A Conference and Special 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.

A programme for the Conference and Special General Meeting is now available here.

Most of the day will be dedicated to a Conference and workshp which aims to discuss tramping opportunities and facilitate volunteer hut and track maintenance work in the Ruahine Ranges.  

All FMC club members are welcome to attend the Conference, not just SGM delegates and proxies. If you wish to attend the Conference, please let us know by e-mailing eo@fmc.org.nz.

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

Clubs can find a guide to voting, delegates and proxies here. An attendance and voting form was sent to all clubs by e-mail and post, but is also available online.

The recipients of the 2018 FMC expedition scholarships have been announced.

Simon Bell Memorial Expedition Scholarship

Morgan Scully and Coraline Buchet, Victoria University of Wellington Tramping Club, for a traverse of the Southern Alps.

Youth Expedition Scholarships

Dave Kelbe, Otago University Tramping Club, for a walking and pack-rafting traverse from Doubtful Sound to Dusky Sound.

Madeleine Whittaker, Otago University Tramping Club, for the South Island section of the Te Araroa Trail to raise funds for youth at risk.

Sooji Clarkson, Individual Supporter, for a female-led climbing trip to the Balfour Neve.

Jake Harris, Nelson College, for a 20-day traverse of the Tasman Wilderness Area in Kahurangi National Park.

Keving Peng, CUTC and NZAC Canterbury/Westland, for an exploratory rock-climbing trip to the Ruggedy Mountains on Rakiura / Stewart Island.

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!

Matt Lauer and DOC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that sets clear rules for public access to Hunter Valley Station by walkers, mountain bikers, horse riders and 4WD vehicles.

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FMC is extremely concerned about the scope of a proposed development in Oparara, and the legality of the process followed by public agencies.

Development West Coast (DWC) and Tourism West Coast (TWC) commissioned branding and design consultants BrandAid with a Feasibility Study and Business Case for the Oparara Valley. A draft report was released to “key stakeholders” (including FMC) for feedback in July 2018.

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Draft new manegement plans for Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park and Westland / Tai Poutini National Park have been published and are available on the DOC website.

Some of the most controversial proposals include a Park & Ride system for access to Mount Cook Village, the replacement of helicopter landing zones with a "soundscapes" approach, the opening up of the Hooker Valley to helicopter landings, access to dogs in Westland National Park and an amenity area for a gondola to Almer Hut on Franz Josef Glacier.

FMC will be submitting on both management plans. Given the importance of many of the issues raised, we strongly encourage our members to send in their own submissions also, before 9 November 2018. Click on the links above for instructions on how to submit.

We want to help you! FMC has five online introductory photography courses from Hot Pixels to give away. The aim is to inspire those who haven’t entered the FMC competition to improve and develop their photography. Therefore, the competition is only open to FMC individual supporters, and members of a FMC affiliated club who have not entered the FMC competition.

To be in to win, just take an issue of Backcountry magazine somewhere interesting, take a photo showing someone reading it, then send the picture to photocomp@fmc.org.nz. The competition closes on the 31st of November. Five winners will be drawn at random, and announced on the 3rd of December. For more information, see the announcement on FMC.org.nz.

Have you had a look at our Wilderlife.nz blog yet? The online magazine features articles on all the types of public conservation land, trip reports, gear reviews, controversial opinions and satire. The Outdoor Community section features advice and resources for clubs and groups, on things like growing your membership, gear hire systems, and keeping legal with club transport. Also, the whole "Safety in the Mountains" manual is online, plus the What's on event calendar.

We are always on the look out for contributors to Wilderlife. If you or your club would like to contribute, stories, photos, events, opinions or anything else you can think of to the site, please get in touch!

The fourth anniversary of Bob’s death occurs when the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park is made topical by recent closures of the Range’s rough tramping tracks. As well as being on various parks advisory committees, Mountain Safety Council, land search and rescue, and the local Conservation Board, Bob was also a founding member of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society.

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During the summer of 2017 Stefan Fairweather took six months off work to walk the Te Araroa Trail. He is now publishing a book about his journey.

The project is self-published and 5% of all profits will go to each of the Te Araroa Trust, The Royal Forest and Bird Society, and the Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) of NZ.

The book will be printed and ready for distribution at the end of November/start of December 2018. You can read about the book on this website: www.northtosouthnz.com

You can follow the link to the PledgeMe site where you can order copies of this limited edition book.

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

For more information, click here.