Background
The North Shore Tramping Club has a
membership representing a broad cross section of age groups. The standard of tramping done
by the club is representative of the areas we have access to. Most of the day trips will
focus on the area surrounding Auckland City (ie Waitakere Ranges, Hunua Ranges) with
longer day trips going to areas further afield (eg: Waikato area, Coromandel Ranges,
Northland). Opportunity is also taken for coastal walks and family days to local reserves.
Every attempt is made to arrange trips further afield around NZ and the longer public
holidays usually mean a trip to some great tramping areas.
The social side is not forgotten and a
variety of functions is usually on the cards.
We are not averse to the odd Wine trail, 10 pin bowling night, etc.
Some of our aims
To encourage on the North Shore of
Auckland the interests of Tramping, Skiing, Mountaineering, Caving and associated
activities.
To foster an interest in the native flora & fauna and general outdoors of New
Zealand.
To organise trips and activities for members to experience and enjoy the great NZ
outdoors.
We are affiliated with the Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ (FMC).
NSTC is a non-profit making club by intention. Any funds collected through activities of
the club are generally for the purpose of providing for trip costs (transport, gear,
food provision, etc), newsletters, affiliation fees, etc.
Activities
Trips are the core activity of the club.
Usually there is a Sunday day trip most of the year along with a number of overnight
weekend trips. The big trip of the year tends to be the Christmas trip which is often
spent in the South Island and Easter gives an opportunity to wander further around the
North Island.
Day Trips:
Usually involves c. 5~7 hrs tramping
on average and are self catering (ie: don't forget your lunch and something to drink!) - a
day pack is usually sufficient to carry the necessities for the day.
Week-end Trips:
Week-end trips are normally Full Pack
jobs and again involve c. 5~7 hrs tramping although longer days are not entirely unknown
on some trips!( (author at this point is rolling about on the floor laughing hysterically
at some fond memories).
For the weekend/overnight trips we normally split into groups of approximately equal
fitness and go and DO it! Each group typically will take a share of the commonly catered
food & gear (tents, billies, bunsen's, etc).
The club bus features hugely in most of our trips.
Easter & Christmas Trips:
These trips give the opportunity
for some substantial tramps particularly in the case of the Christmas trip. A typical trip
may be 4~5 days with longer durations in some areas. Typically Easter will provide a trip
further down the North Island to area's such as
Kaweka's,Ruahines,Egmont/Taranaki,Tongariro whilst Christmas generally ends up in the
South Island.
How it all began
(taken from the Archives).
In 1968, the East
Coast Bays Lions Club gazed around the North Shore and decided the teenagers needed to be
introduced to a sport or hobby which would be inexpensive (todays gear freak shops
obviously didn't exist - webslave) and give them plenty to do instead of always hanging
around those street corners. After much thinking they came up with the idea of a Tramping
Club as being ideal for their problem, so they inserted a series of advertisements in the
North Shore Advertiser asking for all who were interested in forming a hiking and tramping
club to come along to the Scout Hall in Takapuna at 8 pm on a cold night in June. About
four Lions club members arrived that evening and, as they told us later, wondered if they
would be the only ones to turn up. They were immensely surprised when seventy-eight people
appeared, and the Club was off! A steering committee was appointed (almost all to
later become members of the Club's first committee). Our inaugural President, Graham
Macgregor, was at that time vice-president of the A.T.C. (Auckland Tramping Club).
His vast tramping knowledge and know-how on tramping club procedures was our salvation as
the rest of us didn't know too much.
Our membership the first year was quite
high, mainly owing to the fact that the two trips prior to becoming a member were not
mandatory until some months later.
In 1970 a General Meeting was held, and
members unanimously inaugurated a Debenture Scheme to allow us to purchase larger Club
assets, the first one in mind being a Club bus, costing at that stage about $9000. In 1971
we were offered the C.T.C. (Catholic Tramping Club) bus for $2800 and we were very pleased
to purchase this, feeling the C.T.C. would be quite correct when they said it would allow
us to run cheap trips, allow us weekend trips and engender a strong Club spirit. The
C.T.C. were of great help to us at this stage and it was largely their persuasion and help
that got our Debenture Scheme going.
By the way, when the bus arrived we
looked it over with various misgivings on how uncomfortable it would be for long trips. In
fact, could you believe it, we went away on our first weekend trip with it set up as for
day trips and changed it at Te Aroha for the night. All because we thought it would be too
uncomfortable to travel with it as a sleeper!
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