Mt Obi
Sunday 7 April 2024
Seven of us left Oamaru on a fine morning and headed down to Palmerston and then inland on the Pigroot Rd to the rest area by the Pigroot creek bridge to meet up with our three members from Dunedin.
It was then on with the day packs and across the road to walk up Pigroot creek or what we thought was the right creek. However we soon realised we were in the wrong creek, so we soon put it right by climbing up a wee hill to be above Pigroot creek. We kept this height over a few gullies to finally pick up the 4WD track that we would follow to the top.
It was a warm hike up a steep track that just kept on going, but the views out to the Maniototo and south were amazing and we could hear the Stags in the distance roaring. At point 1128m two of our members headed back down. The rest of the group veered east onto another track that levelled off and then dropped down a bit before a 200m grunt up to meet the main track under Obi that comes up from Shingly Creek Rd.
At this point another member stopped there to rest and have lunch while the rest of the group headed on up to reach the top of Obi 1426m at about 1.15pm.
As it was such a nice day a leisurely lunch was taken with amazing 360 degree views of the coast, the Kakanui Mountains of Mt Dasher, Mt Evelyn, Kakanui Peak and Mt Domett in the distance, right through to the mountains around Queenstown.
All things have to come to an end so at 2pm it was back down the track to meet up with the member that had lunch at the track junction. We then headed down the track towards Shingly Creek Rd but about ¾ of the way down we dropped off the main track and took another track west down to Siberia creek. It was then down the creek through a bit of scrub back out to the river flats and back to the cars getting back at about 4pm.
It was such a nice day to be in the hills and I would like to thank the farmers that let us through their properties. So after nearly 17km and a 900m climb that took about nearly 7 hrs, everyone had had an enjoyable day.
Thanks to Julian, Lynette, Tizzy, Geoff, Mary, Neil, Tim, Helen and Rodney for their company for the day.
Neville
