Buckland Hut - 16-17 Febuary 2008

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.69

Buckland Hut - 16-17 February 2008

This weekend was supposed to be a Club trip to Sawcut Gorge but the weather forecast during the week was for plentiful rain in the aforementioned location and due to the river levels being of critical importance to the success of that trip, the leader pulled the plug on Thursday night. This resulted in a flurry of emails between the rest of the group, who all desperately wanted to do something this weekend. Buckland Peaks and the attendant Hut became our destination of mutual consent. I was especially pleased at this, as this destination had been on my to do list for many a year. Therefor 6 trampers headed west on a balmy Saturday morning to arriving at our destination at around Midday. After leaving the car we first got to experience a 6km slog along a 4WD track before we get to the start of a very good track through very attractive bush. The hut sits at just above 1100M, so after a climb of around 1000M and 4 or so hours from the car we ascend into the basin where the hut is located. After claiming bunks and making a cuppa we settled down for a short rest before heading up to have a look at the tops. One of the more experienced members of the group must have been feeling fairly lethargic at this time and suggested waiting until the morrow to tackle the tops after we left the hut. Obviously none of us took any notice of the many stories in the hut book of parties that didn't make the summit due to the weather conditions. Some of us did go for a wander around the closer ridge overlooking the hut and then settled in for a pleasant evening of socialising and sleep.

 Of course the morning dawned with thick clag and light rain obscuring all visibility and after a prolonged breakfast and packing, hoping things would clear, the leader decided to cut out losses and head back to the cars.

Uncle Roddus took off at a great rate of knots and didn't stop until the clearing on the track signposted "Halfway House"(its not) whereupon he stopped for refreshments and for the others to catch up. Two of the others soon arrived and informed Uncle Roddus that due to the break in the cloud, three of the group had headed back up to hopefully get a glimpse of the tops, we didn't share their optimism and already being so far down the hill, were reluctant to slog all the way back up. A wise choice as the clag didn't clear of the tops.

We arrived back at the cars soon after midday and made it back home by tea time, the others who went back up to be disappointed by still not getting any views, didn't get back till after 10pm.

Half Way House.

Westport.

 

 

 

 

Ryde Falls - 13th January 2008

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.68

Ryde Falls - 13th January 2008

A frequently visited spot over the years as it is such a short walk and so close to home. I'm not sure why I even bother to keep documentating theser strolls as tramps any more. At least they help keep the numbers up.

This trip was undertaken on a fairly hot summers day with my tramping buddy Bryce, his then recently new lady and one of her friends. I have no photos of this trip.

Bobs Biv - 5th January 2008

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.67

Bobs Biv - 5th January 2008

This was another trip I did with the Christchurch Tramping Club and I wrote the trip report which is on their web site. Below it the report from that trip.

The trip description for Bobs Biv in the club newsletter said, “An excellent post-Xmas, new year’s resolution-to-do-more-tramping-trip.” And so it was for me and also it was a revisit of my very first trip with the club in September 2000.
As I live in Oxford, I met the party at the Wooded Gully picnic area on a cool foggy morning just after 9am. After the usual “Hey Roddus, we haven’t seen you out for ages” and a quick reminisce with Helen, who was on the aforementioned expedition in 2000, it was decided to tackle Mt Thomas first, as some of the party hadn’t been up there. As we climbed, we passed through the fog into very warm sunshine and the sight of a big white fluffy blanket covering most of the Canterbury plains. Clive and our trusty leader soon left us in their dust until we reached the summit of Mt Thomas in about 1¼ hours. We found some shade and had 1st smoko.
From the summit we headed off west along the open ridge, dropped down into bush to the junction of the Wooded Gully track, continued on to the junction of the Ridge track, and then on to the junction of the Pinchgut hut track(not signposted), where Kerri erected her new sign pointing to the Bobs Biv track(now signposted). Had second smoko and hoped to have lunch at Bobs Biv. After travelling some time along the track and debating how long it would take to get there, it was decided to lunch at 1pm even if we were not at the biv by then. Sure enough 1pm came and went, and still no biv, revolution was in the air, legs were getting wobbly and it was decided to lunch in the shade of the trees just before the track disappeared into open tussock.
Towards the end of lunch, I pointed out that Murphy’s Law predicted that the biv would only be a few more minutes walk along the track from where (some of us in desperate hunger) we were forced to stop for lunch. Sure enough, after 10 or 15 minutes we re enter the bush and there is Bobs Biv.
Bobs Biv was lovely and clean with the most inviting mattresses I have seen in a hut, a big outdoor tin fireplace and a trickle of a stream nearby. Helen and I found our names in the hut book from 2000. Clive madly asked if there was any way we could carry on down to the Garry river and link back to our cars, an idea that was soundly rejected by those of us of a more moderate tramping nature and so off we headed in the direction from which we came. We descended from the ridge down the Ridge track through beech forest until the last part of the day was trudging through the awful wastelands left by the harvest of the pine forest. Even though it was nearly tea time it was still pretty hot out there in the open. We arrived at the cars, sore, wary and thirsty after nearly 20 km of walking (next time I’ll stay the night). Still, it was a most enjoyable day.

I think this must have been about the time I broke my camera as the very few shots I have of this trip were taken on a freebee camera I got with some electrical items I brought for work and the picture quality is very lousy. I flogged this picture off the CTC website. Uncle Roddus is the one looking over Helen's sholder at the hut book.

Mingha - Deception - October 2007

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 66

Mingha - Deception - October 2007

This was a club trip I did some time in October 2007, exact date unknown. This is a relatively easy classic Arthurs Pass overnight trip. We stayed at the club hut at Arthurs Pass on Friday night and had enough people to have two groups do the crossover to avoid the problems of transport at both ends. Unfortunately, out leader got sick over night, so he stayed at the Club hut while we went on ad did the trip. I was in the group that started up the Deception River at about 7:45am on a cool overcast morning. After crossing the swing bridge we proceeded on the long hike up the Deception until we lunched at the Upper Deception Hut after about 5 hours walking. We then completed the last stretch climbing up to the saddle to Goats Pass Hut, where we spent the night. The hut has no fire and I strongly remember having one of the coldest nights I can remember in there and it wasn't even frosty. One of the Women had a rough night as she must have got the same bug as the leader, but was well enough to walk out in the morning. With an easy day ahead, we didn't get away from the hut till about 9:30am on the Sunday. The walk down the Mingha River is particularly beautiful if somewhat short and we were at the vehicle by about 2:15PM.

Some random photos from this trip.

Otehake Hot Pools - 19-20th May 2007

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.65

Otehake Hot Pools - 19-20th May 2007

This was my first, and so far only trip, to the excellent Otehake hot pools. A CTC club trip, we left Aickens corner at about 11:00am on a warm Saturday for a moderatly easy walk into the pools, past the lovely Lake Kaurapataka, through some impressive beach forest and then over the flood route heading up the Otehake. Took us around five hours to get to the pools, which were in excellent condition, and set up camp in the awesome camping spot on the island in the middle of the river. The rest of the evening was spent soaking on the warm pools and eating cheesecake for dessert.

Sunday dawned overcast and wet and the rain came down heaver after breaking camp. A wet trip out and got back to the cars about 1:30pm.

Checking out the lake.

The lake.

Basking in the hot pool.

Uncle Roddus's new tent

Heading back out on Sunday.

Bolder hopping.

River Crossing.

Mons Sex Milla - 29th April 2007

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No 64

Mons Sex Milla - 29th April 2007

A regular trip on the Christchurch Tramping Club's calender, this particular time we had a party of about 10 or 12 trampers who set off from the St James Walkway car park about 10:30am on a clear and warm day.

After following the four wheel drive track some way, we then slogged our way up the hill to the tarn just below the summit where upon we rested and probably had lunch. We then continued on to the summit, arriving there upon around 3:00pm. Some of the keener members of the group wanted to carry on along the ridge to Garnet peak, whereas Uncle Roddus joined the soft group heading straight back down one of the ridges, due the the fact that he hadn't been out in several months. The soft group arrived back at the cars about 5:30pm and had to wait another 40 minutes for the other group.

The Dome - 12th November 2006

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No 63

The Dome - 12 November 2006

A small party of CTC trampers set off to scale Dome on a cool and windy Nor west day with ominous Nor west rain clouds shrouding Arthurs Pass but clear on Dome its self. Headed off from the rail bridge at 9:10am and bush bashed through fairly open forest up the north west ridge and onto the wind swept tops. Second lunch was had at point 1920 and due to time and the not too pleasant weather, it was decided to head back. We retraced out steps towards point 1759 and then dropped down a nice long scree into the Edwards River. Uncle Roddus was having a booming time bouncing down what was a pretty good scree, until he rolled his ankle and experienced some pain. After several minutes recovering, he gingerly set off again, getting faster as the pain lessened until it bloody well happened again. The rest of the trek out was taken somewhat gingerly and we made the cars about 6:30PM.

Unable to find any photos of this trip.

Mt Owen - 21-23rd October 2006

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 62

Mt Owen - 21-23rd October 2006

This was my first attempt to get onto Mt Owen in the Kahurangi national park. It was a three day trip with the CTC with our intention to head in from the Southern end via Bulmer Creek on day one, camp at Bulma Lake, up onto the tops and across and down to Branch Creek hut and then out down the Fife River back to the cars on day three.

We left town on Friday night and stayed the night at Murchison before heading in early on Saturday morning. The weather forecast was for light rain all weekend, so our prospects were grim to say the least. Leaving the car about 9:20am on a grey and cool morning, four trampers headed off along a well used and formed track following the Owen river upstream until we reached the bottom of sunrise ridge. From there we cross the Owen and head up the true right of Bulmer Creek, again following a good track. Two hours in from the car the rain set in, a light but soaking drizzle. We stopped for lunch at the head of Bulmer Creek before climbing up through the bluffs and having to use a rope ladder(Now Removed) at one point to get us up onto the top of Bulmer creek. from here it was about another hour to Bulmer lake, where we set up camp. 

Sunday brought no respite to the conditions and so all originals plans were scrapped and we went for a wander partially onto the  Castle Basin area of Mt Owen, with out being to see the summit with the cloud sitting on the tops and wandering around most of the time in light snow. An early retreat back to our sodden camp and dinner and early night hiding in our tents from the rain.

Monday again showed no improvements and visibility being pretty low, we gave up trying to find the Sunrise Ridge track and just headed back out the same way we came in, albeit with much higher waterways to cross.

Donning Precipitation protection equipment as the rain arrives

The Bluffs above Bulmer Creek

Bulmer Creek

Second lunch amongst the Bluffs.

Setting up camp.

Bulma lake.

About to head onto the lower reaches of Mt Owen

Lunch as the snow starts.

Not the most pleasant tramping conditions.

The rope ladder.

Now what.

In Bulmer Creek, Saturday.

Bulmer Creek on Monday, at the base of the Bluffs.

The rivers were a bit higher on the way back.

The rivers were a bit lower on the way in.

And there was a bit of nice scenery.