Wilderness July/August 2025

WINTER can seem to drag on, can’t it? Short days and long nights, more time spent indoors … sometimes I wonder if it will ever end. Just in time, then, is this issue of Wilderness and our list of 75 of the best trampers’ peaks. Spread over 18 glorious pages, it’s a chance for you to fill those dreary winter months with dreams, plans and preparation for adventures to come. Ah, but what is a tramper’s peak, I hear you ask? With a few exceptions, it’s a peak you can walk up. A couple of the very high ones require the aid of crampons and ice axes, but for the most part the peaks our experts have identified require little more than a bit of fitness, a head for heights…

WILDERNESS INSPIRATION FOR YOUNG AND OLD I recently caught my 14-year-old daughter Sophie reading old issues of Wilderness. I wrote to the magazine in December 2015 about getting inspiration for family tramping and Sophie was four when she did her first tramp, to Peach Cove Hut. Twenty-nine tramps later, she has done the Rees-Dart, Hollyford and St James in addition to several Great Walks. This year, she has started her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award, and for her recent birthday she chose tramping and we took her and four friends to Pinnacles Hut in Coromandel Forest Park. It was the first tramp for a couple of them so hopefully she is passing on the tramping bug. She has dreams of us doing the Dusky Track next summer, although we might…

Get your photo published here to receive a meal from Real Meals worth $18. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz. LEARN MORE ABOUT REAL MEALS AT www.realmeals.co.nz.…

For those trampers brave enough to face the cold this winter, there’s comfort in the woodstoves installed in many backcountry huts. They may not rival a roaring fireplace, but a stove can easily dry wet clothes for the next day of tramping. It is especially wonderful if you arrive to find a pile of wood stacked neatly next to the fireplace. Rule number one of hut firewood etiquette is to leave plenty of wood ready for the next person. Just five minutes of collecting dry, fallen branches from around the hut, bringing in already cut wood if there’s a supply outside, or chopping wood yourself (if there’s an axe or saw) could easily save a life. Rule number two: use wood sparingly and only light the fire if you need…

Artists Niko Leyden and Kemi Whitwell, creators of collectable ‘Mini Huts’, are seeking journal entries, sketches and paintings from trampers for their new project, ‘Bush Craft’. The duo will compile handwritten notes and artwork into a small anthology, a creative snapshot of the backcountry. “We hope trampers will get involved by taking a sketchbook on their next hike, first to connect with their creativity and second to allow their personal experience to have a deeper ripple effect within the backcountry community,” Niko said. The idea was inspired by one of their early public art projects in Wellington for which they created miniature huts and placed them in parks, each with a blank book inside similar to a DOC intentions book. The books filled quickly with poems, drawings, funny trip reports,…

Three new outdoor stores are offering exclusive Wildcard discounts to Wilderness subscribers. MD Outdoors in Nelson (mdoutdoors.co.nz), the online-only Kiwi Ultralight (kiwiultralight.co.nz) and Torchmonster (torchmonster.co.nz) will all provide a discount on purchases year-round. Every Wilderness subscriber receives the Wildcard that includes a discount code for online purchases. The card can be saved to a smartphone wallet and presented to staff for in-store purchases. See the full list of 26 Wildcard partners at wildernessmag.co.nz. The savings you make on your next gear purchase could easily cover the cost of your subscription.…