Club Night & Annual Meeting July 2020

Tuesday, July 14th, 2020

The Annual Meeting, having been delayed for 2 Months by the pandemic, took place at our July meeting with a full SAR room of Club members.

President Robbie Verhoef, in his Annual Report summarised the Clubs activities over the past year, with 17 day trips and 2 weekend trips. There were quite a number of trips cancelled because of unsuitable weather. A lot of work was also done in the Port Blakley Herbert Forest on track maintenance and pest control.
He commented of his wish for a more balanced way of life which is more in keeping with nature, where his grand daughter can enjoy the privileges we have had and that our special places and creatures will remain for her grand-children to enjoy.

The Treasurer reported a small surplus for the year. It was agreed to increase the amount we contribute to the Federated Mountain Clubs in recognition of the crucial advocacy work they do on our behalf.

Julian Hardy was elected the new Club President. The photo competition results were announced with Ross Milmine winning and Bronwyn McCone a close second.

Trip Reports:With the lockdown restrictions lifted, 18 trampers spent a winter wonderland weekend at Mt Cook with snow and sun producing some fantastic photos. There was also a day trip to the Tavora Reserve near Goodwood, with a beach walk and a climb around Bobby’s Head.  Puketapu was climbed on the way home.

Coming trips are to Mt. Nimrod Reserve, a weekend trip to Liverpool 

Hut, Mt. Studholme and a local mystery bike ride.

The Wednesday Walkers had day trips around Oamaru and Cape Wanbrow during level 2.  With the more relaxed level 1 rules there were trips to Hampden – Moeraki, Elephant Hill, Durden Hill and Mt. Baldie, a Ngapara farms walk and the Timaru walkway to Centennial Park.

Club Night March 2020

Tuesday, March 10th, 2020

The Club had three day trips during February.
A trip to Hideway Hut in the Ahuriri Valley was enjoyed by 14 trampers, including 5 new members. After crossing the Ahuriri River it was 2 hours to the tarns, where there was an opportunity for a swim on the sunny day. Hideaway hut was reached about 1 pm for lunch. Some went back the same way, while the rest did a circle east and back to the cars.
Orbell’s Cave was reached by five trampers via Orbell’s Creek and a couple of hills. There are actually two shallow caves up on a hillside, one with a meat safe and clothes line, so there must have been a resident not too long ago.
A trip in the Silver Peaks started at the Possum Hut track, going down to the Waikouaiti River, along Catsteeth Creek and Tunnels Track to the Phillip J Cox Hut for lunch. The route back was via a steep uphill ridge to Walker Road and 30 minutes along the road to the cars for a 16k walk.
Coming Trips are to Kurinui behind Hampden, the Otago Anniversary weekend trip to Mt. Alexander on the West Coast, and a Herbert Forest working bee to repair and clear the well used tracks there.
The Wednesday Walkers have had day trips to Roseneath with its spectacular rock formations, Grassy Hills farm near the Stone Wall beside the Waitaki River, Otekaike Hill on a foggy day and a walk from Aviemore Dam to Kurow along the newly opened A2O bike track.
Guest Speaker for the night was Club Vice President, Julian Hardy who spoke and showed photos of his recent tour in China.
It included some walks and bike rides and started in Beijing. 30% of the cars are electric there, which contributed to the low levels of smog seen.
Next stop was Gubei Watertown, a purpose built city built to access the nearby Great Wall by the hoards of tourists. They did a day walk along the wall here.
It was then on to Xian and the terracotta warriors. They travelled by bullet train at up to 290k per hour to Pigan where they saw extensive paddy fields of rice on steep terraced hills.
The Lee River’s spectacular cast landscape of limestone cliffs and hills was well worth seeing and included a bike trip and a river cruise.
The trip finished in Shanghai, a diverse and multicultural city of over 24 million people.

Club Night February 2020

Wednesday, February 12th, 2020

The results of the club’s predator trapping in the Port Blakely Herbert Forest can now be viewed through the Traps N Z app which can be downloaded to your device.

The next Herbert Forest guided walks day will be in 2021.

Trip reports

The Mt. Kyburn trip was canceled due to a poor weather forecast and a round trip up to the Whitehorse at Waimate went instead.
There was a walk from Aramoana to Heywards Point and further towards Longbeach, until they came to a private property boundary. There were excellent views of seals and gulls from the cliffs at the Point. A short walk along a track at Port Chalmers rounded off the day.
A walk was enjoyed around Blairgowrie Run behind Five Forks with views of the North Otago downlands and Kakanui Range.
An overnight camp at Cattle Creek enabled an early start for a 23k, 10 hour traverse of the Dalgety Range with a group starting from each end. There were great views from Mt. Hutt to Mt. Aspiring as well as sightings of resident wallaby’s and vegetable sheep.
The Maitland Valley tramp included tracks, scree slopes and bush and staying at the Maitland hut where they were entertained by the resident mice having an overnight party on supplies left by a deer stalker. There was a day visit to Lake Orbell. 

Coming trips are day trips to Hideaway Hut in the Ahuriri Valley, Big Hut on the Rock and Pillar Range and  Orbells Cave behind Waikouaiti.

The Wednesday Walker’s day trips were to Island Stream Waterfall behind Herbert, Big Ben next door to Little Domet, Hillgrove Farm to Waimataiti Lagoon near Moeraki, Mt. Dasher (4 walkers) Kattothtrst (18 walkers) Siberia Hill (4 walkers), and Island Cliff Farm. The annual barbeque was held that evening. Up to 40 walkers are coming out at the moment.

The rest of the evening entailed choosing Club Trips for the April to June period, details of which will soon be on the NOTMC website.

Club Night November 2019

Thursday, November 14th, 2019

Herbert forest tracks are now open and in good condition apart from a few trees down, near the bottom of Hoods Creek track. Last trap check along the tracks saw 5 rats, 2 hedgehogs and 4 mice caught.
 A gecko survey is being carried out in the forest.

Trip Reports
A lot of wildlife were seen on a coastal trip from Andersons Lagoon to the Shag River mouth. Shags were nesting and sealions basking on the beach. One even followed the group, swimming along in the surf.
The Wednesday Walkers had day walks to Trig L from Switchback Road, a Hampden historic tour using a map available at Vanessa’s café and a slippery trip to Tabletop via Mile Flat Road. A day was also spent helping Doc plant and release native trees at a reserve near Otekaike.

Coming Tramping Club trips are to Trotters Gorge and Dave’s track, a weekend trip to Brewster Hut at Haast Pass, a bike ride along the Mt. Ida water race and a Dalgety Range traverse from the Haka Pass to the McKenzie Pass. December Club night is the Clubs Christmas Party.

Trips for the January to March 2020 period were arranged.

The nights speaker was Bronwyn McCone who told us about her and a friend’s trip to Nue Island in September.
Nue Island is 260 square kilometers, has one supermarket, one garage and no beaches or rivers. They
hired a car to get around but were told to leave the keys in the car in case it needed to be shifted. They went to two Church services which they couldn’t understand but with fantastic singing and where they had to wear frocks. Covered foot-ware was essential on the coral covered island and snorkeling was enjoyed at low tide in the many inlets. On a fishing trip they caught several tuna and wahu

A lot of taro is grown using a new plot each year and vanilla pods are made into essence.

Supplies either come via the twice a week flights from Auckland or by freighter, which are unloaded by barges and supplies of certain items can run out because of irregular schedules.

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.