Dry Stream Circuit -- 7 September 2019

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 167

Dry Stream Circuit -- 7 September 2019

Three weekends in a row I am out tramping. Hoping to keep the momentum going but spring planting is almost upon us and there is a lot to do in my garden. Still, It has been great to get back out and I have been able to tramp without too much issues with mu back. I will never be as fast as i was and will need to be careful and watchful on my body, but I hope to get out much more soon.

 This was another CTC club trip with leader Bryce taking us on another of his explorations on different approaches to the Torless range. This time heading up Dry Stream.

 We headed up stream on a overcast but mild morning although it was not really warm. The stream was pretty easy going from the road but soon got scrubby and a little gorgy in places forcing us to climb up a little and sidle over the rocky sections. Eventually we decided to take the ridge up on the south side up to point 1536. This was not quite the route Bryce intended but the valley opposite up to point 1842 looked a lot more challenging and the group wasn't quite that inspired this time. We sidled under Foggy Peak before stopping for lunch, The cloud was starting to break up as predicted and it was turning into a stunning afternoon but still pretty cold.

 Soon after lunch as we headed along towards point 1842, it soon became necessary to don out crampons  and as we got to that point, the group was feeling a bit too lazy to head on to Castle Peak, with most if not all of us having been there before, it was decided just to head straight back to the cars along the western ridge via Mt Plenty. It turned out to be we only walked about 11km all told and climbed about 1140M so we were back at the cars in pretty good time.

Mt Oxford and Wharfedale Track -- 1 September 2019

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 166

Mt Oxford and Wharfedale Track -- 1 September 2019

This was a CTC club trip, I was a little disappointed about having to do Mt Oxford again after only doing it the week before, but due to a fire up in the kowhai valley, the road was closed, blocking our access to the mountains where we originally wanted to go so it was decided to head to Mt Oxford as this was the closest hill without a lot of extra travel to get anywhere else.

 Fifteen trampers reconvened at the View Hill Car park before heading up the western route up the mount. Lunch on top while discussing the options going back, it was decided to drop down to point 925  on the side track to the Warfdale hut before a bush bash down to the Warfdale track and then the long slog back to the cars. We ended up covering a distance of about 21 Kms and 1200m of height gain, so it was no wonder I was pretty shagged out at the end.

Mt Oxford - 24 August 2019

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 165

Mt Oxford 24 August 2019

OMG again..... A tramp. It's been awhile. Last years attempt to get back into tramping petered out after three lovely trips. Kinda got busy with other things and also lack of money seems to put a block on things but my intention to tramp was still festering. Recently I thought about getting my hands in another set of walking poles. I had used them for a while a few years back but when they broke I didn't replace them. I was thinking they might help me with my back issues and many people in the club use poles. I found out about some good poles from the US and managed to get them on sale for about $30US and after postage they were still much cheaper than the poles for sale here.

 Anyhow, the poles arrived but I had not yet committed to getting back into the hills when one Friday a post on Facebook came up where a couple of Club friends were going to go up Mt Oxford the next day. Mt Oxford is right on my door step and I would be good to catch up with the people concerned. I messaged Kerrie of my desire to join the trip and rushed about getting ready for the day out.

  Meet Kerrie at the Coopers Creek Carpark about about 8:30am to find she was   alone as Susan wasn't feeling up to the trip that day. So with my new poles, Kerrie and I set off past the Scout hut and took the direct route up the Mount. I have done this hill plenty of times now so we just went to the top and straight back the same way. The snow on top was not too deep but crampons did help with the last part of the climb and even more so coming back down. The wind was bitter on top so we didn't linger too long. A nice warm up trip with pleasant company.

Aldous harding - James Hay Theater - Christchurch - August 28th 2019

OMG, a new blog entry from Uncle Roddus. It's only been over 9 months since my last concert, where did the time go? OK, I did do the Lines Of Flight festival in Dunedin in March, but I never got around to doing a write up on that.

 Anyhow, Aldous had released another new album, "Designer" a more mature and laid back work than her second and one that seems to have grown her audience and reputation even more.

 Mrs Roddus and myself procured tickets for the upper level of The James Hay Theater, after the Town Hall was finally reopened earlier this year, 8 years after the big earthquake of 2011. Seating was general, so we got front row seats on the balcony level and fortunately some friends we were hoping to catchup with managed to get there in time to take some pews behind us.

 The support band was Ben Woods, a band I had seen a couple of times before and although I liked their song on the Melted Ice Cream CD comp I have, I had not been all that impressed with the rest their music. This time I thought they did some more interesting stuff and that had a steel guitar fleshing things out which I don't recall the other times and some of the keyboard noodlings were pretty interesting. Their sound was still a bit murky and Ben's guitar was not loud enough and he was doing a lot of stuff with it. Still, It was the best set I had seen them do at this point.

 During the break I got to catch up with my friends who were sitting behind us before Aldous took the stage first on her own, seated front and center with her acoustic guitar and did a song or two from her first LP. Then the rest of the band joined her and went through a set culled mostly from her new album. The sound was great and the band was fantastic and tight. Aldous had been touring all over the world for the last couple of years and if this was her band on those tours, it showed, they were very impressive. Aldous was quiet spoken and didn't say a hell of a lot this gig but she was in great voice and the audience were right into her music. She didn't play much from her Party album, with a couple of songs from that that both myself and my friend would have liked to hear, and her renditions of the songs did not vary much from the recorded versions. The inevitable encore was demanded and the last song of the night was a brand new song which was more uptempo and bouncy than here other stuff and I though sounded fantastic. Looks like Aldous is changing direction yet again and not for the worse either.

 Another great gig from this wonderfully talented artist.