About the Club

The club was formed by a group of Tokoroa people of varied outdoor interests and means of employment at a time when the Tongariro National Park authorities were making building sites available to clubs. The primary objective of the club as stated in its constitution is: to encourage tramping, mountaineering, climbing, skiing, and alpine activities in New Zealand.

The initially very small group decided they would put a lodge on Ruapehu and were fortunate enough to have their application accepted and were allocated a site. The first stage of the lodge was built within two years: raising the money occupied half of that time, site preparation and foundation work most of the rest of the available time (when the site was not buried in snow). The actual lodge building was carried out on one weekend — the floor was put down on Friday 21/3/69, the lodge went up on Saturday, and the roof cladding was completed on Sunday. Two more extensions have since been added to provide reasonably comfortable lodge accommodation for up to twenty-nine people.

The largest group of club lodge users are winter sports enthusiasts, but there are a significant number of others who make use of the facilities throughout the year: photographers, trampers, family parties, school groups, naturalists, various social clubs, and some who just want to get away for some peace and quiet on the mountain. The club has always encouraged family participation in its activities and family membership charges are currently at a cheaper rate than the equivalent individual memberships.

Lodge fees have been kept to a minimum and are probably among the lowest on the mountain. This is achieved by the members doing just about everything they possibly can for themselves. The lodge was almost entirely built with members' voluntary labour and all subsequent maintenance, cooking, cleaning and other tasks are conducted on the same basis.