The most embarrassing thing happened

What's the name of the meet up group? Good to know there are other options in Wgtn for people who don't belong to a club. Of course it is then incumbent on the leader or other experienced members on the trip to be able to screen participants before the trip starts or early in the trip at least. One and a half hours isn't too bad, it's when it's on the 3rd day that the chain dragger is escorted out! That would be embarasssing for the leader especially if they were told by another trip participant in the first half hour that a participant wasn't up to a 5 day trip over 5 passes... I led a trip once and in the first half hour, another participant told me to bump someone off the trip who was having trouble keeping up on the river flat. Luckily someone else volunteered to drive them to Arthurs Pass. We were going for a 1900m ascent and I learned my lesson not to assume stuff about people's fitness.

@Honora its called the Wellington Tramping Group https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/WellingtonTrampingGroup/

Pride comes before the fall. I always remember an old fulla saying that to me on a day walk up to kime hut early on in my tramping life. I imagine it would of been quite an embaressing situation for you, and perhaps a bit of an eye opener, as to your true level of fitness. I'm not sure how long ago that was. But I recommend doing as many day hikes in the Tarrys as you can to get that fitness up for the real stuff. Hike to smith stream shelter via dobsons. Then take it up a notch by reaching mt marchant. Day hike it to cone hut from waiohine gorge. Then up it to summit cone. Day hike to field hut. Then up that to kime hut. There's a lot of great day hike to be done to up the fitness level. Even in the Wellington region. So much easier with a day pack than an overnight pack.

nelson lakes mid winter trip. first winter tramp... instructors told us stories of minus 20 degrees. i was wearing everything i had, three layers on my legs including pvc oer trousers.... the weather was good. ten minutes down the track is had to stop to shed a layer,, ten minutes later shed another layer, ended up in shorts and bush shirt, never needed the other layers until night time at the huts... no one else saw the other time, came to a boggy bit on the track, didnt look too bad.... but put my camera away from around my neck.... took one step went straight up to my waist in mud.... otherwise early trips i'd get up in front of the group after a break and walk the wrong way down the track , people would be laughing their heads off at me and shaking their heads ....

Have you done any walking in the Tararuas before? Its generally quite different from walking in other places in NZ! I have found that introducing new people to the tararuas (even if they have done a bit of waking in other areas in NZ) can be a bit of shock to them - there are a lot of tree roots, descents and climbs from creeks and up and down tops, slippery rocks, etc etc. My tramping club (the WTMC) has a lot of trips aimed at newbies in the tararuas - that may suit you a bit better than the trip you went on!

@si-dog I have done the Southern Crossing once, the Northern Crossing Once, Holdsworth to Kaitoke twice and been on a few day walks to Field Hut. I don't think its the unfamiliarity its more or less my general fitness and navigation skills that I need to work on

Wow I'm pretty surprised you've done the northern crossing but struggled up the valley to Totara flats.

@Gaiters, I did the Northern Crossing before I started uni and lost all my fitness and now im trying to get it all back again so I can do those trips again. Have you done the Northern Crossing before? The Waiohine Pinnacles are quite hairy, luckily me and a mate had near perfect weather for the entire trip which took us 3 nights 4 days

I saw that trip advertised but as-yet I've only been on one short walk with that group. Sorry to hear that it went bad for you. It seems a bit of a shame the group couldn't go more slowly to accommodate your situation. I had a comparable issue a few years back walking up to Field Hut on a Friday night with a WTMC group. I've reached Field in 90 minutes previously, but in this group there were a couple of speedies I'd not met before, and I was caught by surprise. I ended up vomiting on the side of the track after about 40 minutes. In hindsight the fish & chips was probably a really dumb choice for dinner. :) We were really aiming for Kime, but stopped at Field because I'd been going so slowly, and it wasn't a great feeling. Fortunately for me I felt much better next morning, apart from lacking a feed from the night before. Rather than me turning around I continued with everyone else to Anderson for Saturday night (we randomly ran into @madpom at Maungahuka although I was in a bit of a dreary and hungry mood so he probably thought I was antisocial :) ), then had a great walk out on Sunday.