07/10/2026. Inch Clutha. Grade 2. Combined. Leaders: Stuart Thompson, Dave Roberts & Graeme Souter.
Kudos to NZ Met Services – they got the forecast correct. It was raining in Dunedin (surprisingly) but it looked promising down south.
So 19 intrepid club members left Mosgiel with fingers and toes crossed that the weather would be ok at Kiatangata / Inch Clutha. It proved to be so. Our first stop was Kaitangata township for a rendevous and a quick toilet stop. We then convoyed over the “Banana Bridge” (about 1/2 km from the township) and onto the “island” of Inch Clutha. The bridge was built to create better flood clearance following floods of 1983 and opened in 1988. Its steep arch requires the access to be controlled by traffic lights as it is not possible to see over the top.
We soon arrived at our parking spot to find that numerous cars already in residence. The whitebaiters were out in force. No problems we were soon organised and headed along the track next to the North (Matau) Branch of the Clutha River.
The weather was behaving – no rain or wind a very pleasant day.
Morning tea was taken next to the river with a couple of white baiters enjoying the morning.
Nothing was being caught but that didn’t seem to concern anyone. We followed the flood banks towards the mouth of the river past numerous fishing huts (some seeing better days). A big thank you must go to the fisherman who remembered from our recce we were coming and kept his boisterous dog under control as we passed by.
It wasn’t long before we reached the river mouth and headed along the beach towards the South towards the South (Koau) Branch of the Clutha. It was a fair old trudge along the sand but made pleasant by little or no wind and fairly warm temperatures. Hundreds of seagulls greeted us and we were lucky to come across a sea lion who gave us a bit of a serve for disturbing his/her peace and quiet.
Arriving at the Koau river mouth it was time for lunch. We were entertained by a number of white baiters working the edges and by the looks of things catching plenty. Indeed one chap kindly offered up some fresh white bait for us to try. A few of us gave it a go but found them very wriggly and quite tasteless.
After lunch we headed down the track next to the river to a gate where Stewart had arranged for us to cross the farmland next to the channel between the two river mouths.
This proved to be an awesome change from our usual route with plenty of wild life to view and a much easier walk than the usual trudge down the road back to our cars, this despite our leader managing to zap himself on an electric fence (he did survive). Thank you Stewart.
For the after match function we all headed to the Kaitangata pub for a cool drink and / or coffees and for those that could manage it chocolate muffins and a banoffee cheese cake.
A total distance travelled was about 10 kms with a total moving time a little under 3 hours (per Graeme’s NZ Top Map statistics).
An enjoyable day out with lots of chatter and laughs and a few treats thrown in for good measure.
Thanks to Stewart and Dave for assisting with leading duties.
Graeme.
Link to background information and earlier tramps and hikes in the same area.