Deep Creek Hut - 28 December 2019

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 170

Deep Creek Hut - 29th December 2019

A trip up onto the tops of the Pisa Range above Lake Dunstan and Cromwell had been on my to do list for many years. I had done a walk into Meg Hut a few years back but that trip stayed down in the valleys and never made it onto the tops. Friday I had to stay in Cromwell to let my legs recover a bit from the Carrick Range trip on Thursday and My Wife was keen to stay on another day in Cromwell with her mum on Saturday and this was the day with the best forecast for good views on the tops. I was still pretty stiff on Saturday Morning as I left the car near the end of Swann Rd on a nice mild and sunny day. Over the style onto the farmland that granted me access to the track that would take me to the tops and within minutes I was astounded by the number of rabbits I saw as I walked through the thorny bushes towards a small hill I had to climb over to get to the main route up.

 A farm track left from an old derelict stone hut beside Tongue Spur Creek and zigzagged up the ridge amongst the prolific Matagouri and sheep. I followed the track up and would you believe it, meet the same runner I had met on the Carrick Range track two days earlier. She recognized me, we chatted for a couple of minutes before I headed up and she continued down. I got to the end of the farm track in just under two hours about, with a refuel break not too far from the end. The route then becomes a singe track which sidles the side of the range in a southerly direction for quite a way before the final slog up through the tussock and spaniards and rock tors to the tops. The top was pretty windy but actually not as cold as I was expecting. I followed the poles and connected with the four wheeled drive track that traverses the range along this edge. I spotted a hut of some sort in the near distance and followed the poled route in its direction until I discovered it was actually an old sheep sorting shed. Was this Deep Creek Hut, I was not sure but then I looked around the area and spotted another hut down the hill a bit, about a kilometer away and headed in that direction. I passed over a fence, leaving the farm land and officially entering the Pisa Conservation area and soon made Deep Creek Hut in the 3.5 hours suggested on the sign at the start on Swann Rd. This surprised me as I didn't think I was moving all that fast with the soreness still in my legs from Thursday. The hut is a restored Musterers hut originally built in the 1890s and restored and added and subtracted from over that long time to the roomy six bunk DOC Hut it now is. Spent about a half hour lunching at the hut before donning my wind jacket for the trip back to the car.

 As I stated back on the downhill part of my journey, I realized that due to the soreness in my legs I was going to have to take things a lot slower than I usually do going down or I was in danger of really putting severe strain on already taxed muscles, so the trip down was much slower and gentler that it would have normally been and actually took me over three hours to get back down. The sign at the top suggested it was about 10KM back to Swann Rd, plus the distance to the hut itself, so overall I must have walked at least another 20 Km this day although looking on the map it seems less. It appears to be about 9KM from car to hut. My phone though seems to think I had walked 37500 steps at 29Km and although I felt like I had indeed walked that, it is way off for some reason. Time on tramp 7 hours 25 minutes.

  

Carrick Range - 26 December 2019

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 169

Carrick Range - 26th December 2019

Christmas 2019 was spent with the inlaws down in Cromwell, Central Otago, and after the food overdose of Christmas day, much needed exercise was necessary the next day to burn off the two large bowls of dessert that found their way into my belly the previous day.

 There were a couple of close by areas I had been wanting to explore for some time but the brevity of visits or the weather had prevented the last couple of attempts. It was weather that dictated the choice of my first walk of the holiday. The day was warm but mostly overcast with rogue showers appearing sporadically around Lake Dunstan. My foray up the CarrickTown track was a wise choice for the day as the showers stayed well away from that area.

 The track is pretty much a four wheel drive track all the way to the tops of the Carrick Range, used by walkers, runners, mountain bikers, motor bikers and off road vehicles to access the many tracks in this hilly area, so it was a reasonably easy trek with a steady climb that first took me the 3.5km to old Carrick Town, a small group of tumbling down stone huts that were built and occupied during the gold rush in the area from the 1860s to the late 1890s.

 My next target was the water wheel about another 5 or so kilometers up near the summit of the range. I stopped for lunch about half way at a group of rocks and saw the Carrick Range water race that was hand dug back in the 1870s to bring water to various mine sites in the area, the race is 34KM long and still has a strong water flow, now used for irrigation purposes down at Bannockburn where my track started. Met a runner on the track just past Carrick Town who has just been up to the waterwheel and back. After lunch, continued on to the waterwheel. Had to drop off the main track a bit to visit the wheel which was used to run the crushing battery to crushed the quartz they mined to get at the gold within. The Battery had been relocated to another site in the area so just the restored wheel was at this site. The day was still young so I decided to head up onto the tops and so after I rejoined the four wheel drive track I finished the climb onto the Carrick Range. up on the tops at just over 1200m I found another DOC sign with various destinations I could wander onto but time and legs weren't going to allow too much more so I went for a short womble in a northerly direction towards Slapjack Saddle, had another rest at some rocks to refuel before the long downwards grind back along the same route back to my car. Walked about 20KM with a height gain of 900 to 1000M in just under 6 hours.

 As I had not been tramping for several weeks, I was pretty sore at the end of the day but my new boots held up very well with no blisters or hot spots.

Earth Tongue - The Darkroom - Christchurch - 13th December 2019

I had been waiting quite a while for Earth Tongue's debut album, after seeing them play live supporting the Mermaidens in Dunedin a couple of years back.

 Gussie Larkin, of Mermaidens, gets a lot heavier in Earth Tongue and gets to express her inner metal head with drummer Ezra Simons backing her up on vocals as well. The album itself is great but I was a little disappointed with it at first as I thought it was not quite as wild as I was expecting after that live set I saw. They had not long got back from touring the new album in Europe earlier in the year.

  They had two other bands in tow for this gig. First up was Enfire, a local Christchurch three piece who I had kinda seen play at the Doomfest a couple of years ago, but I was distracted during their set and didn't hear much of their music. They kicked things off with a very impressive and longish instrumental heavy post rock kinda thing that really made me take notice and they were really rocking out with hair flailing all over the place causing me to think they needed a bigger stage to accommodate all that flying hair. The rest of their set was great heavy metal type rock and I really enjoyed the bass player.

  Night Lunch were completely new to me. Turns out they were up from Dunedin. A duo of drums and a block of wood. The drummer, supporting a Jack Goodhue mullet, sounded fantastic and wild and he was supporting his mate who had a 4 foot long piece of four by two timber with one or two strings stretched across it with pickups and wired through a small console. He hit the string with a drumstick and produced an awesome and heavy sound. I was very impressed with the post industrial sound they produced and they reminded me a bit of Wellingtons Wax Chattels. A great alternative band.

 So Earth Tongue hit the stage and played a great set. I think I enjoyed their live versions even more than the record. It was heavy and bruising and Gussie plays her guitar in a lower register perhaps to make up for no bass and the drumming was great and hard and overall it was a wonderful sonic experience. The LP sounds even better now I have seen them play the songs live. The place was sold out and an encore was demanded but the crowd and so they did play one more song. A great night with three great band.

Miss Jume - Blue Smoke - Christchurch - 4th December 2019

Miss June are an Auckland four piece melodic punk band who have been in existence for around five years now and this year released their debut album " Bad Luck Party". After touring in the US, they return home for a short tour to support the new record.

  Their only South Island show at Cassels Blue Smoke was supported by Local artist Jed Parsons and Young Queenstown group, Haven.

  Haven were up first, a very young three piece playing poppy indie rock with some nice tunes, their 30 minute set was most enjoyable. The bass player did most of the singing but the guitarist sang one song which he said he composed as part of a composition course he had been studying, it was their best song of the night.

  Jed Parsons I had seen supporting The Beths last year at the same venue and my impressions that night were underwhelming but this time I did enjoy his set a lot more than the first time. I recognized their first single from one of the "Counting The Beat" Podcast I listen to and it is a great song. This set of Jed's indie pop was another push in tempting me to pick up his record, but money stopped me.

  The crowd for Miss June was much smaller than I expected for such an accomplished band, with the venue only being about half full of very young and very enthusiastic punters, there were only about three of us grey hairs in the audience this night which I find unusual for a lot of the rock gigs I attend nowadays. Miss June were as energetic and fired up as I was hoping, their music is a blend of Pixies, Verruca Salt and Sonic Youth, with the Sonic Youth coming through with some of the noisy bits with distortion and feedback howling at us through the PA. Annabel Liddell, the lead singer puts on a great show with her jumping all about the stage, jumping into the crowd of very energetic moshers and even ended one song hanging from the rafter above the stage. At one stage Jun Park, the guitarist was surfing the crowd on his back while thrashing out on his guitar. Annabel is a great front person and looks to get a sexual buzz from singing the songs as she often caresses her body and lifts her t-shirt or puts her hand almost into the front of her jeans but stops short of being obscene or exposing herself. They finished the set with Polio, the last song from the album and their best in my opinion, a dark almost industrial piece, after which they left the stage in a squall of feedback. They did not stay off the stage for long as the boisterous audience cheered them back for a couple more songs from their first EP including a longer version of Drool which only clocks in at about a minute on the record. A very good show that lived up to and maybe exceeded my expectations.

Sticky Filth - Club Tavern - Christchurch - 8 November 2019

When I was about 18, I was pretty big into UK  Hardcore punk and one day an older acquaintance, who was in a band and in his early 20s, said one day you will grow out of this punk music. 35 years later and the answer to his prediction is a resounding NO and judging by the members of the bands this night and their audience I am far from alone in this predilection.

 Sticky Filth are one of the legends of New Zealand punk having started up in New Plymouth in 1985. They were just a name to me over the years, a vague shadow in the old days, becoming more familiar over time even though I had never heard them or seen them play. That changed not all that long ago after I managed to get my hands on a vinyl copy of one of their few recordings from about 1990. I enjoyed what I heard.

  I got to the venue earlier than I intended as another place I had intended to visit  this night had impromptly closed before I managed to get there, so I settled in with a coke and watched the place slowly fill up with an array of mohawks, Dr Martins, torn stockings, tattoos and black t-shirts, not to mention the amount of grey in beards and hair.

  The last was a pertinent observation in light of the support band that hit the stage about an hour after I had arrived. Sawdust are a local four piece of over 50 types, playing great hardcore punk rock with some pretty jokey songs but played fast and tight and sounded really good on the PA this night. The guitarist played some great riffs and turns out he was one of the older members of the staff at Penny Lane records, where I buy a lot of music. I really enjoyed their set and while chatting with the guitarist after, I also discovered he in is another band that I had just recently purchased their record and thought it was really great.

  It had been 20 years since The Filth had last played in Christchurch and they still have a pretty loyal cult following here and so the place, although not packed, was fairly full. The three piece hit the stage, tuned up a couple of things then the bass player/lead vocalist hit in with his thundering bass lines backed by ferocious drumming that had a real physical impact in air movement in the room. The sound mix was again very good but the lead guitar was still a bit to low in the mix, especially when soloing but this is something I find in so many gigs I see. The singer was off mic for most of the first song as he was encouraging the audience to sing the lyrics, and a fair few of them knew the words. The played a thunderous set for well over an hour with the guitarists swapping vocal duties on various songs while the mosh pit was heaving on occasions. They were tight and heavy and played as good a gig as I had been promised by a long time associate of the band. I thought I recognized a couple of songs but I am still not all that familiar with their music, but it was a great night and I am really glad I went. Hope they return here before another 20 years goes by.

  

Tami Neison - The Piano - Christchurch 19 October 2019

The voice was back in Christchurch for another gig on this Saturday night, this time at the quite new venue, The Piano. We had been to The Piano before to see The New Zealand Trio playing some local Classical Music and like the venue a lot. It is set up a bit like a lecture hall with the seating going up with each row so all get a good view of the low but large stage at the front. We got in early enough to get center seats in the fourth row.

 The stage was set with just some guitars and small amps as this was just Tami and her brother Jay playing this night, but first up we got to see a short set from The much talented local Lady, Holly Arrowsmith. Holly had put out a record last year that I had managed to pick up on vinyl and it turned out to be one of my favourite NZ records of the year, so I was looking forward to seeing her preform. She was alone with her acoustic guitar. She sung about half a dozen songs, a couple I recognized from her record, one was a Dylan cover and for the life of me I can't remember what song it was, and the rest I don't think I knew. She has a lovely voice and plays very good guitar and I think has strong material with a good nod to Joni Mitchell, but overall I was just a little underwhelmed buy her set.

  Tami and her Brother Jay, were touring together for the first time since she first came to NZ from her native Canada. The show was about her life as a performer(This Is Tami Neilson) and so the show consisted of quite long pieces of dialog between songs as Tami told us her history growing up in Canada and going on the road with her family touring, playing music. Early on, as she was telling up a little about her family and her childhood, they played some songs that they would have been playing on those tours back in the 80s. Then they played more of her own Material as the story developed to her coming to NZ to live and play. As I said there was a lot of talk between songs but great to hear Tami singing again. They played a couple of new tracks from her upcoming record, due out in February and the last song they did was one of the new ones and it was a real belter with Tami showing us just how amazing a singer she is. 

 Overall though it was probably the show I enjoyed the least out of the four times I have now seen her play, but I will always try to get to her concerts because she is such a great performer.

Black Range - 11 October 2019

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 168

Black Range - 11 October 2019

Hadn't been able to get back out tramping after my initial run of three trips in September due to other commitments and weather considerations, but my friend Bryce was leading this trip on the Black Range, near Bealey and I always enjoy his trips and company. He was running this trip to fill in some blank areas on this short range that he had not yet traversed.

  Being a CTC club trip, there were 17 keen trampers, all hoping the weather forecast of supposed light rain in the afternoon was going to hold off until we completed out traverse.

 Leaving the cars at the Broad Stream bridge, we headed up broad stream to McKay Stream, then up McKay stream looking for a track that climbed up onto the ridge on the true left.The start of the track was steep but easy enough to follow but higher up we kinda lost it of it petered out and we had to bush bash through young regrowth. The 400+ meter climb through the bush was quite tough and with such a big group, took quite a while and about two thirds of the way to the bushline, the back part of the sole of one of my boots decided to part ways with the rest of the boot.. Went the bush thinned out about 100 odd meters from the bushline, the group stopped to regroup and I presented my boot dilemma to the leader. I suggested I could head back down to the cars but Bryce looked at the options and we found one member of the group had some duct tape which we used to tape the b00t back together. 

  We continued on to the bush line and stopped for lunch on the open tussock, with the sun tentatively trying to poke it's head out to warm us. After lunch we donned jackets to protect us from the cool breeze and headed onwards and upwards along the ridge to point 1854, hitting patchy but soft snow on the way. The group again got quite spread out with one person in particular falling well behind even me, as I was struggling with my energy levels on this trip. Turns out the straggler was having an even worse time with energy levels than me and when we caught the rest of the group waiting on point 1854, a review of the time we had left and how people were feeling was discussed. It was decided the the person who was struggling at the back was not going to make it in the time we had lest all the way to Mt Misery and so some of the group decided to drop off the tops earlier while the rest continued on to Mt Misery before dropping down. Partly because of the condition of my boot but also because I was feeling a bit sluggish also, I decided to go with the group that was going to drop off earlier, although I did not realize that we still had to get to point 1911 via a second point 1854 before we were to drop off. I found this tough going on this day but slogged on, after waiting for the last member to catch up and was finally relieved to be heading down after point 1911.

  The trip down the ridge from Point 1911 was not bad and we found some soft bits to speed the descent although I did have to re tape the floppy boot at one point but the scree soon took care of that and I had to live with my floppy boot for the rest of the descent. The bush bash down the last bit into the unnamed stream below point 1911 was very open and quite steep and slippery and was tricky getting down and I got quite dirty from sliding on my butt etc. This second group had also splintered in the way down with the others taking a different route down and actually getting back to the vehicles well before us. The Mt Misery group hit the highway just up the road from us at a similar time.

  On paper the trip didn't look too taxing and although I suspect I climbed over 1500M we actually only covered a distance of about 12Km over about 9 and a half hours, but I found this trip quit tough going.