People you can get along with, and who are reliable, and have good judgement.

You will be spending most of the time on your tramp in the company of your tramping partners. Sometimes, tramping can be pretty miserable – you can be tired, wet, hungry, frustrated, and worried, all at the same time. Such situations tend to bring out the best and worst in people. You will also have times on a tramp where you are witness to breathtaking natural beauty. These times seem better when shared with a friend you trust.

A good selection of people with the right qualities for tramping partners can be found, unsurprisingly, in a tramping club. Often, you will be able to learn much from more experienced members of tramping clubs. Mind you, there often seem to be one or two people who rub you the wrong way.

I’ve found tramping with family a good way of enriching family relationships. I started taking my kids on overnight tramps when they were about 5 or 6 years old and they have, by and large, enjoyed it. The key to tramping with children is light packs and good snacks. Half-hour chocolate stops keep their energy and spirits up, especially on the hills.

The most comprehensive information on where to go can be found on the excellent Department of Conservation website. There, you can find out a great deal of information on many of the most popular tracks in New Zealand. Relevent information includes how to get to the track, a description of the route (time estimates and difficulty), information about any huts on the route, what particular skills may required for that tramp (such as river-crossing skills or ice axes), and what maps are needed.

Another popular resource is the New Zealand Tramper site, with many user-added descriptions of tramps. This website has a number if tramps not mentioned in the DoC website. After a doing a tramp, why not write it up and add it to the site?

Don’t forget guide books. One exists for most regions, and the books may well be available at your local library. Be sure to check in with DoC before you go to get any updates on track and hut conditions. Sometimes guide books have a companion website on which updates are posted, for example Sven Brabyn’s site.

Fast Track: No Limits on dvd

Finally, for the adventurer looking for somewhere remote, check out Remote Huts. You have to be physically fit, experienced, and prepared for often very rugged and difficult travel to get to some of these locations.

First, you need to know how to read a topographical map. Trading Places movies These maps require a bit more skill to read than your average road map. One of the best ways to learn map reading is to go tramping with somebody who knows how to read one and learn from them, or do shorter walks that you already know and stop to study the map every so often to determine how the symbols on the map relate to the terrain around you. The entirety of New Zealand is mapped out in 1:50,000 detail (that’s 2cm on the map to 1km in real life). You can see these maps (and print them) freely by visiting NZTopoOnline and you can also buy them at many outdoors shops.

Another important skill is reading a compass and/or using a GPS. These tools help you go in the right direction when you otherwise wouldn’t know which way to go (for example, in poor visibility conditions such as night-time or cloud). They are most useful in combination with a map. Shops like Mapworld can provide useful advice.

It’s also important to know how to use your tramping gear. Test these out before you go tramping. How do you put your tent up? How does your cooker work? Can you cook your food to a suitable edible standard with it? Will you get blisters from your boots? Is your pack comfortable enough? How far can you walk with a pack on without being totally knackered? A lot of this is experience that comes from trial and error. The best learning comes from other people’s trial and error, and you’ll find plenty of trampers willing to help you with the basics by joining a tramping club. See
our tramping and walking category for a good list of tramping clubs around New Zealand.

Check out some outdoors shops for a good selection of outdoor gear and equipment.

Why do what seems like hard work? Well, it’s often peaceful, but sometimes ragingly wild. It reminds you that there are more things than just what people have created. Scenery is often spectacular. It’s healthy, both physically and psychologically. It encourages resourcefulness. It builds perseverance and resistance to discomfort. It helps us not to take for granted the easy life we have. It makes for some great photos.

The Way of the Gun download

Future blog entries will cover the how’s, what’s, where’s, who’s, and when’s of tramping (not necessarily in that order).

For some great walks in the wilderness, check out our New Zealand walking tracks category.

Why is it that finding the number for J. Smith in the phone book is faster (much, much faster!) than finding the person in the phone book who has the number 321-1234? Because the phone book entries have been sorted by name. Because the names in the phone book are sorted, if we are looking for Smith, and we open the phone book at, say, Miller, then we know immediately that we needn’t look in the first half of the phone book. We can quickly eliminate large chunks of the phone book from our search. In contrast, when searching for 321-1234, we have no option but to look at every number on every page until we find it (or get to the end and find the number’s not even in there!). Sorting information is critical to be able to find what we want quickly.

Enter the World Wide Web: a large mass of completely unsorted information. How do we find what we want? We need someone to sort it for us. Fortunately NZS.com is working on this never-ending task for web sites relevant to New Zealand, and looking for what you want on the NZS.com site is fast and efficient.

To find out more about some methods computers use to sort lots of information, see the fascinating site Computer Science Unplugged, two authors of which are prominent New Zealand Computer Scientists.