Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No. 84
Mount Maukuratawhai 24th January 2010
My latest adventure in the mountiains was this trip with the Christchurch Tramping Club to Mt Maukuratawhai (also known as Mount Muckaroundawhile), which is a stand alone hill located in a U-shaped bend in the Clarance River, oppsite Jollies pass, behind Hamner Springs.
12 of us had the instant pleasure of crossing the Clarance river to get to the spur we intended to ascend, around 10:30am on a clear Sunday morning. Fortunatly, the water in the Clarance was supriseingly warm which negated the usual squeels when the water gets over a certain depth on a male trampers lower midrift.
A swift climb was then made of a pleasent ridge, with a few rocky outcrops untill the summit was made around 12:30pm, where lunch was enjoyed while waiting for the rest of the party to asend the summit. It transpired that some of the party were still quite a way down the mountian and one had decided not to come to the top and the rest would possibly come to the summit, but would go back the way they came. The rest of us took a vote and decided to continue along the ridge to point 1575 and then take the spur back down past point 1403 and then down to point 976, before dropping back down to the Clarance. point 1466 proved to be the most interesting challange of the day with a bit of rock climbing to get around it, but the rest of the trip was pleasent tops travel and a fairly quick descent back down to the cars by 4:30pm. After which the predicted southerly change hit and we arrived back in Hamner to cats & dogs. This trip was about 11.5KM with about 1000m accumlated height gain.
The View from the cars, we headed up the spur on left.
The River Crossing.
Are We there yet?
ARE WE THERE YET?
A view of the Clarance River.
looking back to Jollies Pass.
This is near the summit, I liked the low grass growing amongst thr rocks, from a distance it looked like moss.
Hey! Wait for Meeee.
The evidence I got to the top
A higher view of the Clarance.
That tricky bit at point 1466.
point 1466 I think.
The Rock Goblin guarding point 1466.
it's a long way to the shop if you want a sausauge roll.
Am I at the beach or on a mountian?
Phew!, I am on a mountian, that was a lot of work if I was only at the beach.
Looking down the Clarance with Acheron in the background from point 1575.
The way home.
Heading back to Jollies Pass
4 comments:
Enjoyed your pics, Roddus. Particularly as I wondered what route the CTC took do this mountain. The grass is carpet grass (chionochloa australis). Good to see a pic of the CTC doing the MSC approved method of linkage.
You sure get lots of variation on your hikes! Never knew that about your country.
Showed one of the snowy ones to a friend, a hiker/trout-fisherman, he said "like Sarek, only mightier"
Now, I don't hike myself but I sure enjoy the pics and the writing!
Leo
Hi Honora, Carpet grass is certainly an apt name for it
Yes Leo, you would think after a while you would start to see the same things, but every trip brings new wonders, even small ones like the diffrent types of grasses and the rock formations between Barrosa and Maukuratawhai. I never tire of the views.
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