Inaugural Auckland Mature Mountaineers Event

Ross Cullen presenting at the Inaugural MM meeting in Auckland

The highly successful Mature Mountaineers meetings are starting to spread nation-wide, thanks to the support of the New Zealand Alpine Club and the newly formed NZAC Tūpiki Trust.

An inaugural Auckland Mature Mountaineers event was held last week in the Epsom Community Centre, attracting 20 people to a presentation from Tūpiki Trust chair Ross Cullen.  Drawing on his 40 plus years of climbing in the area, Ross provided an informative and entertaining talk on ‘Climbs in the Ōhau Region’ and the evening included a brief cameo appearance by Peter Cammell who enlivened an already cheerful crowd.  

Auckland Mature Mountaineer attendees expressed enthusiasm for continuing the events on a quarterly basis and suggested widening the mailout list to include Auckland Alpine Sports and Auckland Tramping Club.   They aim to bring together more senior outdoors people, many of whom are still active, to renew friendships and to perhaps plan another trip or two after being inspired by hearing a talk at a Mature Mountaineers meeting.

Mature Mountaineers meetings, which have been held for about twenty years in Christchurch, occur quarterly and attract strong attendance numbers from local NZAC, CMC and out of town visitors.  The NZAC Tūpiki Trust could see the value in extending that successful formula to other centres throughout New Zealand as a way of bringing climbers together.  By providing any necessary seed funding and by working closely with the local NZAC Section Committee members, the Tūpiki Trust team are keen to spread the benefits of these meetings to other centres.

If you, or a mature mountaineer you may know, would like to explore the idea of a similar meeting in your area, just contact Ross Cullen or any of the Tūpiki Trust Board members at www.tupikitrust.org.nz