Organiser: Liz Henderson | Instructor: Mike Glover
Venue: Nelson Hospital & Lodestone (Kahurangi NP)

Thanks to Liz Henderson, our new Training & Safety Coordinator, the Nelson Tramping Club’s annual Navigation Weekend has been resurrected!

Saturday: Mike Glover and 17 eager participants gathered at the Hospital Seminar Centre for a classroom-style session on navigating in the New Zealand backcountry. Mike has a great programme that he has developed over the years including pictures, slides and maps. Topics covered included map reading, compass bearings and navigating using a compass and map. It was a great day with lots of practical exercises to reinforce the learning. For first timers it can be confusing and the exercises really put the puzzle together and everything made sense; more experienced participants were able to help the newbies and review their own knowledge.

Sunday: we headed up to Flora carpark to put our newly-learned skills into practice on the slopes on Lodestone. Mike had done a reccy a couple weeks before and was ready to test our abilities and preconceived notions.

We reached Flora Saddle and took a compass bearing to the first high point. We headed off into the bush using runners and spotters to make sure we were staying true to our compass bearing. Mike was right. He had warned us that our tendency would be to pull toward the ridge and not trust the bearing. Lo and behold, we stayed true to the compass, arriving at our lunch break spot on the 1260-metre high point.

After lunch we did some more navigation practice by heading off the other side of the ridge to find the marked track to Lodestone which was not accurately shown on the map; another little navigation trap for us to learn.

We then navigated to another high point on the ridge and did some triangulation on nearby peaks before heading back up to our 1260 high point and taking another compass bearing back down in a straight line to Flora Hut.

A big thank you to Liz for organising the weekend and providing lovely snacks and nibbles on the Saturday and to Mike for his passion in sharing his knowledge with others.

Participants: Liz Henderson, Kate Krawczyk (scribe), Madeline Roeher, Nina Solter, Graeme Ferrier, Penny Parker, Donna Parker, Debbie Hogan, Gabrielle Blakemore, Nicole McGill, Dale Giles, Kath Ballantine, Ian Morris, Wayne Bicknell, Warren Horne, Tracey Castleton & Kathy Smith.