Queen’s Birthday 2015 Track Clearing Staircase Ridge/ Tabletop Circuit.

This was not a scheduled trip but a replacement for the Sudden Valley trip which was cancelled due to adverse weather. On a previous wander to the Staircase Hut by a few of us it was noticed that a considerable amount of wind fallen manuka had blocked the circuit track. In fact pick up sticks comes to mind when describing what it looked like and it made the circuit nigh on impossible with a pack on. So when it looked as if the original trip was not on, this alternative was considered and luckily it came about that 4 of us set off in a slight drizzle on Saturday morning. The drizzle didn’t come to much and after about 4 hours we arrived at the Staircase hut and boiled the billy for a cup of tea before heading on to the start of the circuit track . We spent the rest of the afternoon cutting the tangle with our handsaws. Back to the hut for tea and as it happened an early night because despite the fire going quite well, there was no way of keeping the smoke from billowing into the hut, making it hard to be comfortable sitting up. Waking up to a glorious morning with almost summer conditions and a mild NW breeze helped get us into the working mode again and we were back cutting rather large diameter trunks until we finished the job just after 10am. Back to the hut for a brew and an early lunch, then packing up and completing the circuit via Tabletop. We had a clean-up of the gorse bit when you cross the creek just before the old yards on the way. Someone with a scrub cutter has cleared the worst of the overgrown section of the track just down from the last tussocky bit and this helped us get down quite quickly. The last grunt completed, we arrived back at the carpark just after 4pm feeling quite pleased with our effort for the weekend. Thanks for the great effort Maurice, Noel and Tim from Robbie

Tim on big saw

Maurice getting the measure

Job done.