Author Archive
Club Night July 2017
Tuesday, July 11th, 2017
Two new members were welcomed.
The Club will celebrate its 40th anniversary on the 28-29 October 2017. All members and ex members are invited to register.
1080 has been laid in the Herbert Forest so dog owners were advised to keep them on a lead.
The pest traps the club looks after are to be rebaited shortly.
Trip Reports:
7 trampers headed up the North Temple for a cold but fine day, stayed at Twizel for the night and attempted going up the Pyramids in the fog the next day with limited success.
A round trip from Bethune’s Gully up Mt. Cargill returning via the organ pipes and Sawyers Bay was enjoyed by 9 members.
Wednesday Walkers:
A walk around the historic sites of Hampden and Herbert covered 13k on a very windy day.
Trig L was climbed via a steep ridge from the south, returning down a 4wd track.
Next week, as the weather looked dicey, it was decided to walk the Kurow A2O Track down to the winery, returning up beside the Waitaki River to the new bridges.
The 5 July was the mid-winter dinner at the Star and Garter but a 7k Papakaio farm walk was enjoyed in the morning.
Our Club Night Guest speaker was Arun Gunn from Port Blakely, the forest owners of the Herbert Forest, other New Zealand and also overseas forests.
He told us about the Forest Stewardship Council, an international gold standard certification for responsible forest management. Port Blakely NZ have been certified since 2003. One of the aims is to maintain or enhance the long term economic, social and environmental benefits from the forest.
It involves forest monitoring for things like forest health, nutrients needed, planting, tree management and harvesting, and a tree can be tracked right through to the finished product.
Wilding pine spread is anticipated with help for control given where appropriate. Significant natural areas such as podocarp remnants are identified and their social use is encouraged, as happens in the Herbert Forest. Pests are being controlled.
Arun thoughtfully answered many questions from the meeting.
Coming Trips:
16 July there will be a working bee in the Herbert Forest. Because it is so wet it will mainly involve baiting traps and bait stations.
29-30 July is a “relaxed” biking trip in the Alexandra area.
The “whats on” page has more details.
Club Night April 2017
Tuesday, April 11th, 2017
The 10 April meeting welcomed 2 new members.
The Club will celebrate its 40th Anniversary on the 28-29 October this year with a dinner and a walk in the Herbert Forest.
Wednesday Walkers walks over the past month were a Mt. Meyer circuit on the North side of the Waitaki River, Gunns Bush and White Horse Hill near Waimate, Doctors Point at Waitati, and the Millenium Track to Moeraki then up to the boulders.
Club Trips were; the Otago Aniversary weekend trip to the East Matukituki in good weather with side trips up valleys to spectacular circs and waterfalls.
4 members guided Arthur Street School children on a walk upstream from Camp Iona to introduce them to our N Z bush.
Members biked the back roads from Dunback to Shag Point and a working bee was held in the Herbert Forest tracks, clearing the tracks and putting in steps.
The main event for the month was the Herbert Forest Guided walks Day where 20 members organised and guided 80 guests through the podocarp bush on a brilliantly fine day. Many were family groups with young children, keen to enjoy the outdoors.
Our Guest Speaker for the evening was Eion Rutherford, who together with his wife Liza, travelled by motorhome with two other motor homers from London to China and back. Careful preparation was essential including joining the Silk Road Club, obtaining visas and insurance and establishing contacts in Europe who could obtain and send spare parts when necessary.
Their route lead through Europe and Kazakhstan to China, where they toured for 3 months, then back through Russia and Europe to London.
They became proficient at negotiating Borders, dealing with corrupt police and solving breakdown problems, the roads being fairly hard on the vehicles.
They stayed mainly at truck stops surrounded by huge rigs, found the locals friendly and helpful and they enjoyed some spectacular scenery.
In a few months they set out on an extended trip in their motor home round South America.
Club trips planned for the next month are the Motatapu Track, with groups starting from each end and Hidden Lake via the Omarama Saddle. The NOTMC website has more deteils.
The Club AGM will be held on the 8 May, at which the Gray’s will share their experiences of volunteering with DOC.
Aspiring National Park, East Matukituki
Monday, March 27th, 2017
Otago Aniversary Weekend, 17-20 March 2017
Six of us set off on Friday night for the Albert town Camping ground in Wanaka. With the weather looking good we were all looking forward to a good weekend in Mt Aspiring National Park. We stopped at Omarama for tea and got to Albert town about 9.30pm and set up our tents except one of our member who decided to sleep outside but with the rain during the night he soon retreated to the back seat of my truck.
On Saturday morning we packed up and headed for the National Park and on the way meeting Jane M in Wanaka so our party was now seven. We parked up at the swing bridge that goes over the Matukituki river just passed Cameron flat. There was a bit of light rain but that soon cleared as we headed up the east branch of the Matukituki river valley towards Aspiring flats. The first hour was over farm land till we reached the Glacier Burn river swing bridge and then we followed a rough marked track through the bush on the true right of the east Matukituki river. It was slow going in places but finally we reach Junction flat at about 3pm and then it was the final slog for another 1 ¼ hours up the Kitchener river to Aspiring flats.
We found a good sheltered camp spot about 500m after coming out of the bush and everybody was happy to get their packs off and set up camp. About an hour after we got there 24 members of the Otago Tramping club emerged out of the bush and set up camp further up the valley. We then settled in for the night with some of us playing cards and a few camp songs sung before headed to bed after a big day.
On the Sunday it dawned with low cloud in the Valley. We decided that today we would go for a walk up to the head of the valley and the Turnbull Thompson Falls in the morning and then have a look up the Rainbow Stream in the afternoon. We set off by crossing the Kitchener River and heading up the flats towards the head of the valley. The low cloud was starting to lift a bit giving us some great views of the 2700m mountains surrounding us and the Kitchener Cirque. On the way we stopped and checked out the Rock of Age Biv and signed the visitor’s book. This rock biv has a fire place and it is said it will sleep 20 people but would only keep about 4 people dry if it rained. We then carried on up the river flats to where the valley narrowed up a bit. We found a track through the bush at first and then out over a slip and then it was down into the river with big boulders trying to find a way up to the falls. We got to about half a km from the falls but the boulders were getting bigger and the rock pools were getting deeper and it was taking longer than we thought so we headed back to camp for lunch.
After lunch five of us headed up Rainbow Stream that meet the Kitchener River opposite our camp. The first part of the stream is over river rocks but us we got further up the steam the rocks got bigger and then we were climbing our way through a maze of rocks as big as house’s. After about 1 ½ hours we climbed up on to a grasses knob to where we could see the head of the steam and the way up to Wilmot Pass. By this time the wind was starting to pick up so it was back down the steam to camp. That night it was quite windy and we were watching some waterfalls coming off the mountains getting blown back up.
Monday morning we were up about 7am, packed up camp and off back down the track by 8.15am. We stopped for lunch at the Glacier Burn River where we could get a view up the Glacier Burn to the Avalanche Glacier and then back at the Vehicles by 2pm. It was then back to Wanaka for a short stop before heading home. I would like to thank everybody that came along for a great weekend, great views and great company.
John C, Mark B, Matt D, Jane G, Jen F and Jane M – Neville
Club Night Report March 2017
Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
Trip Reports
After trying to get to the North Temple basin for several Wednesdays but being put off by wet weather the Wednesday Walkers finally made it near the end of February. A lovely easily accessible alpine basin at the top of Lake Ohau.
24 headed over to Queenstown and Cromwell to bike the trails there in ideal weather, and last week was a walk up Deep Stream beside Lake Aviemore.
The tramping Club had a weekend trip to Dunedin, walking up and along the Maungatuas, followed the next day by a climb up Harbour Cone on the Otago Peninsula and then a walk out to the Pyramids and Victory Beach. Last week was a day walk to Gentle Annie hut in the Horse Range.
Coming Trips
A weekend trip to Aspiring Flats, Glacier Burn and Junction Flat.
A mountain bike ride in the McRaes area with a visit to the Redbank skink enclosure.
The Club is again holding a guided walks day on the three Herbert Forest tracks on the 9 April starting at 10am. Cancelation because of wet weather will be on the NOTMC website on evening of the 7 April.
The Club is starting preparation for the celebration of its 40th Anniversary.
Guest Speakers
Club Members Gail and Tricia shared their Federated Mountain Clubs trip to the West USA National Parks last September October.
They started in the Sequoia National Park with massive Sequoia trees and the odd nosey grizzly bear.
Large areas of trees are dying because of the bark beetle.
Yosemite NP was the highest at 15000 ft. and they did a lot of walks above 9000ft, with a drive through Death Valley at 280ft below sea level, being the lowest.
They had 3 days walking the rim of Grand Canyon, but the amazing shaped rocks of Monument Valley, Arches NP and Goblin Valley with self-explanatory names, were one of the highlights.
Yellowstone NP was the last stop, where they joined some of the 350 million tourists to visit the US National Parks each year, the park being a decidedly larger version of Rotorua’s hot pools and guysers!
Their travels took them from the heat of summer in the south through the autumn colours to an early sprinkling of snow at Yellowstone.
Dunedin Hills
Sunday, March 12th, 2017
25-26 February 2017
Guess we all go to Dunedin often enough, but don’t usually have time to explore it’s hills. Having members from Dunedin – Helen and Rodney, it seemed a good opportunity to use their local knowledge. With some venturing down on Fri night [for a nice pizza meal] others chose the option of an early start on Sat.
Eventually 13 of us congregated at Outram to head up into Horsehoof Station to make an ascent of Maungatuas via their Woolshed Road (from the north) and with a key key to their locked gate. With a party doing a longer route and one a shorter – we met by the aerials. Then the harder work began though thick scrub to a solitary rocky outcrop, then onto the Trig point at 895 m taking almost 3 hours. Views from the Kakanuis, Hawkduns, Strath Taieri, and south into Southland’s Blue Mountains.
After locating a pretty tarn, we ventured back down, having plenty of time to ready ourselves for a pleasant Thai meal in town.
Next morning the day dawned bright and sunny for us to venture out onto The Peninsula. A couple of differing routes took us up the summit of Harbour Cone, with a 3rd route taken by some to descend. What amazing 360 views!!
Travelling on NE-wards we had quite a trek to the Pyramids, onto Victory Beach and Okia Reserve,
being fortunate enough to have low tide so that we could see 156 year-old steamer wheel in the surf of the SS Victory ship that sunk off the shores on the pristine beach in 1861 .
Great to meet up with and be guided by the very informative Rodney and Helen, plus to have Tim and Betty and Ann from the Taieri, and N.O-iItes Roz, Chris, Mike, Ross, John, Karyl, and Jenni. We will so more exploring of Dunedin’s gems. Jane G
