Weraroa is one I had looked at in the past but decided it was beyond my abilities. During a work flight I flew over this summit and reminded myself that it was a) there and B) doable. A bit of online research regarding access let me to believe a 4wd drive track took you a good way in. Well it does but not as far … Continue reading ZL1/MW-065 Weraroa

Pihanga – ZL1/WK-016 Sometimes there have to be a few rewards for working in the industry that I do. This is one of those occasions. You see, I work in the power distribution business and among many things we do – one of them is to ensure that the public is kept safe from our assets – things like transformers, Transformers like the one on … Continue reading Pihanga

ZL1/HB-149 This little summit I had been up a few times in the past as part of providing comms for an equestrian endurance event near Ocean Beach. I still had the contact details with the land owner saved. So I figured I’d reach out and see if he remembered me and would let us drive to the summit. Luckily for us he did and I … Continue reading Okahu

Soon after Easter, for family reasons, we needed to head to Waimate. Naturally, I scoped out the area and found a potential summit. This one hadn’t been activated yet. I scoured the web looking for clues as to what the access was, and I stumbled across a page describing the access being open, but 4 wheel drive was required. How is it that this drive … Continue reading ZL3/CB-596 – Mount Studholme

Tama is a summit near Ngauruhoe which looked on the map like it would be doable. Myself and Olivia (my cousin) decided to attempt this and see if we could make it to the top. We had plans to try for Mangaweka however the access across the farmland was restricted so we decided to try this one. The first leg of the trek takes you … Continue reading Tama ZL1/WK-005

This is a small summit near the coast south of the coastal village Porangahau. It is called Cook’s Tooth due to an exposed lime rock representing a large tooth. This summit can be activated from the roadside and there are plenty of trees to sling an aerial between. You can park your car off the road near the entrance to the farm without blocking any … Continue reading Cooks Tooth

So the plan here was to activate Te Atuaoparapara (locally called 66 – probably an old trig reference number) ZL1/MW-008 and then ZL1/HB-003. The walk up to the hut and out to Armstrong saddle was good. Once you pass the hut the landscape is very exposed and would be very unfriendly in adverse weather. I did make fairly good progress towards 66 however the track … Continue reading Sunrise

This summit has been on the to do list for a long time. After dropping the wife and kids in New Plymouth, I picked up Kyle ZL2KGF and we made our way up. We ascended up Waimoku track, and descended down Sefton Ridge. I would recommend going up via Waimoku track as it appeared the better track. Once at the top there were great views … Continue reading Patuha : ZL1/TN-006

I have driven past this summit before and contemplated activating it. On the 25th of September I did just that. This summit I have unofficially named the Gentle Annie, as the road that passes here is called the same with reference to the quality of the road climbing up the western side from Kuripapango. The road is now sealed so has lost some of its … Continue reading Gentle Annie – ZL1/MW-107