Go Extreme but Stay Safe

During my tramps in New Zealand I met all kinds of trampers along the trail, and among them were many people who went on a hike totally unprepared, and without thinking about the possible consequences.

Here is one example.

When me and my partner were walking the Tongariro Northern Circuit we decided to climb mount Ngauruhoe, which is the mount Doom from the “Lord Of The Rings” movie. Though it was in the mid December, the weather that day was cold, windy and misty. We were wearing a thermal middle layer, a wind and water proof outer clothing, and fleece gloves. The visibility was very poor because of the fog and the weather could get much worse at any time.

Mount Ngauruhoe Photo by Daniel Kelpe

After climbing about half the distance to the top, we decided that due to the weather conditions we should go back and return to our initial track (the Northern Circuit). On our way down we met a young couple who were climbing up. And we were stunned by their appearance – they were wearing shorts and t-shirts!!! They also left their backpacks at the beginning of the climb. After talking to them we found out that they were tourists from abroad and that this is their first time here. Unfortunately we didn’t success in talking them out of climbing the Ngauruhoe and I hope that they made it. But this was an unnecessary risk! The least that they could do is to wear proper clothes and have emergency equipment with them.

There is something very important that many tourists who hike in New Zealand don’t understand -

New Zealand’s nature is Wild and Unpredictable! Especially in the mountains.

So by all means, do tramp, go to the wildest areas, but be prepared for everything.

There is the whole section devoted to tramping on this blog. Some of the most important articles are:

Wear The Right Thing – How to choose the proper clothing for tramping
Using Tramping Huts Properly An article about New Zealand’s backcountry huts.
Eight Important Things to Take on Trek Essential tramping gear

In this last article I didn’t mention one important device that should also be your companion on serious tramps – Personal Locator Beacon. This device is intended for emergencies only. The thing is that in New Zealand’s outdoors there is mostly no cellphone coverage, and if you have any kind of emergency during the tramp you won’t be able to call for help. In this case Personal Locator Beacon (PCB) can be a life saver – it sends an SOS signal with your GPS coordinates, so that you can be rescued. If you are only traveling in New Zealand for a short period and want to do only a couple serious tramps, you don’t have to buy PCB, but rent it at the nearest (to the tramp location) DoC center.

Markus Baumann recently wrote a comprehensive article about a newly released model of PCB, which you can find here. It will give you much more in-depth information about these tramping-essential devices.

So by all means go explore New Zealand’s wilderness, but do it wisely!