Otekaike Hill
8-3-2015
Ten trampers met at the car park on a cool and cloudy morning all ready to get out on the hills. It was good to get out again for a hike since I had not been out on a trip for a while.
We left Oamaru and headed up the Waitaki Valley picking Bron up on the way.
Around Georgetown there were signs of the big rain dump they had on the Saturday night with 78mm falling in 15min in some places.
We went through Duntroon and turned into Special School Rd. up past Campbell Park School and along the Otekaike Bridal Track and parked up where the 4WD track that goes up the Otekaike Hill meets the bridal track. There was a strong cold southwesty blowing so it was on with some more warm clothes before we headed off. We followed a good 4WD track up a ridge beside Bushy Creek in a southwest direction for about 4km and then headed northwest to the top. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get to the top at 1172m. It was quite windy on top so we had lunch on the lee side of the trig out of the wind.
We had good views down the Waitaki Valley, up the Haka and all the high peaks like Kohurau, Domet, David, Cone, Grayson and through to the Dansey Pass.
After lunch we headed back down a ridge on the northern side of Bushy Creek following a rough track down beside a fence line till we meet up another 4WD track.
Near the bottom we detoured off the track and down a steep bank into the creek which was dry. At this point one of our Trampers realised he had left this camera at a gate back up the track so we had at sit down in the sun while he went back for it. He was soon back with us after about 20 min.
We then crossed the dry creek and up the bank on the other side to the track we had taken in the morning and soon we were back at the vehicles. It was then back to Duntroon for a ice-cream at the local cafe ( NOT ) only ice blocks on the menu.
Thanks to Bron, Linda, Rodney, Helen, Noel, Steve, Ann, Bill, John and Marcel for your company and interesting stories told for the day. Neville
