Taieri Recreational Tramping Club

No. 23 on old hardcopy list of 113 club tramps. “Karetai Rd via Monument from Lagoon. Year round.”

Distance from car-park: Tomahawk: 19 km; Smaills Beach: 22 km;  Paradise Road: 26 km.’

DCC List: 41 Peg Track. Otago Peninsula
Accessed from Oregon St. 3.5 hrs ret. Tramping track – unbenched. Managed: DCC CAM, private land.
Description – This track provides a link between Ocean Grove and Highcliff Road. Access to the track in Ocean Grove is off Oregon Street. An attractive walk around Tomahawk Lagoon then climbs through gorse and native bush. Turn right towards Soldiers Memorial through paddocks with gorse sometimes obscuring the rock walls.

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43. 06/12/2023. Trampers. North of Tomahawk. Grade 3. $7. 22km. Leaders: Esther Willis and Julie McKenzie

As hoped, the weather was kind to us, as this tramp would be wasted without being able to savour the spectacular views.

17 km from car park.

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17. 11/10/2023. Hikers. St Clair, St Kilda, Ocean Grove. Grade 2, $5, 17km, Leaders: Bruce Spittle/Alex Griffin

Nineteen hikers left Marlow Park in sunny conditions at about 0930 after singing happy birthday to Liz Griffin and walked over the Kettle Park Sports field and up a track to the Barnes Lookout.

30/11/2022. Hikers. Highcliff Track/Buskin Track/Highcliff Road/Karetai Road. Grade 3. $7. Leaders: Max and Mike W.

M & M aka Max and Mike demonstrated their commitment to the TRTC by agreeing to lead a hike instead of sitting in front of a TV watching England thrash their Welsh cousins in the FIFA World Cup. I am not sure that this commitment was fully appreciated as shortly after the commencement of the hike there were mutterings of “when are these Poms stopping for morning tea?”

Ten hardy souls ignored the dodgy weather forecast and set off for a hike that took us around a boulder strewn hill with great views down to Boulder Beach and Sandfly Bay before descending down a zig zag poled track to join up with the Buskin Track.

The steep descent was made without incident although some knees were creaking a bit by the time we had got to the bottom of the hill.
Gymnast of the day award was given to Jim Finnie. At the start of the Buskin Jim demonstrated his prowess by performing an impressive backward somersault with a half pike and a reverse tuck. The landing left a bit to be desired and stopped him getting a perfect 10.
Special mention also to Jay who re-arranged some of Max’s clothing after she spotted that he had his hi vis vest on upside down and back to front.
An early lunch was taken at 1130 in a sheltered part of the Buskin Track from where we could see the views of the coast disappearing in the mist and drizzle.

The Buskin Track does not appear to be used much as the grass was quite long in places with a few areas of thistle and nettles to be aware of.

It was also a wee bit muddy and slippery towards the top where a few planks of wood had been laid.

Once at the top of the Buskin, it was a short walk along a private road to Highcliff Road and Karetai Road back to the cars.
The weather was not as bad as forecast. It was overcast with a few drizzle patches and one short bit of “wet rain”. Poms know the meaning of this.

Debrief at the cars agreed that grade 3 was about right and that there would not be a coffee meeting on the way home.
As usual, great company and interesting conversation made this an enjoyable hike.
Mike

 

Boulder Beach closed December – January during yellow eyed penguin nesting and moulting.

Distances from car-park: Top of Buskin Track 24 km, Glenfalloch 24 km, Macandrew Bay 25 km.

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25/05/2022.  Trampers.  Greenacres, Buskin, Paradise Tracks. M. Leaders: Anne and Rod Ward

It started as a cold blustery day when we departed from Mosgiel, proceeding down the bay with white caps plentiful on the harbour. 14 hardy souls started the Greenacres Track at 0940.

Conditions were better than expected once we started our journey up Greenacres Track and turned right to walk along Highcliff Road to the start of the Buskin Track.

We stopped for a cuppa at the start of the Buskin Track then proceeded down the track to the junction of Paradise Track. Buskin Track was surprisingly sheltered from the cold southerly wind.

After a side walk to Boulder Beach which was spectacular with crashing waves, foam whipping up the beach and blustery cold wind we returned to a sheltered spot at the start of the Paradise Track for lunch.

Ascending up Paradise Track without stopping and a cold southerly on our backs we again joined Highcliff Road then back down Greenacres Track to our vehicles.

Everyone enjoyed the walk and as tramp leader I must congratulate everyone for being so well prepared for the extreme conditions that never eventuated.

Finished our walk at 1440 and headed to “The Duck” at Macandrew Bay for a well-deserved coffee.

Anne & Rod Ward

(Elapsed time 4h 45m)

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13/04/2022 Trampers. Glenfalloch and Beyond. M Leaders: Pam and Helen

Glenfalloch’s name is Gaelic and means “Hidden Valley”.  Glenfalloch was established in 1871 by George Russell. It covers 12 hectares (30 acres). In 1917 Philip Barling purchased Glenfalloch and it was opened to the public by his son in 1956. It was brought by the Mills family in 1960 and in the late 1960’s the Otago Peninsula Trust purchased the property.  We can be very grateful to have this asset to enjoy every season of the year.

9.40am saw Phil and his harem of nine set off through the woodland gardens of Glenfalloch following a path which took us to the Bridal Lawn, over the Russell stream bridge to admire the ferns and woodland foliage before climbing up many steps to a four-wheel drive track and the start of our first big ascent.

As we steadily climbed, this track petered out into a single overgrown track which took us to the boundary line.

Here we pushed our way through low Manuka branches to the fence where packs and poles were thrown over before we squeezed through the wires.

Then it was a steady zigzag climb up Claremont Farm to just below Highcliff Rd where we stopped for morning tea while enjoying the great vista’s back over the city, the sparkling water of the harbour and to Port Chalmers and beyond. Jill D’s birthday treat of easter eggs got us going again walking up Highcliff Road for 15mins to Penzance Kennels and the start of Buskin track.

This track weaved its way down the side of the hill, again with spectacular views now of the Pacific Ocean and rolling farmland out to Sandfly Bay. This single file track was mostly grass with the odd churned up muddy patches trampled by cattle, but some boards had been placed in situ. We eventually came to a junction with Braidwood track to Boulder Beach and Highcliff Track to the right. We continued on the Highcliff track through clumps of macrocarpa trees until we came out in the open again.

The track weaved its way towards the sea and then suddenly it was a steep grunt up to the top to the White Rocks (lichen covered) for lunch.

Again, enjoying spectacular views over Boulder Beach, towards Sandfly Bay and Mt Charles, Phil handed around chocolate treats from Betty and Jim (thank you soo much).

With the sugar rush we were off again and, as we walked around a corner, the views changed again to Tomahawk, St Clair Beach and Black head. When Highcliff Track finished, we continued on Karetai Rd to where it meets Highcliff Rd.  A 20-minute walk down Highcliff Rd brought us to the unmarked District Track.

Once Phil cleared the grass around the stile, we scrambled down through long grass following the fence line for 20 mins to another stile and from there continued through trees towards Portobello Road.

A very steep final descent brought us onto Portobello Road.

We had a 20 minute walk on the shared pathway to Glenfalloch where we were joined by Raewyn, Claire and Jan for coffee, cake and ice cream on the deck in the last rays of sunshine.

Thank you Helen for filling in at the last minute as Tail End Charlie and to Jason allowing us access through Claremont Farm.  Pam Cocks