Friday, 16 October 2015

Weekly Walking Groups Growing in Numbers

What's driving the growth of walking groups? Intrigued by the increasing numbers in my group, I interviewed a cross-section of walking and tramping group members for an article in the most recent Wilderness magazine (October 2015) .  I hope the article inspires people to find a walking group that fits their style and join in.


The Wellington Regional Tramping Group - Forest and Bird has provided me with fantastic experiences over the last 6 years, taking me to parts of the region I hadn't explored before. Many of my blogs are about things I've seen or learned on various walks and tramps around the region and also further afield, but few have been about the walking group itself. It's time to remedy that with a quick photo essay to supplement the article in Wilderness.

Our tramping group takes us to spectacular views - from city walks...
...to the Tararuas, here we are on Table Top above Field Hut on a glorious day.
The sun doesn't always shine - we're wet through and ready to feel sorry for ourselves, when Philippa says "don't you just love it when the bush is silhouetted like that against a grey sky". 
There's always time for morning tea. The leader has usually planned the trip down to the fine detail of where morning tea and lunch can best be enjoyed.
Sometimes there's an accident, we're waiting for a helicopter here to lift out an injured person, but considering how many tramps we do and how many trampers we have, there are relatively few serious incidents. 
And there is always that wonderful discovery to be found on each tramp, whether its a tree or a new friend. And if you weren't in a group you couldn't measure a rata tree circumference in trampers!

To read more about tramping in Wellington, see my other blog posts: