Mt Owen (Kahurangi National Park) 19th - 21st Febuary 2010

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No. 86

Mt Owen (Kahurangi National Park) 19th - 21st Febuary 2010

 

Finally, a trip to Middle Earth. Mt Owen had been on my wishlist for quite some time. I had made an attempt at it about 3 years ago, with the Christchurch Tramping Club, but the weather was such that it wasn't worth going to the tops. This time, my good tramping buddie Bryce and I set a date, earlier in the summer, and hoped like hell for good weather. We decided to take the northern approach, which is the most common, as apposed to the southern approach, which we attempted last time. We also decide to do the three day option as we were unsure as to how long it would take and so we didn't have to rush and we could take more time to take in the views.

Mt Owen is the highest peak in the Kahurangi National Park. It is a Mountain made from 500 million year old limestone, which over millions of years has been compressed by enormus pressures into Marble. It is, apparently a very unique arrangement in our country . The rock formations we saw are the result of eons of wind, rain, glaciers and earthquakes. The Middle Earth reference for those Lord Of The Rings fans, was because they filmed the scene leaving the mines of Moria on Mt Owen, filming for 10 days, apparently.

Took 2 days off work for this trip, leaving town around lunch time on the 18th for the 6 hour drive to Courthouse flats, an old mining town site at the northern end of Mt Owen, which is now a picturesque camping spot, if you dare camp there cos it is sandfly hell, I got eaten alive by the little buggers. The rain had cleared by the time we got there about 6:30pm. We set up camp and had tea and wrapped up to protect us from the ravenous sandflys.

We left courthouse flats on Friday morning to a glorious fine day with a southwest wind and decided to take the Bule Creek track up the mountain, past the old mining remnants, from the unsucessefull mining operations in the late 1800s. A relaxed pace and stopping for photos and checking out the Old Stamping battery got us up to the ridge track junction in about 1 1/2 hours. A bite to eat and then continued up the ridge for another hour or so untill we got to a clearing just above the staircase, below Billies Knob, where we had lunch. A steep descent down the staircase takes us into some very insteresting fauna  just above the top end of Blue creek, a beautiful spot with combinations of plants I had not seen before. We then dropped into the Blue creek bed, which was very dry for a rock hop up to the end of the valley. When we rounded the bend at the end of this part we decided to stop for another rest and a nibble and a look at the map when we realised we were only 2 minutes from our destination, the new 12 bunk Granity Pass hut.

Saturday was the big day, the day where we went up onto the awesome Mt Owen. The weather was again brilliant, as predicted, but the southerly was quite brisk. Left the hut about 8:40am and went through Santurary basin and along the ridge past Sentinal hill, through  low scrub and grass. The track was exellent and looked very well used and was very easy to follow as there are no pole markers, therefore it would be very difficult to find the route in the snow, but because of the nature of Owen and the many sink holes and crevasses, it would not be a good place to go when all covered with snow. Definatly a summer trip only.

Carried on past the tarns on the flat part past Sentinal hill and there we finally got to get onto the fabulous rock formations of Marble that make Owen the natural wounder that it is. As A picture tells a thousand words, I am not gonna bore you with detailed descriptions of what we saw and traveled across, as I took over 200 photos and some of the ones below well represent the spectacular scenes we encountered on this very worthwhile trip. I believe this is one of the premier tramps in New Zealand, up there with Ball Pass as one of the best ones I have done. unfortunatly it was still pretty windy on the top of Owen itself and so after hiding in a small sink hole for lunch and then a quick reconniassance and photo shoot on the tops, we dropped back down the north side for a longer lunch in brilliant sun and spectacular views of the National park around us.

Sunday was the hottest day yet with the wind dropping and so it was a hot and dry trip out back to the car at courthouse flat. We didnt muck around so much on the way out and being down hill we made good time , getting out in just under 3 hours and then the long drive home. A final mention to top off a fabulous trip was the exellent Tai, Red Chicken curry on Rice That we cooked on Friday night, one of the best tramping meals I have had, and thankfully Bryce had more than enough food for Saturday night as I stupidly left my Back Country Dehidrated meal back in the car.

Sandfly Hell, Courthouse flats

Ready to Rock N' Roll

  

 Some remnants of the old mining days along blue creek

  

The old Stamping batterey, looks like it had bee restored 

  

This is where Blue creek reemerges from under the mountain

There is a large cave system under Mt owen called the Bulmer caves, apparently still not all of it has been expolred.

  

A curious little fellow

  

 Top of the first ridge looking back to courthouse flats and the Rolling river valley.

  

 Some Trees

  

 Bryce near the top of the ridge before the desent down the staircase.

  

Mt Owen

  

After coming down the staircase looking back down the Blue Creek valley below billies Knob.

  

 Some of the Fauna I mentioned, this lovley tree is a Lacebark.

  

An Impressive Spaniard flower.

  

More of the lovley fauna along blue Creek

  

 Can't remember the name of these trees.

  

Rock hopping up Blue creek.

  

The New Granity Pass hut

  

 Looking up the track to Mt Owen from the hut.

  

Bryce near Sentinal hill on Satursay morning.

  

Our Destination

  

 Near Sentinal Hill, looking up at Mt Owen

  

 Looking back to Sentinal hill.

Our first encounter with the Marble rock formations.

 

More Rock.

  

And more rock.

  

Even More rock

  

And some more

  

 I got carried away with all these cool formations, took plenty photos.

  

A crevass

  

 Continuing on towards the tops

  

Finally got there.

  

Evidence, wearing jacket as it was still quite windy.

 

Bryce made it too.

 

looking out over Kahurangi National Park, Mt Patriarch in the center distance.

  

 Lunch with a view.

  

looking down to Granity pass hut from the saddle heading to the Lookout range.

  

 Another Closer view of Mt Patriarch on out way out on Sunday.

2nd Annual CTC Round Mt Somers Challange 7th Febuary 2010

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No.85

2nd Annual CTC Round Mt Somers Challange 7th Febuary 2010

 

 

Well today I made another attempt to do the CTC Round The Mountain Challange. This Involves doing the trip above, which is usially done in two days, in one day at the fastest pace you can manage. 25KM distance and almost 2000M accumlated hight gain. Last year I bailed out at Woolshed Hut and after doing the whole thing in a day last October, in about 8 1/2 hours , I decided to give it another go this year. There was no way I was gonna win, as some of the people tramping this are just soooo fit and sooo fast, I didn't have a hope in hell of competing with them, but the organiser said she had done it in 7 hours, so that was my target.

There are two races held, one being for those mad enough to run it and then the trampers who must carry some nominal tramping gear. This year the first runner was home in just under 4 hours and the first tramper was home in just under 5 hours. These times were faster than last year, especially the tramping times.

So off I went with a group of 11 trampers, from Sharplin Falls carpark and was soon left in the dust of  the 6 fastest guys and girls. I was also getting well ahead of the rest of the group and so I spent the entire day tramping alone as I was too slow for the elite and too fast for the others. I got to Pinnacles Hut in 1 hour 24 minutes, my fastest time yet. Fortunatly it wasn't as hot as last year, so that made it a bit easier. My time from Pinnacles to Woolshed hut was also 1 hour 24, including break time at Pinnacles. So getting to Woolshed hut in 2 hours 48 was ahead of schedule. A short lunch of about 12 minutes was had at Woolshed and then off for the big climb up to the bus stop and around to the south face, my next target being the Ackland Shelter. As I neared the shelter I realised I was still going very well and decided to see if I could get to the shelter in 2 hours, although I wasn't too sure how far ahead it was. I got to the Ackland Shelter in 2 hours and 5 minutes, much in need of food and drink. I spent 10 minutes here and looked at the map to see how far was still to go and it was still a way to go and I was now 5 hours 15 into the trip. The last strech included a long climb up a bush covered saddle and onto Stavely hill, which I did in about 30 minutes. On Stavley hill is the sign post at the track intersection where it goes up to Mt Somers, I reached this at the 6 hour mark and wanted to be back at the carpark within 1 hour, the sign suggested 2 1/2 hours, If I did it in half this time I wouldn't make it in 7 hours. It's a long spur going down from Stavely hill and by the end of it I hated it, but I was going full out now ,running on adrenelin, and once I hit the bush with still 30 minutes to go I started to beleive I could make it. Head down, watching where I was putting my feet, I failed to notice the watcher ahead of me on the track and nearly shit meself when she called out to me, I knew then I was almost there and I came bursting into the carpark in an official time of 6 hours and  46 minutes. I did It, sore feet, aching legs, jock rash, nipple rash, and another one behind the sholder from my pack, but I did it.

Avatar - James Cameron 26th January 2010

Well I finally found the time to pop into town and catch this movie that everyones been talking about. It was strange, with me being into Sci-fi/fantasy movies, that I didn't know about this one before time, but some of the comments comming my way made this a must see before it disappeared off the big screen and even more so to check out the 3D version.
So frirst lets deal with the 3D. This is my first 3D movie, so I didn't quite know what to expect. Before the main feature, ther was a trailer for the new Walt Disney 3D version of Alice In Wounderland and there was a piece where the head if the cheshire cat come right out at ya and seens to be just in front of your face. That was impressive, but Avater really didn't use the technology to that effect so much. So even with all those explosions and debris flying all over the show, I didn't get the impression of flames and debris flying at me or past me. What we do get is some good contrasts of say, people in diffrent places on screen such as foreground and background and group shots  looked cool  as if you were in back of the room with them. The best 3D effects were the Pandorian forest and its inhabatants, and for this alone it was worth the entrance fee.
One thing I noticed, apart from the uncomfortable 3D glasses over top of my normal spectacles, was the film seemed darker. Overall , what with all the colours and awesome scenery it all seemed just a tad too dark. Apparently it is to do with the pollarisation of the 3D glasses and it certainly wasn't bad enough to take away from the spectacular spectacle that is Avatar.I will have to see it in normal vision to compare the diffrence.
The imagination and attention to detail of the creaters of Pandora and her forest is just phenomenal, the Flora and Fauna was for me, very realistic and imaginative and the idea of the floating mountians, although improbable, was exellent. The Na'vi were also very beautiful, and perhaps based on the African Massi in there appearence and clothing and American Indian in their sprituality and connection with their world.
The story itself, of a native population being enticed, coerced and finally almost annilated to give up their land for exploitation of natural resources for the monetory wealth of the exploiters, is nothing new in story telling or indeed in the actual history of humaity. The absolute greed of the mining company and the total disreguard of the Na'vi's attatchment to their land or indeed of their wellbeing as intelligent beings by the leader of the mining companys security forces is an echo of our past on this planet. This is also a timely reminder for those here in our own country, in light of the National governments decision to review Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which protects our special National parks and other important ecological areas from mining. Once these mining companies get a foot in the door of these special places the greed of finding exploitable wealth could be too much to stop the destruction of the unique beauty of our country.
The sprituial aspec of the Na'vi, the interconnectedness of them all to each other and to the life force of their planet is a very interesting idea, and we here on ours could take note of this idea in light of the way we are treating our planet and the other people that live on it.
In the usual Hollywood way there is a great battle torwards the end of the movie, with plenty of destruction and mayhem, but in true James Cameron there are also some powerful and inspiring scenes which stregthen this movie a lot.

I did really enjoy Avatar and will go and see it again so that I can take in some more of that fantastic imaginary world of Pandora and then I will add it to my DVD wants list.
my rating 4.5/5

Mount Maukuratawhai 24th January 2010

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