The recipients of the 2019 FMC Expedition Scholarships have been announced:

Simon Bell Memorial Expedition Scholarship

Luca Karjalainen, Otago University Tramping Club, for a trip to the Olivine Ice Plateau and environs.

Youth Expedition Scholarships

Full awards:

Ben Mangan, Canterbury Mountaineering Club and NZAC Canterbury-Westland, for a trip to the Gardens of Eden / Allah with the intention to explore new climbing routes on Newton Peak.

Patrick Marsh, Canterbury University Tramping Club, for a traverse from West Cape to the South Coast Track, Fiordland.

Sacha Knight, Auckland University Tramping Club, for a traverse from Arthur’s Pass to Mt Cook Village.

Merlyn Barrer, Nayland College (Nelson), for a bike-walk-kayak west to east Traverse of the Upper South Island.

Elizabeth Ravn, Individual Supporter, for an off-track, alpine traverse from the Routeburn to the Eglinton with side trips into the Pembroke Wilderness.

Jamie Macalister, Canterbury Mountaineering Club, for a trip aiming to pioneer new rock-climbing routes on Douglas Spur, Paringa River, Westland.

Partial awards:

Harriett Miller, NZAC Nelson, for a traverse from Whanganui (Kahurangi) to Whataroa.

Mary Williams, Individual Supporter, for a run of the Rakiura and Te Araroa tracks with emphasis on promotion on matters pertaining to mental health.

Beren Goodwin (17yrs), Hutt Valley Tramping Club, for a trip on the Te Araroa track.

Congratulations to all the scholarship recipients on their successful applications. We wish you a summer full of rewarding adventures, and look forward to your trip reports!

Click here to learn more about FMC’s Expedition Scholarships.

FMC invites expressions of interest for a contract role assisting with our digital communications. It is envisaged that the contract would involve approximately 5hrs per week, and work with Instagram, Facebook, our Wilderlife.nz blog and other front-end FMC digital tasks. The contractor would be likely to begin early in the new year. We will invite applications via FMC social media if/when the role has been fully approved for hiring. Since it won't be announced via this newsletter, if you wish to register your interest, please email dan.clearwater@fmc.org.nz.

The Great Unknown is a richly illustrated and fascinating record of more than 50 years of Geoff's journeys into the heart of our wild lands.

We've got three copies to give away. To be in to win, post some images from your latest journey into the hills on Instagram and tag @federatedmountainclubs. You can enter as many times as you like. The tag does not work on facebook. The winners will be drawn at random from all entries on 1st December.

FMC published a policies document in December 2018. It was the result of a year-long policies review process that included consultation with clubs. Hard copies of the document were sent to clubs, politicians, and others we wanted to inform. There is an online version.

FMC’s policies committee reconvened this year to ensure our policies, individually and as a whole, remain fit for purpose. The committee recommended a handful of minor changes, which were approved by the FMC Executive at an Exec meeting in Wellington on 19 October 2019. The online version of our policies has thus been updated.

Click here to read the amendments to our policies.

Land Information New Zealand has released a preliminary proposal for the tenure review of 51,000ha Glenaray Station and of the adjacent Whitecomb run, an additional 11,000ha under same ownership. The preliminary proposal is now open for public consultation; submissions close on Monday 27 January 2020.

FMC considers the land included in this tenure review proposal of high importance for the future of our Remarkables National Park campaign, and for the reclassification of Waikaia Forest as part of our Forgotten Lands campaign. FMC will therefore write a detailed submission on the proposal.

Read more

In the FMC Bulletin 204 (June 2016, page 44-45) we featured an article by Dennis Brown (Auckland TC) on the Needle Block in the northern Kaimanawa Mountains. This is “a tract of covenanted private land broadly delimited by the Waipakihi River to the north, the Upper Waikato Stream to the west, Defence Force land to the south and to the east by a line running south from Karikaringa (1694 metres). It’s an untracked land of rolling tops, accessible high points and varied vegetation and topography, with views to die for. In short, classic North Island tops country, but an area seldom visited by trampers.” The block is served by two hunters’ huts, Cathedral and Patutu.

Access to the Needle Block, like to many other parts of the Kaimanawa Mountains, is across private land and by permit only.

Read more

In June 2019, the Department of Conservation notified an application to dispose of approximately 5 ha of public conservation land in the Wai-iti River, Spring Grove, Nelson.

While the proposed application may seem of limited interest to our membership, FMC does nonetheless note that in the heavily modified plains of the Waimea River, every little remnant of native vegetation matters, and should be preserved. Additionally, the public land does provide for recreational access to the Wai-iti River. FMC thus submitted against the application.

Read more

FMC welcomes Aspiring Safety to our member benefits scheme. There is a 10% discount & free shipping over $120 to NZ/AU for FMC card holders. Either show your current FMC card in store or contact Aspiring Safety with your card details to get the discount for online orders.

FMC members can also receive a discount on Geoff Spearpoint's recently released book The Great Unknown. See the November issue of Backcountry magazine for details.

2019 was another record year with 565 entries from 35 clubs and 31 individual supporters. Congratulations to the winners, who are all announced in the November issue of Backcountry magazine. FMC will soon be creating a slideshow of entries for our clubs to download, watch this space!

If your club didn't enter, we encourage you to check out Wilderlife's resource for 'how to run a photo comp' and consider it for next year.

Have an outdoor friend who isn’t involved in a club, but they still feel strongly about issues which affect our ability to enjoy NZ’s mountains and wild places?

Put your money where their mouth is! From as little as $45 for a year’s membership, you can sign them up today as an FMC individual supporter, and download a 'gift card' to send to them personally.