You may have heard people yarning on about footprints you may have been nagged to write one and might not even know what a Footprints is!

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Footprints is a recount of your best club trip tramping adventure! We collect these up over the year and put them into a book which is printed and given out at the end of the year. They are a great way to look back at some of the adventures you got up to while in the club and a great source of club history! Click here to read past years Footprints, or have a look at the bottom of the page.

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Here are some handy tips on how to write a trip report:

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• Write it on Sunday evening or Monday! If you leave it any longer you often forget the details and often it never gets done because life gets in the way.

• The best trip reports are a little bit original, quirky, something everyone can relate to e.g. here’s a snippet from one in 2015: “Enda found a manky fork on the track near the hut. Zach didn’t bring cutlery for his dinner so resorted to using said manky fork. Although Zach did clean the manky fork with a wet wipe, this was after Enda cleaned the candle wax out of a candle holder with it”

• Can you write with a theme or a different perspective? e.g. write a story from the perspective of your ice axe, tramping boots, or hat. Turn a trip on Pirongia into a deep description of your love for mud.

• The route and time you spent walking to the hut or up a hill aren’t always that interesting. What is interesting is: what you were thinking about while trying to climb the hill, how many people you can fit into a three-man tent, how many times you wake up during a snowstorm, something silly someone brought on a trip, things that went wrong and how many beers you drank at the pub on the way home.

• Tell the story of the tramp itself, not the details of your trip.

• Trip reports don’t have to be long or even in the order that it happened on the trip. Other formats/ styles could be poems, diary entries, haikus, limericks, be creative!

• Include the names of people who went on the trip at the top as well as the date and trip location

• Also, include at least one photo if you can

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Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good Footprints

– Someone wise on the CUTC page is this is where I have stolen this text off 

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Then once you have one written, send it to publications@autc.org.nz and wait to see it published at the end of the year! Or see it posted on this website and Instagram!​​

 

Any questions? Flick us an email