Newsletter, March 2018

CONTENTS:

• Kate's Korner | President's Report
• 2017 | The Year in Review
• Writing Tips For trip reports | keep the editor happy :-)
• Club & Pub Nites | Add these to your calendar
• FaceBook Page | Find a tramping partner

Download the printed versionof the newsletter (14 pages colour), as a small 3.3 megabyte PDF file. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader or similar program installed on your computer. Broadband connection preferable.)

KATES KORNER | president's report

Recently, on the epic Garden of Eden trip, I mentioned to Mike Drake, the leader, that I appreciated him letting me come on the trip. After all, I’m not at my fittest at the moment, I hadn’t done anything so difficult before and I’m not as hard core as a lot of trampers in the club.

Mike said to me “I remember the climb up to Tarn Hut from Mid-Wairoa Hut with you on the Richmond Alpine Circuit. The one thing I know you’ve got is tenacity.” I’d completely forgotten about that climb with Mike, but I do remember thinking that was the best compliment I’ve ever received – it restored my self confidence in so many ways. It got me thinking.

Tenacity: persistence, perseverance, doggedness, determination, resoluteness, patience, staunchness, steadfastness ... to me this is tramping in a nutshell.

I’ve always wondered why tramping was my thing. You see, I’m no thrill seeker; I’m totally uncoordinated; I never was much good at sport; but one thing I can do well is persevere!

And the people I’ve met through the club? Well, other than being kind, interesting, generous, intelligent, enlightening and so many other things, one thing that they’ve all got is tenacity!

Tramping makes us all better people and teaches anyone who gets out in the hills invaluable life lessons about seeing things through to the end. That’s what I love so much about it. You can’t just sit down in the middle of a mountain and say “nah, I’m not going on, I’ve had enough, I’m done. Taxi!”

You must keep going to reach the hut, or the roadend, which sometimes feel like a lifetime away.You just put your head down and put one foot in front of the other. To me, this is a huge life lesson that helps me every day to get things in perspective and just ‘keep on keeping on.’

Even when I’ve been almost in tears, struggling up a mountain, my fellow trampers have always urged me on. I’ve done the same for others too.

Kate Krawczyk, President

Happy tramping and see you in the Hills!

WRITING TIPS | TRIP LEADERS & SCRIBES!

Trip reports need not be extensive epistles, or feature award-winning writing. Just the facts, spiced with some memorable moments. Adding the total walking time may be helpful to future trip leaders searching our website database.

Following these guidelines will not only save the Newsletter Editor hours of extra work, but it will make it easier for others to read your trip report...

...so they might actually READ your trip report!

1. Write the report in MS Word, not an email. Don’t be lazy! Because an email does not contain proper formatting, and copying from an email deletes all paragraph returns - this means lots more work for the editor.

2. One space between sentences. We have moved on from typewriters to computers! Get with the times. If you put a double-space between sentences, and the article is justified during pagination, horrid ‘rivers’ appear down the columns.

3. Title: Add Date / Name of Track / Name of Forest-National Park / Leader’s Name. Remember to record all participant’s names, IN FULL. This will save the Editor having to refer to the club website or Facebook, trying to fill in the gaps.

4. Use humour ... but avoid ‘in-jokes unless they are obvious to the general reader. Ha, ha, ha.

5. Keep sentences short for easier reading. Avoid joining different ideas together with an ‘and’. Use paragraphs too!

6. House Style: we write numerals 0–12 in full (e.g. zero, one, two, three).

Do not abbreviate (nth, sth, hrs,) Contractions are fine (such as don’t, didn’t, we’ve). Acronymns (such as DOC) are acceptable. Use past tense.

7. People like seeing themselves in photos, and images of people are much easier to take than landscapes, (and print better at a small size in the newsletter). So, try to get at least one decent group photo. Pose the group facing the light (unless you know what you’re doing shooting contré jour).

8. Photos: Email only the best 4–5 shots to the Editor. Don’t just post 21 images on Facebook, and expect the on-line viewers to sift through all the rubbish shots to find the good ones. Spend 5 minutes choosing them.

Note: Facebook compresses the images so the low-resolution isn’t really suitable for printing in a newsletter.

Thanks for all your contributions! Keep 'em coming in...

Ray Salisbury
Web & Newsletter Editor

CLUB EVENTS: add to your calendar

SOCIAL NIGHT | Prince Albert Pub, Nile Street

Tuesday 6 March - 7.30pm

Organiser: Michele Cunningham | michelec146@gmail.com

CLUB NIGHT @ Nelson Intermediate School

Monday 9 April. Place: Nelson Intermediate School staffroom, Titipahi Street, Nelson. Time: 7.30pm. Speaker: Nina Solter

Cost: Gold Coin Donation

CLUB NIGHT @ Nelson Intermediate School

Monday 11 June. Place: Nelson Intermediate School staffroom, Titipahi Street, Nelson. Time: 7.30pm. Speaker: TBA

Topic: SEARCH & RESCUE & LOCATOR BEACONS

Cost: Gold Coin Donation

CLUB NIGHT & AGM @ Nelson Intermediate School

Monday 6 August. Place: Nelson Intermediate School staffroom, Titipahi Street, Nelson. Time: 7.30pm. Guest Judge:TBA

Annual Photography Competition

Our club’s annual Christmas get-together, and a chance to show off your skills with a camera.

Cost: Gold Coin Donation

FACEBOOK PAGE | Have your say | Publish photos

• Share your photos / videos of a tramping trip
• Share your opinions & trip ideas
• Keep up-to-date with what’s happening

Remember, ‘sharing is caring’... so keep all your comments positive on this forum. Here’s the link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1548415462086918/