May Clubnight
May Clubnight
At the AGM, John Chetwin was elected President. Our thanks go to Jane Green who stepped down after three years of dedicated leadership and loyalty to the Club. Recently, some members walked the Motatapu Track from the Glendhu Bay end. An excellent weekend. Upcoming tramps include Mt Obi from the Pigroot and Little Mt Peel. See our website for details.
Our guest speaker was Club member, Maurice Gray who has recently been doing Volunteer maintenance work for DOC on the Pyke River Track in Fiordland. From Milford Sound, five Volunteers and a DOC Ranger flew north east to Big Bay. The task at Big Bay Hut was to dig a new toilet. Two volunteers were left to paint the hut while Maurice and two other volunteers departed down beside the Awarua River. They then reached the Pyke River and the route followed this. They had route markers which were two metre high wands with tape on top. These were used to replace markers that had disappeared with high river flows etc. DOC dropped food to them on their first nights camp. Along the route, they cleared windfall where possible with a handsaw and if not, they put in markers to re-route around the windfall. They had two nights at the Olivine Hut. Here there is a winch bucket over the Olivine River which required maintenance. A side track to the Olivine Falls needed re-routing. Maurice and fellow volunteers made camp when they reached the north end of Lake Alabaster. Trampers can avoid the 4-5 hour walk along the side of Lake Alabaster with the help of Sammy Stoat who camps in the area and ferries trampers from Alabaster Hut to the north of the lake. With the job finished, DOC picked up the three volunteers and they flew back via Big Bay Hut to pick up the other two volunteers who had made a great job painting the hut. The DOC website has Volunteer Vacancies which you can apply to help. The Volunteer is liable for some expenses however, DOC will provide transport and fresh food.
Motatapu
22nd – 25th April 2017
As the Motatapu Track starts near Glendhu Bay, Wanaka and exits at Arrowtown some sort of transport needs to be arranged to return to your own vehicle. We were very fortunate to have a generous offer from friends, Pip and Bob from Arrowtown to organise this for us. Pip then accompanied the six of us on our tramp starting at the carpark near Glendhu Bay.
On Saturday after an early lunch we set off following the Fern Burn Stream in fine sunny weather.
A gentle climb took us through beech forest and into The Stack Conservation Area, across a bridge and onto undulating terrain before a sidle to the Fern Burn Hut arriving at mid afternoon. Tents were erected to take the overflow from the 12 bunk hut with Tim Russell, Betty and family arriving to swell the numbers to 26 for the night.
With another fine day we left at 8am and immediately started climbing to Jack Hall’s Saddle at 1275 mtrs. A long steep descent of 400mtrs took us down to a stream where we refilled water bottles and had a well earned snack before attacking another climb up on open tussock country to the Highland Creek Hut arriving at lunchtime. Two falcons were observed flying by.
A relaxing afternoon sitting in the sun on the hut veranda was had by all. One other tramper arrived for the night so there was plenty of room in the hut.
The following morning we had quite a distance to tramp and two major hill climbs and descents for the day so we left, once again in fine weather at 7.30am. After crossing the Highland Creek we scaled up a steep ridge accompanied by the roaring of a stag although we were unable to sight it. Another steep descent saw us lose the 450mts that we had just gained to arrive at a stand of native bush where we stopped for a snack and refilled water bottles from the stream. A zig zag and then a long haul up a fence line saw us passing below Knuckle Peak (Maurice dropped his pack and climbed the peak) and onto a saddle with views of Lake Wanaka and down to the green pastures of the Motatapu Valley where a bike race takes place each year. It was then all downhill firstly following a fenceline on a ridge and then open tussock country to the Roses Hut after an 7-8 hour day covering 11 kms.
The following day dawned fine and sunny as we climbed up once again on an old packhorse track to the Roses Saddle at 1270mtrs followed by a sidle and then downhill to the Arrow River. The sight of a large digger parked on the riverbank left us wondering how it could have got there to mine gold at a claim.
With many crossings and a river wade through a gorge knee deep at times in the Arrow River, we emerged out at Macetown with cold wet feet. However we were lucky as the flows were considered to be low at the time.
Lunch was taken near the restored bakery at Macetown. The Autumn colours of the many trees surrounding the area were magnificent and a photographers dream.
A 14kms plod down the 4WD road and crossing the Arrow River a few more times saw us at Arrowtown at 4pm. We met many cyclists, vehicles and a few walkers on our way. For the last section of the walk we followed a pipeline and on a well formed walking track. The sound of bagpipes greeted us as we emerged onto the main street in Arrowtown. Pip and Bob invited us to their place for a cuppa before we left for home, stopping in Cromwell for food on the way.
Thanks to Bronwyn, Colin, John, Mark, Maurice and Pip for their company on a challenging but very enjoyable tramp of 48kms.
Phyllis
Club Night April 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.
Herbert Forest Working Bee
We had a great turn out of members for the working bee held on Sunday 2 April. Most of those who said that they were coming turned (some of you did not….) and we did a great job that day.
Over 30 steps were put in to the Podocarp Track down from the Queens Rd end making this section much better in wetter condition. The whole of the Hoods Creek Track was cleared and snipped and all the track ends were weeded. The prickly end of the Swallows got a decent haircut and some new signage was put up at the bottom of the Hoods as well as large orange triangle being tidied up and more placed to avoid any Swedes getting lost.
Its looking very good for the Guided Day on Sunday. Thanks to all for coming.
Aspiring National Park, East Matukituki
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
