Club Night October 2020
12 October 2020
A full room of members at the SAR rooms in Severn Street listened to Zac Robinson, Health, Safety and Environment Manager for Port Blakley, give an informative address about their programme to protect critically endangered long tailed bats in South Canterbury.
They are quite small with a wingspan of about 120mm and live in clusters of about 20. They cling to the tree rather than hang upside down like an Australian fruit bat. 
There are only about 300 left due to predation and loss of habitat. They roost in trees such as willows, sequoia’s and oaks, tending to move around according to the weather as they like to keep warm. They go into a state of semi hibernation during the winter.
Zac and his team use automatic bat monitors which tune in to their transmitting frequency to follow them round. They also put transmitters on some, to make tracking easier. When a roosting tree is identified, adjustable metal bands are placed around the tree to prevent possums and other predators from attacking them.
Other environmental work the Port Blackley team are involved in include looking at falcons nesting patterns and water monitoring, using a DNA test called Wilderlab. This test analyses the DNA of plants and animals found floating in the river or stream. They can see if there are any possums left in the area after eradication measures have been used, and identify what fish, birds or farm animals are present in the catchment.
Trip Reports:
A Trotters Gorge farm walk over a cutover forestry block revealed interesting rock overhangs and caves including a stalactite.
10 bikers rode from Duntroon to Kurow and back on a track covered in branches from the recent strong winds.
The Herbert Forest tracks received a repaired bridge and several new steps during a maintenance day.
The Wednesday walkers had walks to on Dave’s track to South Peak in Trotters Gorge, The Wainono Lagoon track with lots of birdlife and inland views, a new walk along the escarpment above the Mill House, and the Seacliff Split Rock circuit.
Coming trips are a bike ride on the A2O to Duntroon, Arthurs Pass at Labour weekend and Ohau Peak in the Quailburn area. Details can be found in this website in “what’s on”.
The club gratefully received a donation from the Waitaki District Council to replace their out of date Locator Beacon.
Harvesting around the tracks in the Herbert Forest is nearly finished and normal access will be available shortly.
The Club has talked to the Waitaki District Council about reinstating parts of the Oamaru Walkways and upgrading the signage.
Trotters Gorge
Four of us headed down to Trotters Gorge to explore a new area. We met Jane M along Horse Range Road on her farm that she would guide us around for the day. Jane and her Husband brought this land about two years ago with a plan of farming some of it and putting a majority of it back into native bush.
At the moment the front half of the property is pretty rough ground after the pine forest that was on it got milled before they brought the property, so they have a big job ahead of them cleaning this area up. The back half of the property is a mix of a bit of farm land and native bush, gorse with some great mudstone cliffs. We started by following a track over the rough milled ground following a stream with some interesting things to see along the way, like a water shoot through mud stone and a wee gorge with some native bush and a sulphur and coal seam. From here we zig zag our way up to the south east end of the property before dropping down into the back of the property which was a mix of a bit of farm land and bush. Jane showed us the spring where they get most of their water from and her bee hives. We then followed a track through some bush climbing up and then dropping down to follow a track that Jane had cut through the bush and gorse north along their boundary by Back Creek and above us was some mudstone cliffs that Jane was still in the progress of cutting a track under, so we didn’t get up there this time. At the northern boundary we climbed up out of there and dropped back down into another wee gut, full of bush and lined with mudstone cliffs on both sides. We followed this gut back up through a track that Jane had cut and zig zag our way up under the cliffs. We came to a stand of Pungas and as we came through them, we came out under a big overhang under the cliffs that curved for about 100m lined with bush on the bottom side, really impressive. After this we then climbed out on to a road track and up to the highest part of the farm for lunch, with some great views of the Katiki Beach, north to Oamaru, south to Mt Cargill and inland to the peaks behind Trotters Gorge Reserve. After lunch we went down over a paddock and into a pine plantation, visiting another big overhang which had a column made from a Stalactite coming down from the roof and meeting up with Stalagmite coming up from the floor. All this is just above Horse Range Road and you would never know it was there. We were soon back onto Horse Range Rd and a short walk down the road soon had us back at our vehicle. We thank Jane for showing us around, she and her husband have got a big job on their hands, but we look forward to going back sometime to see the progress.
Thanks Jane for showing – John, Mike, Jane G and me, Neville around.
Swampy Ridge Track
13th September 2020
We met Rodney, Helen and Jane at Leith Saddle and after taking a vehicle to the bottom of Nicholls Creek Track on the Leith Valley Rd, we started walking up the Leith Saddle Track. This wide track has been well maintained with boards along the side. We soon warmed up and by 11am, were at Swampy Spur and had an early lunch. We met up with a group of youths training for the three peaks run. We continued along Swampy Summit and instead of turning down the Moon Track toward Nicholls Creek, we continued along to the Pineapple Track junction. It was here where the fire burned alot of scrub last year. Rodney had come up here soon after the fire and there were just rocks scattered over the area, no flora whatsoever. But a year later the flaxes were 1 metre high, the tussocks just as high though less dense. It was incredible the growth that had occurred. Five minutes further down the Pineapple Track, we came to the Pepper Tree Track junction and turned here. We walked down into a gully, had a brief break, and continued up the other side to a clearing and then turned right onto the Moon Track. We followed this down and crossed some bike tracks which apparently are reasonably new. Further down, we traversed over towards the south and got to Nicholls Falls, and then 10 minutes later, out onto Leith Valley Road. Here Graham was waiting, he had biked out to Port Chalmers, Waitati and picked up the car at Leith Saddle. A good day out on some new tracks. A big thanks to Rodney for his guidance in the unfamiliar areas.
Rodney, Helen, Jane, Roz, Mike, John, Ross, Julian and Bess
Club Night September 2020
This meeting was held in the Ardgown Hall to allow for more social distancing.
A report was presented on the Oamaru Walkways tracks indicating a need for maintenance. There are gates locked, parts of tracks blocked off and a lack of signs to indicate where the tracks are. Some narrow sections of the track are being used by mountain bikers, creating a danger to walkers. The committee will look at what the Club’s next moves are.
There was general agreement on holding another Herbert Forest Guided Walks day in April next year.
Trip Reports:
Eight e bikes and six pedal power bikes joined Nev’s Mystery Bike Ride, though it was not so much of a mystery after being issued with riding directions at the start. We started at the Historic Precinct heading North along the railway line before climbing Buckleys Hill and winding through rural roads to the Enfield Domain for lunch. Then there were various bike riding competitions before riding home.
A trip to Swampy started with a climb through the cloud forest to the communication towers, before going down the Pineapple and Secretary Tracks and circling back to the cars.
Wednesday Walkers walked the Kurow Hill circuit anticlockwise from Kurow, the Tapui Farms circuit anticlockwise, Kuriheka to the dogs den and return, The Benmore Walkway from Loch Laird and the A2O from Elephant Rocks to Prydes Gully, returning via Grants Road.
Coming Trips are:
A farm walk near Trotters Gorge, Huxley Forks Hut, Duntroon to Kurow bike ride and a Herbert Forest working bee. Details are available on this website – Whats on?
The next Club Meeting will feature a talk on a programme to protect endangered long tailed bats in South Canterbury.
The evening concluded with an entertaining quiz led by Bess, complete with yellow and red cards and a mix of serious and not so serious tramping questions. One not so serious question was; on which trip did John have to mend his shorts with duct tape? Almost everyone knew the answer!
Nev’s Eat My Dust Mystery Bike Ride
Fourteen keen bike riders turn up for this ride which was a good trip to have since we were back in level 2 lock down. The weather was great for this day out, with no wind which helped us non e bikers out. All up we had 8 riders on e bikes & 6 on conventional bikes.
We started off by heading down to the historical part of town, down Harbour St & then back along the Coast over the Oamaru Creek swing bridge and out to the bike track that follows the coast out to the Waitaki Boys High School. From there it was around a few side streets till we came to our biggest challenge for the day – Buckley’s Hill. This is where e bikes are e bikes, men are men and boys were boys. E bikes made it look easy but most of the rest of the party did make it up on their bikes, with a few of us flagging it away and pushed our bikes up till we all met up at the corner of Redcastle Rd & Reservoir Rd to catch our breath. From here it was along to Eden Rd with its big downhill section on to Oamaru Creek Rd to Turfus Camp Rd on to Airedale Rd to Teaneraki Rd on to Coal Pit Rd and then down Slaughter Yard Rd to all meet up for lunch at the Enfield Rugby Grounds. We covered about 26 km in just over two hours over some great rural roads with views over Oamaru and the Coast, to the Kakanui Mountains and some great rural country. Lunch was enjoyed by all in the sun talking about different bikes and everyone was looking forward to the 12km ride back to town on the A2O track, but I had other plans for them. Here we were with a rugby ground beside us so why not use it. I set up some bike challenges for them to do with a slow race for e bikes and then conventional bikes and then a final slow race with the winning of the e bike race and the conventional bike race with the conventional winning this. Then it was time to stretch the legs with a sprint race and in the final the e bike won this but the conventional bike was not far behind. The final race of the day was a slalom race and in the final the conventional bike won with the e bike knocking over a cone. After all this it was back on the bikes again along the A2O track back to Oamaru with some of us stopping off at Cafe Gray’s at Weston. All up we covered about 37km for the day with some great views, good weather and great company. Thanks to Bev, Ross F, Phyllis, Maurice, Bill B, Jane, Graham, Bill F, Ross M, Bron, Robbie, Colin and John.
Neville
