17/7/2013. Trampers. Rollinsons Rd, Rollinsons Track, Swampy Ridge track along to Hightop, & return.
4 trampers set out from the locked gate On Rollinsons Rd. which was a little icy in places & there was still some snow showing in parts as well. We were all amazed at the amount of destruction that the snow had caused, with 15cm Manuka splintered like matchwood, & everything sort of flattened.
We had morning tea in the shelter by the picnic area, & then climbed up to the elbow, where we went straight ahead on Rollinsons Track, which was running with water in parts, & covered with snow in other areas.
After reaching the Swampy Ridge track we set off towards Hightop, but soon found our way impeded by fallen Manuka. We negotiated this for a kilometer or two before arriving at a very large & difficult blockage, so as it was almost mid-day, we decided to have lunch, & then return to the cars. – Ken.
31/3/2010. Trampers. Rollinsons, Swampy Ridge, Hightop. Leaders: Ria, Ian
The tramp differed from intentions. For one thing, the leaders had done no recce due to a failure to find a date suitable to both. For another, it had been four years since we had last tackled the track, and memories were a little hazy. Going in from the elbow of Rollinson Road, we were first surprised to find the Rollinson Track sign missing, replaced by one announcing “Tarns”. We wondered at this, but were pleased to find the track fairly well marked by fluorescent pink tape.
9. 1/5/2013 Both. Steve Amies. Leaders: Ian and George.
This time we left from the schoolhouse, making it more of a road walk. We had morning tea on the lower Rollinson Rd and lunch in the track clearers’ picnic area, after inspecting the helicopter landing pad a little beyond.
As we returned down the road, we were surprised to see the helicopter, and shortly after the tank truck making their way towards where we had been. Apparently this was the day to carry out the weed spraying we had been notified about – and we were now making a timely exit. A tramp for 25 of us and of 10.5 km according to Peter’s pedometer and 25. – Ian.
8. 1/2/2012 Both. Steve Amies from Access Road. Leaders: Arthur and Barbara.
Sixteen of us left our cars at the locked gate on Rollinson access Rd and made our way up to the Track Clearers’ Picnic area. The leaders took us round many of the little nooks and crannies (they just seem to multiply of their own accord), stopping to inspect the labels fronting each bush planting. Of poignant note in front of one bush was a label printed with the name of Les Murcott, whose funeral a number of us had attended only a fortnight earlier.
We stopped off for our tea break.
Arthur led us down and across to Trig Q, and then on down Little Coal Creek until we got to the look-out. We careful negotiated some quite steep parts of the track and avoided any casualties. Then came the more arduous climb back up to the trig and across to the Steve Amies.
This latter track had a much more moderate decline (we stuck to only its upper reaches!), past another look-out, before making another turn around further down, to wander back up to the trig and on to the picnic area for lunch.
On the way across the wee saddle, we stopped to investigate the meaning of a sign indicating a sheltered area, whose side track opened out to a large open area in the bush, marked with a large white wooden equal-armed cross, laid flat on the grass. After some discussion, we decided the area was also to serve as a helicopter emergency landing spot. (There was even a ‘waiting room’ bench for passengers.)
Back up at the picnic area, our leaders discovered for us yet another alcove with ample tables and seats for a comfortable lunch.
A large ‘table’.A smaller one. (Admire Bruce’s head attire.)
Our leaders took us out to the road by a route different from the one we had entered by, and lo and behold, a salubrious shelter, doubtless erected by the track clearers for their comfort. Bravo.
Doug
Then we had only a stroll back down Rollinson Road to the cars. A leisurely 5.5 km walk, (as measured by two with their measuring devices.) Thank you, Barbara and Arthur for your careful leadership. – Ian.
7. 18/3/2009. Hikers. Steve Amies from Access Rd Hikers E+ Bev H, Joyce S
6. 25/7/2007. Hikers. Access Road, Steve Amies. Leaders: Bob H, Graham.
click to enlarge
Picnic Area nr Trig Q Fred, Marjorie, Joyce, Angela, Mollie, Wendy, Bev, Peter, Margaret, Elaine, Lesley
5. 19/5/2007 Trig Q from Silverstream via Steve Amies track. Steve Amies Track Circuit Leaders: Ria L, Hazel
4. 27/7/2005. Hikers. Steve Amies, Trig Q. Bob H, Les W, Mary M.
3. 2/2/2000. Trig Q from Silverstream via Steve Amies track. Steve Amies Track Circuit Leaders: Peter B, Lex
2. 23/10/1996. Trig Q. Average. Leaders: Margaret and Les, Doug J.
1. 7/6/1995Trig Q from Whare Flat School. Medium+. Shorter trip available. Leaders: Bob H, George, Jack R, Nancy
Bullring, Spiers Rd, Skyline, Swampy, McQuilkans, Whare Flat Rd. We travelled 10km; Moving ave. 3.5km/hr; Moving time 2h 50m; Total ascent 491mtrs.
Only 4 trampers went on this walk, which was very uneventful, until we couldn’t find the Jim Freeman track going back up to Ben Rudds shelter. We must’ve walked past it but didn’t see it. After looking around a bit we set off back up the road to return to the cars, vowing to do a recce from the top, to find where the Jim Freeman track meets up with McQuilkans track. – Ken.
Resting at Forestry 100 years memorial. Ian, Leonie, Abe, Ria, Glenice, Angela
Ria and Hazel took 7 of us from the Bullring up over Flagstaff, on and down the Pineapple track, then crossing over to the top of Ross Creek where we rested on seating by the Memorial celebrating the Dunedin City Forests 2006 Centennial which had suffered recent vandal damage and returning back up the Davies track,
Emerging from bush on Davies Track. Abe, Glenice, Ria
over onto Firebreak track with the majority returning to their cars but Ria taking Abe and Ian down to Big(or Bivvy) Rock.
Big Rock. Ria Abe
Hazel brought along a friend, Angela, a former neighbour of Ian’s back in the 70s! A delightful surprise for the two of them. – Ian
1. 31/7/1991. Booth Road from Pineapple Track and Bivvy Rock. Average. Leaders: Betty, Judith and Hugh, Peggy M, Frances.
Big Rock (Chimney)
It is possible to visit this rock by using a roughly marked route which has been cut from the Fire Break Track. The is also a possible route slightly further to the west. This massive rock outcrop has been used over many years as a place to bivouac and for rock climbing. There are good views over the valley.
– From Club’s Friend of Ben Rudd’s Certification – 1999.
A not very clear map of the tramp, I'm afraid, and reversed left to right. (Experimenting here with my Nike app and computer camera.) The route starts at the homestead at the top of the pic. A distance of 11 km return.
On a drizzly day, 8 hardy hopefuls elected to do the tramp, under the leadership of reluctant leader Lex, who, like most of the rest of the club would have preferred a warm dry stay at home, but eventually confessed he had enjoyed the day.
Nine of us met at Booth Road. We entered Davies Track via McGoun this time, exiting it on the left a short way up past the cairn. A light shower came on during the bush section, sounding quite pleasant as it struck the leaves overhead. Out in the tussock at the top, the weather was clear again. Ria and Hazel had discovered a new track had been made above the bush, this time striking to the left instead of the one to the left, the one that got several of us lost last time where overgrowth had rendered a crucial turn invisible.
We emerged on the Flagstaff walkway above a rock outcrop and headed down to the top of the Pineapple. Here Gay, a visitor, left us and we continued along Swampy Ridge to the top of the Nicols/Moonlight track. A little way in and we found the track has been ruined by mountain bike wheels cutting a narrow deep groove down the track middle, making keeping our footing on the restricted track-sides difficult and dangerous. Further down, we kept to the Moonlight side of Nicols Creek and traced, where we could, the original track, bisected however by the zigzags of the mountain bike route. Rain now really set in and we sheltered in nearby bush for lunch. We then continued down the old track, through the macrocarpas, the stone outcrop and yet further carefully down to emerge at the creek crossing below the waterfall – to Ian’s delight but Ria’s chagrin who had hoped to emerge onto the Leith Valley road on the north side instead of now forced across to the other side. So it was down and out and up Islay St back to the cars. All felt it had been another good day out. Too dull and showery for photo opportunities however. – Ian.
2. 14/11/2007. Trampers. Woodhaugh, Ross Creek, Davies, Pineapple, Ross Creek return. Moderate. Leaders: Ria, Hazel.
Stream crossing. Doug, George, Peter, Wendy
The route Ria and Hazel took ten of us on provided plenty of variety both in scenery and weather. We approached Davies track by way of Ross Creek Reservoir from Woodhaugh. After Ross Creek it was through cleared forest before climbing through secondary growth …
… on the foothill slopes of Flagstaff before entering beautiful native forest and and hour later emerging on Flagstaff’s tussock and flax with overcast views of the harbour and Dunedin both north and south. We had encountered occasional showers to this point and now out on the tussock it was turning really cold. We were still not prepared upon reaching the upper Pineapple-Flagstaff track …
Made it onto Pineapple. Ria, Sabina, Glenice, George, Keith
… to be pelted by a fierce but fortunately brief hail storm. We quickly made our way down to the junction with the Swampy Ridge track where now the hail had now been …
Snow. Doug, George, Sabina, Keith, Glenice
… replaced with snow. So it was down, down the Pineapple to the sheltered edge of the bush where we lunched in the now fitful sunshine. Then the bush, Booth Road, back through Ross Creek tracks and down past the reservoir until the last scenic bush gave way to Woodhaugh St and back to the cars. An interesting day. – Ian
In Leith Valley, where Otago’s first industry – sawmilling – is reputed to have started about the 1860s, is the start of the old Pineapple Track.
Originally, it was named Ross Track, after Archibald Hilson Ross, who owned most of the land in the vicinity. In the early 1920s, Mr Oscar Balk, first president of the Otago Tramping Club, led parties of trampers up this route. At the top of a rather steep section, the parties would stop to rest and often refresh themselves with a tin of pineapple. This tin was sometimes left hanging on a tree or fence, and the track came to be called the Pineapple Track.
The line of the Pineapple Walkway has deviated from the original track in places to provide more scenic variation.
The original vegetation of the area has been modified as a result of early milling, burning and stock grazing, but remnants of the milled species (podocarps) still remain. Rimu, miro, totara and matai are found in isolated pockets, mainly in damp gullies. Even so, the overall distribution of plant species retains some semblance of natural order with the larger forest trees growing at lower altitudes. Podocarp broad-leaved forest type occurs with shrub species which grade out into Dracophyllum shrub land and ultimately tussock grassland communities on the summit area.
Some common plants: fuchsia, pepper tree, lemonwood, broadleaf, totara, five’finger, wineberry, lancewood, Muehlenbeckia, Dracophyllum, Coprosma, Hebe, and wild spaniard tussock.
There are many varieties of birds in the bush areas where there is an ample food supply to sustain many nectar-, berry-, and insect-eating native birds.
Some of these are: New Zealand pigeon, bellbird, fantail, tomtit, brown creeper, tui, silvereye, rifleman and pipit.
1. 17/10/2001. Trampers. Nicols Creek – Swampy Saddle – Warburton Track. Leaders: Lex, Mary L, Irene.
11/5/2011. Trampers. El Dorado Station. Eldorado Road. Medium.
The drive in from Hawksbury was quite long but eventually the (surprisingly smooth) road wound down to El Dorado Station by the upper Waikouaiti River, north branch, arriving at 10.00 a.m. A station hand pointed out the Eldorado road climbing steeply out of the valley.
GPS of the route from valley to ridge and back. Courtesy Ken.
Station buildings from the Eldorado Road above.
We climbed (it seemed almost vertically!) for half an hour before stopping for a late morning tea break.
Cuppa by the steep 'road'.
The climb was then up, up, up and at last onto the ridge heading SE. Out of all the cone-shaped hills around, we eventually located the mist-enshrouded Mt Watkin whose slopes our road had taken us past on the way in.
Mount Watkin shrouded in mist.
Going was easier on the ridge as it led us up and down along its spine. We eventually stopped short of the trees visible in the mist beyond.
Along ridge.
Lunch was at a large stone, the only dry spot around for sitting on. Those same trees are visible top right.
Lunch and spot where we turned back.
A shot on the way back. Looking up-river on the left and the road in on the right.
River and road
Another shot taken on the return. looking at the Waikouaiti down-stream.
Looking down river.
Back at the station buildings, we explored a track leading down by the river. We didn’t go too far. The rocky cliffs in the distance mark a gorge the track had to climb up and over.
Along the river.
Back to the car and it was the long drive back home, interrupting the journey only for a pleasant coffee-break at the Blueskin Nursery Cafe. A cool, pleasant day. Ideal for tramping in an area the Club had neglected for too long. – Ian.
22/9/2010. Big Stone Road and forest. Leaders: Ria, Hazel.
A good days tramp was had by just 4 of us. We changed the tramp location due to the weather conditions, & went to Big Stone Rd forest, where Ria, & Hazel led us on a circular route through the forest.
Route map courtesy Ken's GPS.
We had lunch in a very nice spot by the stream, with the sun shining on us.
1. 8/9/2010. Trampers. Paradise, Braidwood, Sandfly Bay. M. Leadership: Informal.
Tramp Route. (Courtesy Ken). Car parked top LH corner.
Weather looked fine at Mosgiel, but when we four trampers arrived at Sullivans Dam for the Cloud Forest-Escarpment Tramp, we struck a drizzly cloudy shock. For mud and safety concerns we turned back to town and on the way decided to try the Peninsula. We parked at the top of the Paradise Road track and the weather was quite a degree clearer. However, our second shock was to find the track the WETTEST we have ever found it. No one slipped over, (miraculously), but we had to be extremely cautious in placing our feet.
