One more month before applications for the 2018 FMC Expedition Scholarships close.
FMC is proud to offer Youth Scholarships (age under 30) for the eighth year running, and the Simon Bell Memorial Scholarship (no age restrictions) for the third consecutive year.
For information on how to apply, and to check the eligibility criteria, see https://www.fmc.org.nz/scholarship/
For any queries, e-mail our executive officer at eo@fmc.org.nz.
Applications close on Friday 14 September 2018.

A General Meeting will be held at the Copthorne Millennium Hotel in Palmerston North on Saturday 27 October 2018. Clubs in lower North Island are urged to send representatives.  All other clubs are very welcome to send their representatives.

The purpose of  the General Meeting will be to confirm FMC's new rules, which were circulated to all clubs in March.

Most of the day will be dedicated to a workshop which aims to discuss tramping opportunities and facilitate volunteer hut and track maintenance work in the Ruahine ,  Tararuas,  Kaweka & Kaimanawa  Forest Park.  The Backcountry Trust will be there to tell you how they can help your club. A detailed programme and information regarding delegates/proxy voting  will be distributed  in the near future. Watch this space!

Oparara's beautiful limestone landscapes are under threat from a proposed development by Tourism West Coast (TWC) and Development West Coast (DWC).

FMC has been working hard on this behind the scenes, and you are likely to hear much more about it all in the near future.

In the meanwhile, read FMC Exec member Neil Silverwood's article in Forest & Bird Magazine.

Public hearings about the proposed development in the Eglinton Valley were recently held in Te Anau. FMC remains strongly opposed to any commercial development in a National Park.

We are glad 142 submitters out of 153 thought the same on this issue. All submissions are now publicly available here.

The issue about Hunter Valley and the lack of public access through Hunter Valley Station has received extensive media coverge recently. As a result, Hunter Valley Station owner Matt Lauer has agreed to take part in negotiations in September this year. FMC will be attending these negotiations.

In the meanwhile, we have set up a webpage about access up the Hunter, and a facebook page where people can record their experiences in trying to obtain access.

The 4046ha station in the Canterbury High Country has recently gone for sale. The station, best known for hosting the Fox Peak skifield, consists mainly of unproductive land that is suitable for recreational endeavours.

Read more here.

The Chief Executive of Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) has recently announced the members of the new South Island High Country Advisory Group.

FMC has long advocated for the establishment of this group, and is proud to see its vice-president Jan Finlayson appointed to be a member of the group.

Read more here.

Not long now till entries close!  Individual supporters have until the 1st of September, whilst Clubs have until the 15th of September. Remember, your entries need to be sent via Cloud transfer (Google Drive, Dropbox, One drive etc…)  If you need help operating the technology, please get in touch early and we can help you out. Contact photocomp@fmc.org.nz. For all the information about the competition, see our website.

FMC Travel Club has started advertising trips for 2019. Destinations so far include East Africa and Zanzibar, Bangkok to Saigon, the Philippines and Madagascar.

For more information, click here.

We’ve heard of a number of clubs that have run successful touring trips and courses. It’d be great to see the photos and share the stories, so please send them through to us, so we can put them on Wilderlife or FMC Facebook.

Does your club operate a gear hire service? If so, what works and what doesn’t?  We want to hear the top tips and pitfalls to help create more helpful articles for our Outdoor Community resource on Wilderlife.  Drop us a line: dan.clearwater@fmc.org.nz.

Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club president Emily Shrosbree got in touch recently and said that they’d had difficulty trying to work out what rules apply to a volunteer-run tramping club when putting on transport for club trips. FMC put the enquiry to our legal reference group, and together we came up with a concise resource for all clubs, which we have published on Wilderlife’s Outdoor Community resource.