Tramping vs Hiking trends
@DonaldDuck: "If you go onto google trends (interesting and informative in of itself)"
That's an interesting observation for which I'll start a different thread.
Tramping versus Hiking in Google Trends: https://www.google.co.nz/trends/explore#q=tramping%2C%20hiking&geo=NZ&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT-13
Definite trends, and right now they seem roughly equivalent (for searches within New Zealand).
38 comments
@tararuahunter - I'd disagree. Hiking is a useful word and handy concept as it differentiates the 'disengage mind and follow the guide-book' type trips like Te Araroa from real tramps where skill and imagination is required.
Hiking implies to me:
- A pre-defined, scripted, well known route designed by someone else
- Well marked and maintained trails
- May have road sections, may pass through towns, etc
- May be guided, may be catered, may stay at commercial accomodation
- Little requirement for self sufficiency
- Few skills required (beyond the ability to walk)
- Maybe long, or physically challenging, but not technically so
Tramping on the other hand means to be the opposite:
- Design your own route
- Tracks optional
- 100% self-sufficient
- Routefinding skills required
- Bushbashing likely
- Alpine / river skills may be required
I could go on ... but they seem like different things to me.
US culture arrives here via TV, and we let go of our terms so readily it seems. 4wds are becoming SUVs. Campervans, RVs.
Utes are now trucks. Shrug.
An overnight walk in NZ is always 'tramping' to me. Less than overnight might be a 'day walk'. But when we went walking in Switzerland, we went 'hiking.' Dunno why.
Alvin toffler would have something to say about this lol.
I mean the hills and rivers will long outlive any arbitrary terms for anything we apply subjective names to.
Should we still tramp in Japara and cart kidney busters.
I'm sure die hard "kiwi trampers" wear Chinese made and American designed hiking gear while out "tramping".
I mean tramping is a term we stole off the yanks and Brits in the first place.
It's always typical for some to pine stoically for the rose tinted glorious past. But while I'm am out there on a day hike or smashing it along the tops on a multi day tramp I am seeing and experiencing the same things that people did fifty years ago or even my ancestors five hundred years ago, give or take a few million birds and trees.
They are just subjective terms for something we all love doing.
Yeah. We have differences, but so far, we differentiate between a 'hike' & a 'tramp' to different degrees.
'Tramping' means something special to Kiwis. Even if you don't want to do it !. It denotes a Kiwi ideal.
Don't forget to bring your budgie.
http://docnz.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/milford-track-swandri-group.jpg
Hmmm. Interesting Madpom re your definition of tramping and hiking. Wouldn't kiwis who walk the Great Walks (which fit into your hiking definition of a tramp) say they go tramping? I've never used the term hiking myself, have always used 'tramp' for day trips, over-nighters and ten day solo trips into the hills. However, I've been tramping in Pakistan, Mongolia, US, Europe etc and I have always referred to this as trekking. Go figure!
@gaiters
I'm sure die hard "kiwi trampers" wear Chinese made and American designed hiking gear while out "tramping"
yep, me to. imported gear, got a mapac Weka (probably a hiking pack) and a Monte Bell sleeping bag - designed for hiking
But its nothing to do with using old style gear, (although I still wear a swandri shirt, because its a better in the high country, and I still use home made Puttees, because I prefer the support on my ankles, to gaiters.
Cant say I agree, @madpom.
pretty sure tramping club day trips up the tauherenikau in the 1970s was a day "tramp", even though it was a very easy main highway.
we've come to distinguish the "easy" classy walks was Hiking now, I believe because the majority users are foreign. And the most common user of the Great walks are "backpackers". its all about marketing
I anticipate that "tramping" will eventually disappear from our language
I still believe its the overseas influence that we're adopting, same as many other aspects of our language.
I'm with TararuaHunter here. Tramping is an almost uniquely kiwi word and we should be zealous in protecting and promoting it.
Tramping in New Zealand was born of a unique culture and set of historic circumstances that didn't happen anywhere else in the world. While I realise the world changes, we can also be aware of who we are and why we are different.
There is a lot about the kiwi tramping club culture that isn't found anywhere else in the world - and while the internet and imported globalisation is putting these things under existential pressure, I believe we can be proud in standing up for our heritage.
There is a uniquely kiwi thing that is tramping. It is a combination of attitude, expectations, approach. There is a completely distinct activity recently imported from Europe called hiking with a different set of expectations and attitudes.
For example, people who are here to "do the Kaitoke Holdsworth" are hiking. People off up the Teherenikau for a look-see are definately tramping! Its about attitude & expectations.
Worse than losing the word would be losing that attitude/approach. I'd hate more to see us walking color-coded walks on gravelled tracks all booked in advance - following a rule of "keep to the trail' and beleive we were still tramping.
as long as you dont think Bear Grylls is tramping
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Started by | izogi |
On | 7 November 2015 |
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