Yes, the average age of members is increasing. This is a natural process because young folks won't want to become members if there are old fogies running the show. The solution is to tie these older folks up in a older sub-group of the club as happened in the Christchurch Tramping Club in the 1950's and 60's initiated by an early member (Bill Dukes). The Canterbury Mountaineering Club have their Veteran section and they're also engaged in the hut maintenance. The clubs need to encourage new blood to run things as the younger people's culture is different.
Can't speak for tramping clubs, but can note my observations about huts.
I've only been in NZ 10 years, but can say that the usage of huts in many of my favouite ares has gone up in that time. I'd love to see some official stats, but from casual perusal of hut books I'd say the number of visitors per year in the Tararuas, Eyre mountains, Ohau, haast-pass areas has roughly doubled, comparing last 3 years with the first 3 of the previous decade. Every hut I visit I do this check, and it's very rare to find one that hasn't increased in use.
This is referring to the lesser used huts, where you can count the number of visitors in lines- or pages-per-year. Harder to say for popular huts where I run out of fingers, and the books don't go back that far anyway.
Is this an increase in visitors? Or a trend towards staying at lesser visited huts? Or the effect of sites such as this opening people's eyes to the alternatives to the main tramping highways? Or just an awareness by users that if they don't fill the book in they might lose the hut? Don't know. But I'm certain it's happening.
Wish I'd kept notes to satisfy Izogi's (and my own) desire for firm stats. You (one) could try an FOI request to DOC.
a lot of the increase in tramper no's are from overseas tourists since the no of overseas toursists to nz have increased by multiples in teh last ten years. the no of times i'm in huts and theres hardly any if any other nzers is a lot....
people come from overseas to do the great walks and find them booked out so they then move on to other tracks . there are a reasonable no of tourists who make repeat trips to nz to cover different tracks, i've met a few who are systematically covering as many track as they can from year to year on their annual leave.
lord of the rings has resulted in a massive increase in tourists wanting to get into our outdoors. the seasoned hikers come here , some of them having done their homework on where they want to go other than the main routes. it seems new zealand is on a lot of outdoor peoples must do lists now like the hmalayas. esp since that place is so thrashed by tourists now, nzs's still unspoilt by comparison.... you see a lot of favourable write ups overseas about nz. a lot of tramping in a relatively small land area. less hassle, no dangerous animals or plants.... enough water to drink, masses of huts and tracks... easy to get access to compared to some major overseas places. most nzers dont realise what we have... my girlfriend tramps but she won't stay in tents, if we go overseas it rules out a hell of a lot of good multi day tramps.... but here, theres still lots of great options.
I bet cost plays a part too. Who wants to pay $100 to stay on the Routeburn/Kepler or $150 for the Milford, when you can do the back country ones for a fraction of the cost?
Plenty of people do though.
me,outside of peak season they are a lot cheaper than that staying at teh huts.
they are also great places to go at peak season, you're guaranteed a bunk space and some fantastic scenery and lots of people to talk to , you can take a light pack no burner or fuel or tent required
if you want to save money you can use the campsites...
one of the hut wardens who was at the first hut on the milford was worth the money alone listening to his knowledge of the area, its flora fauna and astronomy... some of the other hut wardens give some very entertaining and informative talks.... they are nice relaxing tracks, a no brainer requiring no thought to navigation. good tracks underfoot leaving you free to take in the scenery around you instead of watch where you put your feet. be thankful the milford track has been opened up to freedom walkers at all it was a major mission getting the monolpoly expensive access to teh track wrested off the tourist hotel corporation you could be a lot worse off on the milford,
Hi all. I'm new to tramping and this is my first post. You may wonder why I'm posting here, instead of introducing myself, in the 'new to tramping forum'; and I may just do that, but I've been lurking on here for a while and I thought I would speak up.
I want to do some walks, and I've been thinking about joining a club, but all of this puts me right off wanting to share my interest and enthusiasm with others.
It seems that there is more politics involved than there is walking. I clicked on this thread hoping to read some funny and interesting and maybe educational anecdotes but was sorely disappointed.
I think I'll go it alone.
If you want to tramp in company, give the clubs a go. They'll mostly let you try for a few weeks without forking out a joining fee. Some people love 'em, some find they don't give them anything they can't get alone / online / from their own social group. They didn't suit me, but that doesn't mean much as I'm an antisocial bugger at heart.
clubs are excellent for finding like minded people. If you already have friends that tramp then a clubs role is much less. Tramping alone esspecialy in places you dont know is a highly risky activity
