tramping info for NZers

someone asked a person coming off the abel tasman track if there were many people on the track, their answer was "well, there was no one who won the war"

My very first trips were to TNP around 1970. Literally we almost had the place to ourselves the entire May school holidays. We had whole huts to ourselves for nights on end, and maybe met a dozen other people in all of two weeks. So yes it has changed. But I'm still doubtful that 'security by obscurity' is going to help much in the long run. It's not appreciated by so many people, but NZ has a unique outdoors hunting and tramping cultural heritage that is under considerable pressure and threat from various directions. Part of the reason why I'm here is that I'm missing my mountains - but the other reason is that I miss my fellow trampers too. To my mind if we can find a way of solving this bigger issue - then we also enable a way of more openly asserting that cultural heritage to the hordes of visitors we are getting. Most are just arriving here and get zero exposure or information to who we are as a nation. So it's not surprising that we find ourselves a little resentful at their thoughtless 'mass occupation' of 'our' space. I do get why you want to keep some of it private and reserved for us kiwis. Finding a way of letting them know that the local trampers are the 'tangata whenua', the custodians and guardians of these places is to my mind the positive way forward.

I've created the facebook group. email me if you want the link where you can join the group. if you've posted on here a few times you'll get added. i might add i would prefer this group was for people who are willing to contribute occasionally at least and not just lurk all the time as most people do on my other facebook groups...

i already have a tramping news facebook group that caters for all comers anyway, so i'm not being totally exclusive of foreigners...

I recall having an almost heated discussion with some Brit in a hut one night. He was blithering on about how he never filled out the Intentions books, or told anyone where he was going. When I tried to explain that all he was doing was potentially making life very hard for SAR - I got quite the contemptuous and generally boneheaded reply. So no - that kind of ignorance is very unattractive and unwelcome. And we are seeing the same kind of resentment build up on our roads. What underlies this is a growing sense of how too many kiwis are sensing that they really have just become 'tenants in their own land'.

I'll contribute mate. :) Phillip, you've hit the nail on the head. Australia used to be fiercely patriotic. And in the stupid sense, it still is. But here in NZ, what I truly, TRULY! love, is that it isn't just the Maori who feel a deep afinity and connection to the land. It's the vast majority of Kiwis. I love that the proposed skyrail down in Fiordland was squashed, and squashed HARD! Even knowing just how many more tourism dollars would come flooding in as a result, and also knowing that it wouldn't physically impact the region to a great extent, NZ voted NO! Because (let's face it), the vast majority of Kiwis are going, "Ah hell no! You aren't @#$%@$! with our Fiordland! And that rocks! I'll always be an Australian. I was born there. I served 10 years in the Australian military. I drove around Australia 9 times, and have explored that vast land more comprehensively than just a very small handful of people I've met in my lifetime. But I identify with Kiwis far more than I do what Australians have become. So, in 12 months, when I get Permanent Residency, I will be over the moon! Then 3 years later, when I become a citizen, I will rest easy. I have made this my home. I am a nomad. Actually, I come from a long line of German gypsies. Despite having a deep, deep love of the Australian land, I have never lived anywhere that actually felt like 'home'. Here does. So here I shall stay. Whilst the two countries currently have a fantastic open relationship, I'd hate for that to change, and after 20 years the NZ Government says, "Right. All you Aussie bastards can piss off home"! I get asked all the time why I'm hell-bent on PR and citizenship. That's a big part of why. The other reason, well, it's quite simple; you guys are my people. :)

Cascade Saddle's not popular because someone's written up a report on the NZ Tramper website. It's popular because it's written up in Lonely Planet. I think I get why you want a private group that's exclusive of certain people, but making "being a New Zealander" the criteria for joining seems a very blunt way to qualify and disqualify people. Would you have let a certain former CE of Te Papa join?

" I'd hate for that to change, and after 20 years the NZ Government says, "Right. All you Aussie bastards can piss off home"" Ah no, not likely to ever happen Funny how everyone complains about the numbers of foreign punters now, I also remember a time you could tramp just about any where and only run into locals then this movie called 'lord of the rings' was made. Suddenly everyone wanted to check out 'middle earth'.. haha thats my opinion anyway

"Would you have let a certain former CE of Te Papa join?" I think wayno explained this well, he said if they were regulars to the site, and he wasn't excluding foreigners.. What I want to know is, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this, what secret huts/tracks/etc are you privileged to that most ordinary people can't find for themselves with um, say google? Besides private lodges and the likes (there are possibly more of these nowadays than public huts, and if you think about it properly, most of these are mainly used by wealthy foreigners who arguably pay to see the very best wilderness areas that nz has to offer) I can't think of anything? Fill us in please, or do I have to join faecebook? I'm a kiwi :)

" I think wayno explained this well, he said if they were regulars to the site, and he wasn't excluding foreigners.. " Yeah, but he was born in Canterbury. He walked into a blizzard fairly recklessly in a way not dissimilar to what some here seem to be attributing largely to tourists, and the coroner verified that his way of doing things was fairly consistent. And he was a kiwi.