The Tokoroa Alpine Club has been connecting people with New Zealand's mountains since 1967.
• Encourage tramping, mountaineering, climbing, skiing, and alpine activities. • Provide affordable lodge accommodation on Mt Ruapehu for members and guests. • Foster a community of outdoor enthusiasts and mountain lovers. • Maintain and improve the club lodge through voluntary labour. • Support conservation and responsible use of New Zealand's alpine environments.
• Initiated 1964. Incorporated 1967. Built 1968-1969. Opened 1970. Over 59 years of alpine club history. • Waldvogel Lodge. Our 29-bed lodge in the Whakapapa ski area, open year-round. • Member built and maintained by member voluntary labour. • Members now include adults, youth, and children from across New Zealand. • New members welcome.
The idea of starting a ski club in Tokoroa was first discussed informally in 1964 by a small group of enthusiastic local outdoor people, including Warwick Hoy, Colin Hoy, Alan Cragg, Wilf Lorenzen, Geoff Rennison and David Aitken.
Following a public meeting held in June 1964 at the residence of Ron Giles, a contractor on the Main Road opposite the old Tokoroa Hotel, a steering committee made up of those people was established. The committee was charged with charting the direction and operations of the new club, which was formed in July 1964.
Geoff Rennison was the first President, Warwick Hoy was the first Treasurer and Alan Cragg was the first Secretary. Both Geoff and Alan later joined the National Park Service. Alan became Chief Ranger of Westland National Park, based at Franz Josef, and later retired to Goose Bay, Kaikoura. Geoff aspired to Chief Ranger of Kahurangi National Park and later retired to Takaka, Golden Bay.
The club was initially called the Tokoroa Ski Club. In those early days, with membership slowly growing, it was decided to change the name to the Tokoroa Alpine Club. This was considered more appropriate as the tramping and skiing members were becoming more equal in number. The club’s primary objective, as stated in its constitution, is to encourage tramping, mountaineering, climbing, skiing and alpine activities in New Zealand.
From the early committee meetings, the main goal was to build a hut on Mt Ruapehu. This was enthusiastically supported by the membership, and fundraising became the main focus. At the time, the Tongariro National Park authorities were making building sites available to clubs, and the Tokoroa Alpine Club was fortunate to have its application accepted and a site allocated.
Fundraising took considerable effort. Activities included bottle drives and coal drives, when one or two railway trucks from Huntly State Mines would be parked at the Tokoroa railway yards and unloaded into bags by willing workers. The coal, having been pre-sold, was then distributed to buyers around town. Another back-breaking fundraiser was the pulling out of Pinus Contorta for the Tongariro Park Board. The Friday night “Pig in a Barrow” raffle around the Tokoroa shopping area also helped bring in much-needed cash.
During this period, following personal approaches by the Scribe to Rona Stevenson, the M.P. of the day for Taupo, a grant of five hundred pounds from the Golden Kiwi was made to the club.
The club was duly incorporated on 28 March 1967. In that same year, the Tongariro National Park Board allocated the club a site on the mountain for lodge building. The plan adopted and agreed with the Park Board was to erect a small first-stage Lockwood building, providing limited accommodation, and then to attract more members and raise funding for a second stage to be erected in 1972.
Site clearing, excavation and construction started in March 1968. Work continued every weekend until July, when deep snow halted operations. It was not until late January 1969, and with the departure of Geoff Rennison, that Henry Waldvogel took over as President.
A very busy period then followed. The foundation sub-walls were completed, the bond beam concrete was poured, water tanks were constructed and everything below the floor was put in place ready for the Lockwood shell.
On the weekend of the lodge construction, the advance party put down the floor on Friday 21 March 1969, ready for the main party arriving on the Saturday. Under the guidance of Joe Kastermans, the local Lockwood agent, the shell went up in a day, with half the roofing iron in place before it became too dark to continue. The roof cladding was completed on the Sunday. The 25 members who turned up for this work represented about half of the club membership at that time.
The first stage of the lodge had been built within two years of the site being allocated. Raising the money occupied about half of that time, while site preparation and foundation work took up most of the remaining available time, when the site was not buried in snow.
Many further work parties were held to complete the large number of jobs required to bring the lodge up to a comfortable condition for use. Everything was up and running for the official opening by Jim Higgins, Mayor of Tokoroa, on Saturday 28 May 1970. Unfortunately, Henry Waldvogel, who had been such a stalwart leader since taking over from Geoff Rennison, did not quite make the opening function, as he died on 21 April 1970. The lodge is named in his memory.
Two further extensions have since been added to provide reasonably comfortable lodge accommodation for up to 29 people.
The largest group of club lodge users are winter sports enthusiasts, but many others also make use of the facilities throughout the year. These include photographers, trampers, family parties, school groups, naturalists, various social clubs, and people who simply want to get away for some peace and quiet on the mountain.
The club has always encouraged family participation in its activities. Family entrance fees have been kept at a cheaper rate than the equivalent individual entrance fees. Lodge fees have also been kept to a minimum and are probably among the lowest on the mountain.
This has been achieved because members have always done as much as possible for themselves. The lodge was built almost entirely with voluntary labour, and subsequent maintenance, cooking, cleaning and other lodge tasks have continued on the same basis.
