NTCA co-founder Joe Cooper dropped into Treetools on Friday afternoon to bring us up to date with plans for the 2012 Tree Climbers Gathering at the Otaua Sports and Pig Hunters Club in Otaua over the weekend on 17-18 March.
Last years inaugural event was held in a paddock on the Alderton family farm but this year things are going slightly upmarket. That is,
Otaua is about 20 minutes west of Kaikohe and Kaikohe is about 250 kms north of Auckland so allocate a bit of time for travel.
Joe and fellow organizer Troy Alderton have plenty of tree climbing activities planned for all members of the family. The team relay event which includes dragging brush, knot tying, throwline and SRT ascent should be very interesting. All teams must include one child member to keep things fair.
The Gibbons slack line team from Auckland are also planning to attend. This should give tree climbing slackers the opportunity to learn a few tricks from the pros and to trial the various slack line alternatives from Gibbons.
The Climb Every Thing crew, Johno Smith, Zane Wedding and Drew Bristow, will manage the kids climbing arena again, as per last year.
The kids arena is a real attraction - last year, locals turned up on the farm each day just so they could be involved. The kids (and adults) speedline is supplied by Treetools.
If numbers are sufficient, a bus trip to the nearby Waipoua Forest (Tane Mahuta) is planned along with a hangi meal on Saturday night.
In order to manage catering (and tee shirt numbers) Joe has requested attendees fill in the digital registration and return is to Amber at uptrees.upnorth@xtra.co.nz as soon as possible.
The NTCA Tree Climbers gathering is a family affair so everyone can get involved - Otaua 2012 will be a great tree climbing weekend - not to be missed - see last years NTCA blog post here for a taste of things to come. More NTCA information on facebook<.
