On our way home from the Toley Road summit we drove past this one and it looked like an easy walk. All I had to do was to figure out who owned the land. So on my way to the Ngaroma summit ZL1/WK-080 I figured I’d door knock until I found the owner. The last house on Aotea Road on the right just before the … Continue reading Zl1/WK-110

This is a summit that I have flown over a couple of times on my way to Whakaahu (ZL1/WK-084) and pondered its accessibility. It turns out I had some dealings with the land owner from work so I reached out to him to see if he would give us permission to walk to the top. The land owner being a friendly local said I could … Continue reading Tolley Road – Zl1/WK-078

This summit I attempted to do on the Sunday morning of NZART conference – with a promise to Geoff ZL3GA that I had to be back before my SOTA talk at conference. Fortunately the weather was good despite a light morning show however the rainbow that ensued made up for the water. This is a great wee summit to do as part of a morning … Continue reading Zl1/WL-129 Makara

After completing Don Juan earlier in the day I decided to go for a drive and see if I could door knock to get permission to summit the Dome. From the property on the right after you pass the summit I was privaledged to be given permission to walk up from the roadside to the top. Following animal tracks and fencelines to the summit is … Continue reading ZL1/HN-120 – The Dome

I had been eyeing up this summit for a while but for whatever reason I hadnt gotten around to doing it. Well on the 17th of July I decided I was going to fix that. The walk up to Te Puru starts with 3 stream crossings. Of course in winter the streams were up due to recent rain. I made the first crossing without getting … Continue reading Te Puru – zL1/WK-077

Phil ZL1PSH reached out to the ZL SOTA community to see if there was an interest to have a joint activation at Waiheke Island. The response was positive from Myself, Sasha ZL1JX and Soren ZL1SKL. With the help of Howard ZL1BXA who is a resident on the island and was able to arrange permission with the landowner, we set a date and made our way … Continue reading Waiheke Island Summit

Panekiri is one of the more picturesque walks I have done. It is part of the lake Waikaraemoana great walk. The track is now managed by the local iwi, and the track to the summit is at the time of writing in good condition. The track starts from Onepoto and you start following a short track to the base of the range, then climbing to … Continue reading Panekiri ZL1/HB-033

Maungakawa (WK-125 not WK-134) has been on my list of to do summits for a while. So on the 2nd of April I gave this a go. The track starts off from Matahuru Road by going 80 m down to a stream. This was not going to be fun coming back out. From the stream its a 400 m climb to the top. Further up … Continue reading ZL1/WK-125 : Maungakawa

This is an unnamed summit above lake Rotopaunamu. There is no track to this summit so its a bash up the ridge to the top. Fortunately the activation zone is large so once you are inside the 940 m contour you can activate. The walk up was fairly straight forward with the help of my GPS map app. Once in the AZ I found a … Continue reading ZL1/WK-033

After talking to Anton ZL1KR he assured me there was a track up Tihia. So I was keen to give this a go. The track starts from SH47 near where it crosses Papanetu stream. There is a slight pull off area on the side of the highway to park. The track starts here. The track is relatively easy to follow up – marked by pink … Continue reading ZL1/WK-023 : Tihia