Peak Bagging

Great site, quite surprised at how many of the North Island peaks I have been too. Need to start ticking them off.

Thanks Haqii... yeah they certainly add up. It helps that we've put some real baby peaks on there! There'll be heaps not on the list yet too...

Great site, it looks very professional and there is a lot of information there. Though I have to wonder why there is such an extensive list of rules as to what qualifies and what doesn't. I can't see why alpine peaks should not qualify as well. Many of the listed peaks are as dangerous as any in bad weather. Unfortunately some activities like this start off as a very simple idea and then get complicated when all sorts of rules are applied. Another activity that might interest peak baggers where there are no peaks is the Degree Confluence Project http://www.confluence.org It seems to be a wee while since anyone has visited an NZ confluence and there are two unvisited terrestrial ones left, one in deepest darkest Fiordland and the other on Stewart Island.

Having just moved from the UK, that's an interesting site there, hope to include a few of these. It's nice to see 'em on the map, I'm just getting used to the areas, so often difficult to note where they are when I just see a region. I've walked all the England 3000ers (only 4 of 'em, but plenty of other interesting peaks, the Wales 3000ers (14 and actually done them in the day, an interesting challenge) plus a fair number of the Scottish munros - 60 shy of the total. Would probably have completed the Scottish munros had I not discovered mountain biking, meaning that many of my trips north of the scottish border entailed mountain biking too. The beauty of the scottish munros (and also those non munros which can be just as challenging) is that they are generally do-able in the day, and you get some stunning views. The NW Highlands is difficult to beat for instance. Another factor is no problems with rights of access in the UK, so far on my limited experience to date in NZ I've been disappointed by the number of private access places I've seen particularly on the mtn bike, and often wide tracks too.

Pmcke... about the extensive list of rules. The list started as a personal assortment of peaks we could walk up. As we're not mountaineers, and have no desire to be, we had no interest in making a list that contained peaks we knew we were never going to get up (e.g. Mt Cook). We figured it would be more fun to share our list.... we knew it was going to be a near impossible task to create any kind of comprehensive New Zealand list, and the 'rules' evolved from there. Yes there's all manner of 'bagging' activities.... of course there is hut bugging too, and Geocaching. See http://www.geocaching.com/ - there's quite a few NZ ones on there...

My partner has his own criterion for a list of peaks to bag which means we get all over the South Island and have been up some bizarre summits of places where the local cocky is probably amazed that anyone wants to climb that hill. Yet to do the nearest one to us which is a whopping 100m high. I also like to bag peaks along particular ranges e.g. the Seaward Kaikouras, the Jellicoe Ridge and the Spencer Range. If you've done a couple, it seems a shame not to do the rest. Also a hut bagger, definitely! And I like to connect those red lines up...

If you are into bagging things, what about degree confluence points. http://www.confluence.org Most of the terrestial points in NZ have been bagged already but there is no reason why one can't do a second visit. The three un bagged terrestial confluence points are a real challenge for the intrepid tramper. One in southern fiordland, one south of Haast and another in Stewart Island.