A trip to Hawkes Bay training, left me with an extra day for a new summit. I had been eyeing this one up for sometime and figured it was a good time to give it a crack. I reached the first sign and it said 4 wheel drive vehicles were allowed to proceed – so I figured I was in a four wheel drive and … Continue reading Wakarara ZL1-HB/052
For about a year I have been pestered by a certain youngling to do an overnight hike to a summit. Emma, having done this track when she was young herself, recommended this one as an entry level overnight hike. So on Sunday the 21st we set off to the hut with all of our overnight gear. The walk to the hut is marked as a … Continue reading The Pinnacles overnight hike
Earlier this year we lost Andrew ZL3CC to a sudden and unexpected heart attack. To remember him, we decided to have a day of SOTA activity on the Saturday following his birthday. This year that fell on Saturday the 15th of September. I decided it was high time to tackle Pouakai ZL1/TN-002. I was joined by Kyle ZL2KGF who had done the summit earlier in … Continue reading Pouakai – ZL3CC Memorial
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 … Continue reading Te Paki
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 … Continue reading Night time activation of St Paul’s Rock
For our next challenge we decided we would give Karioi a go. Karioi is an extinct volcano just south of Raglan. It has been on our to do list for a while so on Sunday we set out. The weather was a bit cooler than we usually climb in but it made for a comfortable walk up. The track through the farmland starts out gentle … Continue reading Mount Karioi
So it has been a while since we got to be out and on the SOTA trail. Winter weather, rain, cold, rain, cold, Warren on call, rain, cold…..study, work, the annual teaching season, life in general, so when a weekend that was set for reasonable forecast popped up, we grabbed it and off we set. Manukau Heads is on the South side of the entrance … Continue reading Manukau Heads
A break in the winters weather gave us a chance to get out and discover a new hill to climb. With so much rain lately we havent been out much, however today was a beautiful day, with no wind and clear skies to ascend Taupiri. You will not find tracks up Taupiri on the Linz maps, or DoC website, but there is a public track … Continue reading Taupiri Mountain
Summit number two for today. I have only been to Pirauau once before, deploying a portable for a car rally many years ago. Knowing who to contact to get access to some of the hills I have visited in the past, and how to get to them turned out to be very useful here. Pirauau is a hill inland from Tolaga Bay which used to … Continue reading Pirauau near Tolaga Bay
This mission began after Matthew ZL2MNB advertised he was to activate ZL1/WK-060 The Pinnacles, but with only VHF FM. Fellow ZL1 activators soon realised that for him to make the required 4 contacts he would need help. Help in the form of hams at altitude. Hams at summits. And so began an impromptu ZL1 S2S day. 6 Activators were out in ZL1 activating 5 summits. … Continue reading Redwoods, Whakarewarewa Forrest Trek to the summit – ZL1/BP-154
ZL-SOTA. Warren (ZL2AJ) and Emma 