Mt. Dryburgh, 8-6-14

Ten of us met at the car park on a clear but cool morning, all looking for a good hike for the day. We headed off up the Waitaki Valley, meeting Tim at Duntroon on the way. As we got closer to Kurow and the lakes the fog was down quite low. We all headed for the Fisherman’s Bend camping ground were we parked in a corner on the northern side of the camp by a fence.
It was on with the day packs and over the fence to meet up with a farm track that headed east back down toward the Waitaki Dam on the northern side of the lake. After about an hour we came to a 4WD track that headed up a steep wee valley towards Mt Dryburgh. Half way up, the track turned east for a bit and then turned north to meet up with a main track that goes along the tops of the hills.
The fog had lifted a bit and we got good views of the lakes and dams, right down the Waitaki  river and up the Hakataramea valley. After looking at the map and working out where Dryburgh was, we finally got to the top, which is just a high spot on the hill tops, just in time for lunch at about 12.15pm . The fog and views came and went while we were having lunch.
After lunch we had a photo take by the marker post and then it was off along the track heading west. By this time the fog had lifted but we still missed our turn off that was going to take us back down to the lake. It didn’t take long for us to realize our mistake and soon we were on the right track back down towards the lake.
We came back down on to the track by the lake about 2km east of where we had the cars parked, so  we were soon back at the cars after about a 19 km hike for the day.
Thanks to Linda, Murray, Maurice, Phyllis, Bill, Roz, Jac, Jane, John and Tim for making it an enjoyable day out, Neville.