Tramping clubs

Theres no easy way to do this as like many things tramping clubs have their own personalities and in some cases are quite clicky. I think you would need to go to a couple of club nights and one or two trips to try them out the tramping clubs would welcome the opportunity to impress and no need to join until you are sure its for you. PMCKE would be one of the best to talk to about this his club in rotorua is quite active and it would seem quite diverse.

Some people in our club are active, tramping clubs seem to be in decline a bit. My solution to the above would be to go on trips with both clubs. I don't know what the rules are with the above clubs but I can hardly imagine a club would object to anyone going on 2-3 trips before deciding to join. Then there is the possibility of joining both clubs, can't imagine that would break the bank balance.

Yeah, some people in clubs are active and some people who aren't are on the committees and while we are grateful that people are going on the committees, I personally get concerned when I see a lot of energy going into other activities e.g. showing presentations of one's overseas holidays that aren't necessarily outdoor-based or organizing extracurricular activities. I for one, haven't joined a club to find friends and be entertained mid-week however maybe I'm a minority. I didn't even join a club to be able to select the pick of a bunch of some nice fit wholesome outdoor guys with whiskers and a bush-shirt unlike some of the lassies. Those guys aren't tramping so much anymore as they have to stay at home in the weekend for their share of parenting, and gilding their cages! (Though I did end up with one of those guys but he is a weekend warrior!)

Another post. Clubs are good for ensuring you actually go away and do the trip. Doing stuff with your mates can be tricky as they can decide they have better stuff to do than go on tramps after you've all organised a trip. However in this day and age, it is quite possible to develop your skills in a non-club setting as there are infinitely vast resources available e.g this site and going on MSC courses. For years I ran a tramping skills evening class and got good feedback for my attempts to empower people to enable them to do their own trips. As has been said above, clubs can be quite clicky but also there can be weird dynamics happening on trips e.g. the great club pastime of "dick sizing" by going too fast for the comfort of some of the group. These new participants may be fit and fast enough for the stated grade and objective but find the old hands haring off in a hiss and a roar in an unstated race. Sorry to use gender exclusive language as the women do do it too sometimes.

Clubs certainly have their own personalities, so there's often some luck in having one nearby that fits you. We have a club rule of three overnight trips with the club I think, partly to try and ensure people who join are people interested in actual tramping (rather than joining simply for cheap use of facilities or whatever), but probably the majority of members aren't active in terms of going on club trips at any one time. People come and go, and every so often in the 4 years I've now been involved I'll meet a new person who it turns out simply took time off for 5-10 years to have a family, or something of that nature. I guess I joined a club a few years back for two main reasons. (1) Because I didn't have much of a clue what I was doing at first and was paranoid I'd screw up somehow. A specific benefit for me is being able to see lots of different approaches people have to doing things -- it's interesting seeing how people see things. The other major thing for me (2) was transport, and it's definitely a big thing here. A lot of locals don't have easy access to their own vehicle (too expensive to own, store, park, etc). We seem to get a lot of young professional people, especially from the UK, who've immigrated and are living in or near town but are keen to get out into the hills. And yes, the club's a big factor in motivating me to actually get out and do stuff, too. Weather's often variable but it averages out. I've heard of it happening, but I'm not sure I've ever been signed on a club trip that's been cancelled because of weather... though people have pulled out on a Friday afternoon before a Friday night departure. Plans have changed plenty of times, and at least one occasion involved sitting in a hut near the road for a weekend, but for many others we've managed to do quite a lot because of weather windows or the weather doing things very different from expected. This attitude isn't exclusive to clubs, of course, but a club helps motivate me and I think I appreciate seeing many of the places in these types of conditions.

"dick sizing" What a wonderful phrase im still laughing if ever there was a tramping virus this is it. Hut books are full of it "the I walked the 7 hour track in 2.5hours" comments. Completely forgetting that its about being out there safely not a race. I sat with a group of guys one night all deriding me for taking an hour and a half longer than them over the same distance. All turned quiet when i pointed out the things they had missed in their hurry.

Nice one, Paul. One of the neatest things I ever saw was a guy severely crippled with arthritis, tramping along with ski poles doing the Leslie/Karamea. His mates would go ahead and get the fire going and cook his tea every night and he would limp in to a lovely cooked dinner in a warm hut, having taken his time. They did a big trip like this every year. Good on them, eh?

The depth of character required to walk past "what if" is only found in remarkable places. One of the reasons I best like sitting to one side watching the passing parade. The quiet grin on the face of the old bird in the corner of a back country hut in a storm as the young brag about thier day is a better picture than any Goldie. Sometimes I wish I had better skills with a camera to capture that picture.

Remember that different people tramp for different reasons. I spend my working life covering areas in detail: by the end of a possum block you know every gully, every ridgeline. The hidden waterfall and pool in a patch of bush on farmland. The falcon on a rocky outcrop defending her nest. The penguins waddling their way 200m up the coastal bluffs to nest. Sitting on a ridgeline watching two falcons take down a hawk. Or the avalanches thunder down the slopes opposite. And many more: all things observed with time. And appreciated with time. But after a while you get that need to feel the km's passing under you boots. To get out of this catchment and into the next. To see what's over the next ridgeline, or round the next corner. And that's when I go tramping. So don't assume 'one size fits all'. I've been smugly lectured at over the things I've 'missed' in my desire to cover some km's. And my answer is fine: I'm happy for you that you saw them, because clearly that's what you're there for. But me? That's not what I'm here for today.