Club Night September 2019

Tuesday, September 10th, 2019

There was a good turnout for the Clubs monthly meeting.

Port Blakley are still logging in the Herbert Forest, so the Podocarp and Hoods Creek tracks are still closed.

Trip Reports

Woosey’s bike rides struck a great day, fine and cool. 4 bikers headed west, doing a 36k circuit as far as Tulliemet Road. 5 bikers headed east, doing a circuit via All-day Bay and Kakanui with great views.

A trip went up the Ewe Range from the end of Broken Hut Road near Omarama. A steady climb saw them into the Oteake Conservation Area, but unfortunately the views were nil.

The Wednesday Walkers had day trips to the White Horse Hill at Waimate, Doctors Point at Waitati, Takitu Station in South Canterbury and Sheepwash Creek in the West Marewhenua catchment.

Coming Trips are Tabletop, a Silver Peaks round trip via Pulpit Rock, Rosella Ridge and the Eucalyptus Track, a working bee in the Herbert Forest and the Labour Weekend Trip to Mt. Alexander on the West Coast.

The evenings Guest Speakers were a North Otago team of 4 who competed in the last Godzone in the Christchurch area. 50 teams started the race but just 20 teams completed the whole course of over 600k, as if they were too slow, a section was missed.

Preparation was meticulous as the right supplies had to be put in the correct boxes with a maximum weight. Food was divided into 12 hour segments and the bikes disassembled and placed in boxes to be transported to the next bike stage. They had 2 X 2 person pack rafts for the calmer water and the organisers supplied 2 person kayaks for white water sections, which sometimes had to be transported 2 k overland to the river. At times they were carrying up to 20k plus the kayak.

The race commenced at Akaroa with difficult coastal section, where it was quite easy to get a leg cut from mussels, or twist an ankle. Then a bike ride took them to Christchurch for a run through the adventure park.   It was then a bus trip to Flock hill with different running, biking kayaking or pack rafting sections to the mouth of the Rakaia River, before returning to the Akaroa finish line.

They helped each other out when necessary, sometimes towing their bike, joining up when crossing rivers, especially in the dark, or tying the 2 pack rafts together. They managed a sleep most nights, twice in the dark zones when they were not allowed to travel. They had to take a tracking beacon and locator beacon, but were not allowed a GPS as all navigation had to be done with maps and compass.

No one was allowed to assist them, especially in the transition stages.

They all said they would like to do it again, but not next year, mainly because of the cost which was in the thousands of dollars each.

Club Night August 2019

Monday, August 12th, 2019

The Cubs trapping programe in the Herbert Forest has been suspended while the area around the tracks is being logged, but the tracks could be open again by the end of August and trapping will commence again after that. We now have 34 mouse traps, which will be placed inside the larger predator traps, so the mice will be prevented from eating the larger predator’s bait.

We were told about a documentary about regenerating forest on marginal farmland on Banks Peninsula. Called Fools and Dreamers, it can be viewed on Youtube

Trip Reports.
One trip was cancelled because of wet weather but there was a day trip on the coast below Palmerston from the Pleasant River Estuary up the coast to Bobby’s head. It was a round trip initially walking down Goodwood Road and Goodwood Settlement Road, then heading down to the estuary thence to the beach at the tip of the peninsula. After morning tea there was a short climb to the top of the cliff for the walk up the coast. They were able to drop down to the beach after a while because of the low tide. Lunch was on the beach below Bobby’s Head and then a climb around the Head before a short road walk back to the cars.

Coming trips are a bike ride from Maheno, a weekend trip up the South Temple and a day trip up the Ewe Range in the Oteake Conservation Park.

The Wednesday Walkers have had walks on Derdan Hill and Baldy behind Waikouiti, Pidgeon Bush, Mt. Harris Run in the Waiho Downs district, the Domet Loop and a Tapui Homestead farm walk.

The Clubs Trip Programe was organise for the October – December period.

We were then treated to photos of a mid-winter Routeburn Caples tramp without the summer crowds and another from Lake Harris up to Lake Wilson a rugged but spectacular

Club Night July 2019

Monday, July 8th, 2019

There were two Club Trips over the last month.
Seven members did the climb up to Big Hut on the Rock and Pillar Range for an overnight stay. It was warmer than usual for this time of the year, but there was still enough snow to make a few snowballs —. With some good competition in table tennis and some excellent shared deserts, a good time was had in the evening. However with a fall of snow overnight and still foggy in the morning, the walk to the next hut was cancelled in favour of a direct return to the cars.
A walk along Katiki beach was enjoyed by nine members, starting at the North end car park and heading north initially, before returning and carrying on to the south end of Katiki beach. The wide range of rock formations made for an interesting walk at low tide.
Coming trips are to the Orokonui Eco Sanctuary and a coastal walk north to Bobby’s Head.
The Wednesday walks were along the Weston Escarpment with nine from the Avon Tramping group, a Tapui- Crown Hill-Slaty Creek circuit, three short walks in the Waikouiti, Karitane area and a walk from Ashland’s Road to South Peak, all on fine winters days with some spectacular winter views.
The evenings speaker was John Chetwin who told us of a recent five day trip with Club members along the Old Ghost Road near Murchison.
Starting at the Lyall end on the first day, they followed an old dray track 18k up the Lyall Valley to the Lyall Saddle at over 1300m asl.
Although there were plenty of predator traps spaced along the track, bird song was scarce, apart from lots of friendly robins.
The second day was along the tops and there were plenty of slips, some live, to negotiate. There would be about a dozen bikers passing them each day.
The Ghost Lake Hut on the second night was on a high bluff and had spectacular views of the Thousand Acre Plateau to the West, Nelson lakes area to the North and the Kaikoura Mountains to the East.
It was then along the Skyline Ridge, down 300 steps and following the Mokihinui River to the road head.
Signs of the Murchison earthquake damage were still visible along the track.

Club Night June 2019

Tuesday, June 11th, 2019

In the Herbert Forest the Hoods and Podocarp Tracks are closed due to logging operations by the owners Port Blakey. The Swallows track remains open.
Other nearby Tramping Clubs are interested in doing trips with us within our district, as a means of getting to know the area better.
The Club is looking to improve tramping leadership skills and may use the community day next year to develop these.
Trip Reports
There have been 2 trap round checks in the Herbert Forest, with hedgehogs and rats being the main catch.
7 trampers had a trip up Deep Stream on a cold and often blustery day. They headed up the lower gorge, across the river and up the flats to the upper gorge. After dodging the thick matagouri the climbed up the saddle to the right where they had lunch. It was then down a 4wd track to Fisherman’s Bend and up the road to the cars. Wallaby sightings were few compared to the last time this trip was done.
Coming Trips are Big Hut, checking tunnel traps, and one from Katiki Beach to Shag Point. See the website >what’s on, for more details.
Wednesday Walkers and Wanderers
Walks enjoyed were Verbakel’s farm, a coastal trip up to Bobbys Head, Elephant and Mussen Hills, Kuriheka, and Ridge Road farm by the Wanderers.
Guest Speaker was Bronwyn McCone with the second part of her cruise up “Siberia’s Forgotten Coast”, this time north from Anadyr. As with the first part of her trip, they had to have specific permission to land anywhere on the coast from the Russian equivalent of DOC. There are very few roads, because of the permafrost and the tundra, so the landings were from zodiacs which were able to go up the rivers.
We were treated to fantastic pictures of thousands of sea birds, including cormorants, puffins, and harlequin ducks. Also sighted were brown and polar bears, humpback whales bubble netting and orcas. As it was late spring we saw many pictures of colourful ground hugging flowers including red rododendron’s and green gentians.
They got as far North as Wrangel and Herald Islands in the Chukchi Sea, where they sailed through pack ice before returning to Anadyr and the flight home via Alaska.

Annual Meeting and Club Night May 2019

Tuesday, May 14th, 2019

43rd Annual Meeting 13 May 2019

In his Annual Report President John Chetwin spoke about the diverse range of activities the Club had enjoyed over the past year. Things like nordic ski-ing, mountain biking, track maintenance, School bush-craft education and of course, single and multi-day tramps.
He also spoke about the need for the Club to be more flexible in arranging activities and trips that meet the expectations of Club Members.
Robbie Verhoef was elected the new Club President, and most other office bearers remaining the same as last year. There were some changes in the committee.
In the General Meting following there was more discussion about flexible planning and the change to Trip Planning meetings to be during the Monthly Club Night. Trap baiting in the Herbert Forest is to be extended from 2 to 3 weekly intervals. There is now a Facebook page for the Tramping Club.
Trip reports over the last month were the biennial Herbert Forest Guided Walks day where 50 guests were guided around the 3 bush tracks in the forest. Then the Otago Peninsula day walk where 16 members walked around the Macandrew Bay, Larnach Castle, Sandymount, Portobello area.
Coming trips are to Deep Stream with a walk up the gorge and over a saddle back to Fisherman’s Bend and a winter overnighter to Big Hut near Middlemarch. This NOTMC website has more details in “What’s On”.
The Wednesday Walkers had walks to Ashlands Road – Trotters Gorge, a Ngapara Farm walk, Otematata Walkway to Benmore Peninsula, Tapui 3 Peaks and 2 Tunnels, and a new one on Roseneath Station above the Aviemore Dam.
The event of the night was a talk and photos of 8 members “Old Ghost Road” Trip. This was a 4 day tramp from Murchison, climbing over the Lyell Saddle, crossing an unstable slip, staying in a hut built on top of a bluff, sidling steep faces on a narrow track above the bush-line, descending 300 steps and dodging mountain bikers determined to do the whole 85k trip in one day!