albany, Pakiri and Great Barrier Island and private land in many areas of Auckland including Logues Bush and Pakiri in North Auckland. It is also in Northland, including Trounson Kauri Park and Waipoua Forest – home of the iconic Tane Mahuta. The kauri dieback programme partners are: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Department of Conservation, Auckland Council, Northland Regional Council, Waikato Regional Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and iwi. Visit www.kauridieback.co.nz for more information.  Some members of the club took time to help Sustainable Coastlines clean up the coastline of Rangitoto island on Tues 6th December. If you want to help out next year keep an eye on this web page www.sustainablecoastlines.org.nz for clean ups in various locations. Below is some information about the event. Next clean-up is the North Shore one 22-24th March. See the web page or contact by phone on 09 948 8454 or email Event Director Sam Judd on sam@sustainablecoastlines.org On Tuesday 6 December, 1,200 fabulous volunteers joined us to clean-up the beautiful and unique coastlines of Auckland’s Rangitoto Island. Working as teams we removed 2.66 tonnes of rubbish from the shores of this iconic but heavily littered spot: an amazing effort and unfortunately an even heavier load than we collected with the same number of volunteers just one year ago. What we found after sorting through the rubbish is more than a little troubling. With nearly 140,000 pieces of rubbish removed from the same stretch of coast where over 200,000 pieces were picked-up only one year ago, it is clear that a constant stream of rubbish floats across from the city to litter these uninhabited shores. Huge counts of single-use plastic packaging were removed for the second year running, with plastic bags, food wrappers, bottle caps and lids, polystyrene packaging and drinking straws found in large numbers. On a positive note, feedback from schools has been excellent and 1,200 people have learned about the issue hands-on. Rangitoto Island is a special place for North Shore Tramping Club. Our first tramp ever was held there. Each year we go back there for a trip In 1993 we donated this seat which you can see on the Summit track to commemorate our links with the island and for the enjoyment of the public. Gear for sale 01/02/2012
Phone Chris Markham : 027 476 9209
New Library Books 01/02/2012
 A Walking Guide to Te Aroha – Geoff Chapple Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated two books to the clubs library. 133 walks from Cape Reinga to Bluff including day walks and long tramps. An updated guide to Te Araroa, our national walkway system, which now stretches more or less continuously the length of the country. Geoff Chapple, who has been the driving force in Te Araroa since he outlined the idea in a newspaper article in 1994, gives a brief history of how that dream has been transformed into a reality. But the main emphasis is on the walkway itself, weaving its way through six cities and 60 towns, its progress illustrated in a series of excellent maps, lots of photos and descriptions of the various sections by Chapple himself (he has personally walked the lot, most more than once). It's an inspirational work, both for the story of how a small band of enthusiasts managed to create such a wonderful national asset, and for the details of all those tracks out there waiting for people to enjoy what they have to offer.  Himalayan Hospitals – Sir Edmund Hillary’s Legacy: Michael Gill Sir Edmund Hillary became famous by being the first, with Tenzing Norgay, to climb Mt Everest in 1953. Though this was clearly a remarkable feat, Sir Edmund came to be regarded by many as a great man for the way he chose to use his fame, which was to dedicate much of the rest of his life to building schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people of Nepal. The Legacy of Everest tells the remarkable story of the two hospitals he built; Khunde Hospital in 1966 in the Khumbu region at the foot of Mt Everest, and Phaplu Hospital in 1975 in the Solu Valley. These hospitals were staffed by volunteer Doctors and their partners from New Zealand and Canada until they were eventually handed over to Sherpa Doctors. Using letters written by these volunteers, and many subsequent interviews Michael Gill, a Doctor himself who worked with Sir Edmund from the beginning on these projects, has pieced together this fascinating history of a unique aid project. It has many threads: an honest and fresh insight into the life of Sir Edmund Hillary, a rich and real picture of Sherpa culture, and the transformative experiences of the volunteers, whose lives were often completely changed by their time working in the Sherpa communities. Moving, insightful and ultimately inspirational, The Legacy of Everest is a wonderful book, that has at its heart the integrity and humility of Sir Edmund Hillary, one of New Zealand's true heroes. (Make sure you read this book – it’s great especially if you have been to Nepal, or intend going there. Trish ) |
