This year, the New Zealand Mountain Film and Book Festival is back again! Together, VUWTC and our mates at WTMC have joined up to run a screening of both the Pure NZ Night and Award Night screenings of the films featured in this year's programme.

We will be selling tickets to the Pure NZ Night, which will be hosted on Tuesday the 6th of October, and the Award Night, hosted on Thursday the 8th of October! All proceeds raised from ticket sales will be donated to charity!

Tickets are $20 for all, per night. Choose which night you'd like to come along to, or even come along to both! 

Bring your family, friends, neighbours and anyone along. Snacks encouraged!

This calendar listing is for tickets to the Award Night on Thursday the 8th of October!

See this listing for tickets and info on the Pure NZ Night hosted on Tuesday the 6th of October: Pure NZ Night

AWARD NIGHT: - total time 122 minutes - Thursday the 8th of October

Mia (6 mins) Marco Noe, Australia. Ten-year-old Mia is determined to land her biggest skating trick yet — again. For Mia, practice isn’t just routine; it’s progress in motion. BEST SHORT FILM

Mountain Of Mystery (34 mins) Jake Hopfinger, Justin Fann & Eric Parker, USA. Deep in British Columbia's most remote landscapes, a group of friends ski, kayak and surf their way through wild country. More than an extreme sports film, this is a story about shared challenge, laughter and the kind of unforgettable moments that only happen far from the beaten path. BEST ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES

Hunter's Moon (15 mins) Christina Lusti & Gee Pierrel, USA. Mountaineers Christina Lusti and Gee Pierrel are the first to ski an extremely steep line on the East Face of Aoraki. BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM

K2 – Chasing Shadows (67 mins) David Arnaud & Hugo Clouzeau, USA, subtitles. A record-breaking alpinist attempts a fast, oxygen-free ascent of K2 — one of the world's deadliest peaks— in a quest that pushes far beyond physical limits into deeply personal territory. GRAND PRIZE FILM

Tickets:

$20 per person, per night - Please note these tickets are for Award Night only; see the Pure NZ night tickets linked here: Pure NZ Night

Brought to you by the Vic Uni Tramping Club, Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club, and of course the  New Zealand Mountain Film and Book Festival!

Mark the Changing of the Guard with our Annual General Meeting! Decide who will be on the committee for 2027. The venue is SU228.

Nominate new committee members here: 

Below are some brief descriptions of what each role does, so have a read and a think.

President: 

• Run the meetings or delegate to someone else every other meeting. This includes making the meeting slides.
• Make sure committee meetings: Ensuring things get done when they need to happen (Freshers, Heels). 
• First point of contact: Typically you will be the first one to reach out to, whether that be new members or other queries.
• Be a friendly face: You are the face of the club so use it wisely ;)
• Co-manage the [email protected] email with the Secretary.

Secretary:

• Take minutes at committee meetings, special general meetings, and annual general meetings.
• Manage [email protected], jointly with the president.
• Manage physical mail - this includes letters, FMC cards, Backcountry magazines, gear donations, and other things. Generally, we don't get too much mail.
• Once a year, send annual financial statements to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.
• Keep club details updated on the Register, and let the Registrar know of any changes to the constitution.
• Once a year, re-register the club with Federated Mountain Clubs and the university.
• Once a year, apply for grant funding from the university, with help from the rest of the committee.
• Book the weekly meeting room and the clubs week stalls or get someone else to.
• Keep the Register of Members.
• Hold the club's records, documents, and books except those required for the Treasurer’s function.
• Attend in-person and online meetings, such as with FMC, Mountain Safety Council, and Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne.

Chief Guide & Assistant Chief Guide:

• Run trips!! The chief guides are responsible for all-things tramping. Run tons of trips and encourage & help others in the club to run trips too!
• Organize and lead the main annual trips which are: Snowcraft 1 & 2, Bushcraft and Freshers (shared with the social officers).
• Plus organizing Midwinter, which involves encouraging people to run larger trips over the uni holidays (and hopefully run a big one yourself!).
• Act as the main source of information for people in the club about tramping, like giving advice and helping others plan & run trips.
• Manage the [email protected] email.
• Quit your day job and spend every weekend tramping!

Treasurer & Co-Treasurer:

• Deal with payments for trips, including the big ones (Freshers, Bush rave etc)
• Keep track of the club’s annual budget
• Help with any payment issues for club members
• Chase up people who owe money
• Manage the [email protected] email
• No treasurer = No more tramps! 

Climbing Officer:

• Run weekly climb nights
• Organises Rockcraft 
• Organise/help others organise outdoor trips 
• Be fun and welcoming and get people climbing!! 

Social Convenor x 2:

• Organises all of the party trips: Tramps X3, Freshers (With chief guides), Bush ball, Midwinter Xmas, Bush rave
  • Finding location, organising setup crew, setting theme etc
• Be a friendly face at these events and others 
• Option to organise more social trips outside of these

Conservation Officer:

• Run a bunch of conservation trips!
• Promote conservation/environment/sustainability causes, like Conservation Week, Bird of the Year, NZ Garden Bird Survey, Earth Day, Plastic Free July etc.
• Maintain connections with long-standing partners of VUWTC: DOC, Sustainable Coastlines, Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne, uni clubs like VUW SCB and VUW Science Collective.
• Build new relationships with conservation and community groups.
• Possibly do 2-3 beach cleanups out at Opau Bay each year (VUWTC looks after that site).
• Help VUWTC contribute to conservation/environment related legislation if appropriate.
• Arrange conservation guest speakers if possible!
• Purchase/look after club conservation gear.
• Manage the [email protected] email.

Gear Custodian x 2:

•  Put gear in members’ hands
• Influence how club gear budget is spent
• Repair gear and give it new life
• Preserve club’s historic artifacts
•  Run working bees to do the heavy lifting
• Use of the gearshed workshop

Publicity Officer x 2:

• Manages the social media accounts; the Instagram account (@vuwtc), the Facebook page, and don't forget the TikTok! ;)
• Manages the vuwtc publicity email [email protected].
• Ensures the club is engaged on social media, by posting past trips, advertising upcoming trips, sending out reminders for weekly meetings, climbing nights & walkies etc
• Organises the creation and sale of merch
• Finds/makes good merch designs (hoodies, shirts, beanies, badges, stickers...), reach out to design companies, gets quotes to ensure we stick to budget, and ensures they get deliver

Hut Maintenance Officer:

• Gets the club involved in maintenance of huts and tracks
• Is our representative to the Greater Wellington Backcountry Network (GWBN)
• Would be great to have a keen person in this role

HEELs Officer:

• Leads the production of the annual magazine 'HEELS'; 
• Leads a group in charge of the design & writing of HEELS, 'hassles' people to write trip reports, reach out to book printing publishes, ensures we stick to both the printing guidelines and the budget

Join us for the biggest rave of the year! 

We will have a lineup of DJs, some incredible beats, and your fantastic dance moves! All in the bush! This is an overnight event, but no tramping is involved; we will drive to a campsite (location to be revealed), set up tents, and then party! We will camp overnight in tents/flys. 

Theme

This year's theme is SPOOKY FOREST. Come dressed in your spookiest outfit!

When?

Meet at 2 pm on Saturday the 10th of October at the Hunter Carpark outside the gear shed. Everyone must be there by 2:30pm!

On Sunday the 11th, the bus will pick us up at 11am and have us back at uni around 12pm.

Where?

The Bush Rave will be somewhere in the bush, within an hour's drive of Welly! The location will be revealed via email to everyone with a ticket the day before. 

Transport

We are hiring a bus to transport the majority of people, but we will also need some drivers. If you can bring a car, please let us know; you will be reimbursed for fuel.

What you need to bring:

• Your Fabulous Costume!

• Your dinner, breakfast, and plenty of snacks! 

• Your beverage of choice - no glass please

• Tent (Bring your own or find a spot under one of the club's flies)

• Pack + Pack liner/drybags

• Raincoat

• Headtorch + spare batteries

• Boots + socks

• Shorts + teeshirt not cotton

• Fleece/wool jumper not cotton

• Thermal top and bottom

• Warm hat, gloves and neck gaiter

• Sunhat + sunscreen

• 1L+ water bottle

• Personal first aid kit + personal medication

• Toilet paper + hand sanitizer

• Sleeping bag

•  Sleeping mat

• Toothbrush + toiletries

•  Bowl, mug and cutlery

It will get cold! Please bring plenty of warm clothes!

If you need to borrow any gear, eg sleeping bag/sleeping mat, please get in touch with the gear custodians: https://www.instagram.com/vuwtc_gear/ 

You must be a club member to borrow gear. Gear can be collected on Saturday before we get on the bus, please come at least 15mins early (1:45 pm) to get this sorted.

Welcome to Wednesday Climbing Nights!

Want to try indoor climbing for the first time, or meet some like-minded climbers? Come along to our weekly climb nights! We climb at Hangdog (Bouldering & Top roping) in Lower Hutt, and Faultline (Bouldering) on Willis St.

This week, we'll be climbing at Faultline, which is a bouldering gym. This means no ropes/harnesses and no belaying. There are grades for every level of experience, so no matter how much climbing experience you have you’ll have plenty to get stuck into!

IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME CLIMBING AT FAULTLINE, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE (https://www.wellingtonclimbing.co.nz/first_visit_fl/) AND SIGN THE ONLINE WAIVER BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR THE GYM!

This week: Faultline

Schedule:

• Meet outside the top floor of the VUWSA building at 5:00pm to walk down together or outside Faultline at 5:20 p.m.
• CLIMB!
• You can leave whenever you like (we usually finish up around 7:30-8:00 p.m) and return home independently.

Entry costs: $15 + $3 for shoes

This is not paid for through the club—there is no piking fee if you pull out. Pay at Faultline when we arrive.

To get the VUWTC entry price, just let the front desk know you are with VUWTC. Our discounted price is only from 5:30 pm onwards on Wednesdays.

See you there :)

Hello!

As I have been loving all the collabs between various clubs on campus here at VUW (looking at you Greywacke series) I feel that a collab between the VUWTC and the MUAC (Massey University Alpine Club) is in order. This also allows us to use the MUAC lodge on the mountain!

This is a planned summit of Tahurangi via the Skyline Ridge. As this is a trip that will take place during snowy conditions, It is mandatory that anyone coming has attended a snowcraft course, or can prove they have attended a similar course.

Give this course report by WTMC to get a feel for what this trip could be like 

https://wtmc.org.nz/trip-report/tahurangi-from-blyth-hut-mt-ruapehu/

The Skyline ridge is Mt Cook Grade 1 so its good way for anyone keen to get into moutaineering to get on.

I will be picking people for this course based on level of experience

Bushcraft 2 - An incredible journey for you to develop skills in navigation, river crossing, devouring food in the bush aka foraging, risk management and first aid! This trip is open to all who have a reasonable level of tramping experience and who are ready to learn what to do when things might not go to plan...

For Bushcraft 2, we will be heading to Tutuwai Hut on Friday the 2nd of October at 2pm, meeting at the Hunter Carpark at 1:30 pm. We will aim to be back by around 5pm on the Sunday. 

We will be fly camping at Tutuwai Hut, and the gear list is attached below. If you have your own compass and tararua map (Topo50), please bring it.

https://www.vuwtc.org.nz/resources/gear-list

If you want to learn more about Navigation, sign up to the nav course as well on the 15th of September.

Welcome to Wednesday Climbing Nights!

Want to try indoor climbing for the first time, or meet some like-minded climbers? Come along to our weekly climb nights! We climb at Hangdog (Bouldering & Top-roping) in Lower Hutt, and Faultline (Bouldering) on Willis St. 

This week, we'll be climbing at Hangdog, which is a top-roping and bouldering gym. This means some climbs will require ropes, harnesses & belaying. There are grades for every level of experience, so no matter how much climbing experience you have you’ll have plenty to get stuck into! 

This week: Hangdog (bring cars!)

Schedule:

• Sign up! (Even if you are meeting us there - they need to know numbers ahead of time)

• Meet at Hunter carpark at 5 pm, leave for the gym at 5:10 pm on the dot.

• CLIMB!

• You can leave whenever you like - but drivers need to have the same number of people in their cars that they brought out. (Drivers - make sure the people you drove out know when you want to leave!)

• PAY YOUR DRIVERS 

Costs: $15 entry + $3 for shoes + $3 for your driver

This is not paid for through the club so there is no piking fee if you pull out. Pay at the gym when we arrive/to your driver directly.

To get the VUWTC entry price, just let the front desk know you are with VUWTC. Our discounted price is only from 5:30 pm onwards on Wednesdays.

See you there :)