Taieri Recreational Tramping Club – Page 36 – Mid-week recreational and social walking group based in Mosgiel NZ

Lake Whare and environs.

18/5/2016. Trampers. Lake Whare and surrounding tracks circuit. Leader: Arthur H.

It came on to rain lightly as we met at the car park. At 9.00 a.m. the 11 Trampers present held a brief conference and decided that as it looked very wet in the direction of the programmed tramp to the “3 Kings”, we would change and go to the Whare Flat area. This was a very wise decision as it was very pleasant in the bush even though it was raining.

We decided to do a circuit taking in Smithies, Possum Busters, Swine Spur and Lake Whare loop tracks. Accordingly we parked the cars at the bottom of Rollinsons Road. It was rather wet out in the open while getting ready, but no problem once we got started.

The first thing to admire, before we began, was the bridge at the start of “Smithies”, giving dry access across the swampy ditch from the road. The bridge was of Neil’s design and construction, so it was only fitting that a photo of himself standing on the bridge …

Neil on his bridge he built. (Helen pic and caption.)

… is presented herewith.

Going in this direction Smithies track …

Carol on Smithies Track. (Margreet pic.)

… climbs on occasion. It was after 10.00 a.m. before we stopped for morning tea, as we had to find a suitable spot under the tree canopy to keep us dry. Everything was quite wet underfoot by now, but the track conditions were good.

From our stop, it didn’t take long to reach the end of Smithies. We turned left, on Possum Busters now, passing the junctions of McQuilkans and then Porkies tracks.

Eventually we reached Swine Spur/Possum Busters cross-roads (cross-tracks?) where we stopped briefly. Downhill we now went on Swine Spur, finding that this upper part is quite overgrown.

The sun came out …

… and we stopped for lunch at a suitable spot after reaching ‘cutty grass flats’ – which we had track-cleared some months ago. The sun was very welcome and the weather remained dry then till we finished.

Afterwards it was only a short distance to the Lake Whare Loop track which we followed. A stop was made to admire Lake Whare …

… after crossing the rock wall and looking at the ruins of the rock-walled building (house?).

We then crossed back onto Smithies Track, and thence back to the cars.

It was agreed that all had enjoyed the tramp, even though it wasn’t all that long. There had been a good variety of up and down, giving everyone a good work out.

Upon returning to Mosgiel, a meeting of the” Taieri Recreational Tramping Club AND Coffee Club” (Tramping Division) was convened at the Wooden Table cafe. – Arthur H.

21/7/2004 Trampers. Lake Whare, Steve Amies, Trig Q. Medium. Leaders: Ian, Bob H

Ocean View suburbs

27/4/2016. Hikers. Ocean View Suburbs. E. Leaders: Alex and Liz.

Nike app route map. Parked Ocean View freedom camping site. Dunes walk. Bush track Brighton Rd to John St. Morning tea at school, (1km). Along John St, up Creamery Rd to Museum.Track from Brighton Rd to Kayforce Rd to Bennett Rd (3km). Lane at end down to Brighton Rd. Lunch at Brighton Bowling Green (5km), Beach back to Surf Club, and again from north of BIg Rock (7km) to the cars.

23 took part in a walk around Ocean View Brighton in a perfect weather setup. There where some interesting places bought to our attention by the leaders of the group including the old Ocean View school

and the welcome by local Warren Harris presenting his very own museum. The scenery was acceptable and the variation of walk pleasant.

A second alternative to getting wet feet. Alex disavows responsibility for this adventurous part of the tramp.. Liz happily accepts it.

To cap it off a visit to Agnes Café in Green Island where a great deal of chatter took place. Alex @ Liz GRIFFIN.

Protected: Committee Minutes 19/4/2916

North Taieri Road Walk

1. 30/3/2016 North Taieri Road Walk. E. Leaders: Les and Margaret.

GPS of Hikers' Route 30 March. — GPS of Hikers’ Route 30 March. Park North Taieri Church. Wairongoa Rd, Milners Rd, Puddle Alley, Dukes Rd, Sinclair Rd, Hazlett Rd, Wairongoa Rd, Church. Nike distance shown as 9.63km less than other distances of 10.27km recorded.

Mar. 30 Hikers Lunch Panorama. – 20 of the 21 Hikers.

Nicols Creek Bridge, Morrisons Burn, Poleline Road, Swampy, Nicols or Pineapple.

Click Dunedin’s Hills’ History for background information.

Click Swampy ridge track for background information.

Click Pineapple Track for background information.

Click Pineapple and Flagstaff walk for background information.

Nicols Creek – Information and Trips Library

6. 23/3/2016. Morrisons/Poleline/Swampy/Moon circuit. Leader?

Morrisons Poleline track Swampy Moon track. (Caption/route map courtesy Ken)

After cancelling our trip to Leaning Lodge, 7 trampers turned up at the carpark to do the Morrisons/Poleline/Swampy/Moon circuit.
We parked on the Leith Valley Rd. by the entrance to the Glow worm track, then walked up the road to the bridge over the Morrison Burn.
The day started off cool, but fine, & the track condition was quite good. We climbed under the barrier at the locked gate on the bridge at the start, & made our way up to the weir,

then backtracked to where the track went uphill through the bush. After morning tea break,

we carried on until we came across a gravelled road, where we took the wrong way!! We soon discovered our mistake, & walked along the road to where the track started again up through the bush. This eventually led us onto the Poleline track that goes up to the top of Swampy. We had lunch sheltered from the wind by the building at the top of the Leith Saddle track, then retraced our steps back …

3 Fog over Mosgiel from Swampy (Ken pic and caption)

… to the junction of the Poleline track & the Swampy Ridge track, where we turned off, & made our way along to the top of Moon track. We had a short stop here before heading off down this very badly rutted [damaged by mountain bikes] & rough track into the bush again where there is a multitude of mountain biking tracks, winding back & forward making it hard to know which track to take. So we just kept looking for tracks that went downhill, & eventually we ended up on the Leith Valley Rd. about 150mtrs from the cars.

An interesting day, & a tramp that a few had not done before, & all agreed that it was a good walk.
Walked 12.8km
Ave speed 3.9km/h
Moving time 3h 18min.
Climbed 658mtrs. – Ken.

5. 19/8/2009. Medium. Morrisons Burn, Morrisons Track, Poleline Road, Swampy, Pineapple, Nicols Creek. Medium. Leaders: Keith and Glenice

Morrisons Burn waterfall

Looking down from weir. Keith, Hazel, Bruce, Ria

4. 23/1/2008 Morrisons Track, Swampy, Pineapple, Nicols Creek. Leaders: Lex

Greenery on Morrisons Track — Greenery on Morrisons Burn Track

Parking the cars at the Nicols Creek bridge, we walked up the Leith Valley Road to Morrisons at the foot of Stoney Ford slope. We scrambled past the large slip immediately across the footbridge and enjoyed the beautiful bush and moss-clad track up to reach the waterfall. Then the steep scramble up the bank to morning tea on the 4WD at the slope’s top. Along that a bit, and then it was further up, up, up through bush to join the Pole Track 4WD to enjoy lunch where it meets the Swampy Ridge track. Instead of turning down the Nicols Creek track junction when we reached it,

Junction of Swampy with Nicols Creek Tracks. Hazel, Ria, Pat, Ken, Doug M, Lex

by common consent Lex took the 10 of us on to the Pineapple Track

Junction Swampy, Pineapple Track. Lex, Ken, Pat, Doug M, Hazel, Wendy

descent to break away from it further down at a stone cairn to cut across the cocksfoot on the left to the bush edge. This provided heightened interest as it had not been reconnoitred but Lex cleverly located the track that led down through the bush and across back to Nicols Creek track. The day had begun overcast and actually rained a few drops after lunch, but got really hot during our concluding descent to the cars. A good way for it to happen. – Ian

3. 16/1/2008. Trampers. Nicols Creek, Swampy, Morrisons. Medium. Leaders: Lex, Tash.

2. 16/5/2007. Trampers. Morrison Falls. Return Nicols Creek. Moderate. Leaders: Lex, Tash.

1. 15/11/2006. Trampers. Morrison Track, Pole Track, Swampy. Medium. Leaders: George, Doug J.

Protected: Committee Minutes 18/1/2016

Taieri Historical Park, Old Dunstan Gold Trail.

No. 58 on old hardcopy list of 113 club tramps. “Taieri Historical Park. Farm”

Location: 11 km.

9/12/2015 Taieri Historical Park, Outram Glen, Whare Creek. Leader: Judy.

Judy and Adrienne did a great job of organising a rather complicated end-of-the-year gathering at the Taieri Historical Park when it didn’t all go to plan. Indeed the ordered trestle arrived, Judy had the key to the historic church where we had planned to lunch later, but there was not promised entry to the park museum, although happily the Machinery Museum at the top was there for us to wander around and gawp at. We we a goodly-sized group – forty-five of us. We were split into three groups:

Trampers went up the “Outram Glen” track, in the event stopping just short of Lee Stream lest they should find themselves getting back late for lunch.

Hikers (group one) went up the Whare/Traquair Creek track where we were informed through some 1912 cell-phone photos that the true “Outram Glen” spot was just across the creek adjacent to a flour mill, sadly burnt down about 1916, an area resorted to by picnickers, now built over by the more sweeping corner of the George King Memorial Drive just where it begins to climb the hill. The group went on to have morning tea at the track end, enjoying the bush and stream setting, and speculating where the dray track must have continued on to, perhaps up the side stream there, over a bridge that Jim noticed traces of. But click on here to see the probable true explanation. As depicted by the route map below, the track is just under a kilometre long. The group wandered back down to what is now termed the “Glen”, splitting up, some to explore where the Trampers had gone and others to wander where they willed. There was ample time to kill before the midday lunch.

Hikers (group two) resorted for a morning tea picnic at the “Outram Glen” Taieri River beach before returning.

Come midday, and others arrived. Many clustered round Jill’s ” bookstall, (an Altrusa project, proceeds to the Mosgiel Swimming Pool). We drifted into the church building and were greeted with a most attractive layout of the shared food we had brought.

Goodies (Helen pic) — The goodies (Helen pic)

Early fears that the pews would inhibit social intercourse were quickly allayed. Fred pointed out to this reporter how blokes at the “shed” had cunningly resized some longer pews so that the collection of pews presented a most genuine setting.

Munchers — Munching and meeting. (Helen pic)

Munchers (2) (Helen pic) — Munching and meeting. (2) (Helen pic)

To round off the day, Bruce and his ukelele led us in singing a number of old unchurchy songs, to two of which he had added clever tramping verses of his own. Well done, Bruce!

SIngers (Helen pic) — Bruce and a couple of ring-ins leading the singing. (Helen pic)

Well, that winds things up. – Except! Plans to “coffee” at Outram were amended to Wal’s Topiary because of its larger size, but which we discovered upon reaching there had been taken over by a group for a Christmas get-together. So nine of us ended up at the Blackstone Cafe for our coffee chat. All in all, the day was a good occasion to finish off the year’s tramping and to wish each other a good holiday season and a good meeting together in the New Year. – Ian.

10/6/2009 Hikers: Taieri Historical Park, West Taieri Cemetery, return road. 3 paddocks to cross. Watch for electric fences Easy. Leaders: Bob & Evelyn E.

12/6/2002 Alt. Taieri Historical Park. Leaders: Jack and Rosemary, Margaret D

9/5/2001. Outram Historical Park. Leaders: Margaret D, Mary Y, Denise.

14/2/2001. Outram Historical Park. Leaders: Denise, Arthur and Barbara.

8/3/2000. Taieri Historical Park. Leaders: Margaret D, Rosemary and Jack.

22/9/1999. Taieri Historical Park. Leaders: Dot B, Eleanaor, Betty

24/2/1999. Taieri Historical Park – Outram. Leaders: Margaret D, Jack and Rosemary.

28/1/1998. Taieri Historical Park, Old Gold Trail, Outram. Round trip. Leaders; Dot B, Joan H.

22/5/1996 Taieri Historical Park, Old Gold Trail. West Taieri Cemetery. Return Outram. Leaders: George, Penny & Peter, Jean Y

4/3/1992. Taieri Historical Park. Outram. Old Gold Trail. Round trip. Easy. Leaders: George, Penny and Peter, Mary Y

2/11/1989 Taieri Historical Park, Old Dunstan Gold Trail. Outram. Leaders: Peg C, Jean Y, Doreen

24/2/1989 Taieri Historical Park, Old Dunstan Gold Trail. Outram. Leaders: Margaret D, Jack & Rosemary T

2/11/1988 Taieri Historical Park at Outram Bridge. Follow the old gold coach route. Leaders: Peg C, Mary Y, Doreen.

Waipori Road to Shaw Road

No. 110 on old hardcopy list of 113 club tramps. “Waipori Rd to Shaws Rd (See Bill Hunt) Year Round”

32 km from car park.

10. 18/11/2015 Trampers. Rannock Track from Waipori Picnic Area to Shaw Road.
On a day with dodgy looking weather, 7 of us set off for the picnic area at Waipori Dam at Lake Mahinerangi, to do a walk through the forest roads to the old fishermans huts that are on the lake edge. These are the huts that we normally walk to from Post Office Creek end, but that track is no longer negotiable, so we decided to go from the other end.
However, when we arrived at the picnic area we discovered that the dam has been closed off with a tall gate, & there is no access allowed into the forest. This came as a bit of a blow to our plans for the day, so having to improvise, we drove back along the road till we found a sheltered place to have morning tea,

1 Morning tea spot (Ken pic and caption) — 1 Morning tea spot (Ken caption)

while we mulled over what the next step would be. We eventually decided to go back down the Waipori Rd. with the view to walk a bit of the Government Track.
We stopped off at the Waipori township to have a look at the Crystal Falls, which a few of us had never seen before. Impressive sight, although being blocked from a really good view by trees etc.

2. At the Crystal Falls viewing platform. (Ken caption)

When we got to the bridge over the river just before the Govt. track, we decided to go into the picnic area there, instead of going to the Govt. track, & have a look at the track from there up to Shaw Hill Rd.
We parked up on the entrance road, as there is also a gate across there now as well, & walked up the track to the old shed, where we poked around a bit before moving on further up past the stone seat, & up to where the 4WD track starts. This lead us up to Shaw Hill Rd. where we had a bit of a look around before settling down for lunch under some pines, just by the bee hives. After lunch, we retraced our steps, but this time we took the loop track which joins up with the other one down near the bottom.
Ian H. did some research on the old shed & the stone seat, & came up with the info that the shed, along with it’s adjacent toilet, was built for the forestry workers, & the stone seat was constructed by the workers for their own amusement.

3. Ken taking advantage of the stone seat (Ken caption)

So our day was not entirely wasted, & we all enjoyed the different things that we saw during the day.
Walked 6.5km
3.7km/h
climbed 290m
max height 474m – Ken.

9. 5/2/2014 Both. Waipori DOC picnic area over bridge. Track up to Shaw Road.

Lunch stop (Ken pic and caption) — Lunch stop1 (Ian H pic and caption)

Lunch stop2 (Ken pic and caption) — Lunch stop2 (Ian H pic and caption)

8. 9/1/2013. All. Waipori DOC picnic area over bridge. Track up to Shaw Road. Leaders: Bev, Ian.

Eighteen climbed the track and four ramblers walked up the Waipori Road.

GPS of route courtesy Ken. We climbed via the shelter and the steep true left track of loop up to Shaw Road – and beyond – and descended via the loop’s longer gentler sloping true right side.

Cuppa at Lookout outcrop on steep track.

One hiker spoke for many when he thought the climb seemed much longer and steeper than when he had last done it (about a decade earlier!).

7. 20/10/2010. Hikers. Waipori Area. McLaren Rd, Wesleydale Rd, Farmland to Mill Creek. Poleline to Wesleydale Rd. Leaders: Bill and Lesley.

Following is a brief report on Wednesday 20/10/2010 Hikers tramp.

In all there were 12 people who enjoyed the day mainly because it was a new tramp, a lovely day, and no rain.

We parked the cars in McLaren road and ambled on up McLaren turning into Wesleydale Road, stopping for morning tea out of the cool breeze. Then continued on over farm land to Mill Creek. Found a lovely spot for lunch in the sun along the Waipori river bank.

After lunch we walked up the pole line to Wesleydale Road and back to the cars. Approx 12 km all up.

The morning was cool until about 10am after which the sun shone from then on. – Lesley.

6. 17/9/2008. Hikers. Waipori Walk. Medium. Leaders: Bill H, Peter.

5. 21/9/2005. Both. Waipori area. Leaders: Arthur and Barbara, Bill H, Lance and Lois.

4. 26/5/2004 Both. Waipori Gorge. Climb from the DOC picnic area. Medium. Leaders: Bill H, Lesley, Irene, Les W, Ray, Mary M

Pause on track. Nadia, Dorothy, Lex, Bob

3. 13/9/2000. Waipori Gorge area. Leaders: Bill H, Pat and Bill.

2. 10/9/1997. Waipori Gorge. Leaders: Lesley S, Bill H, Bev H.

1. 4/10/1995. Waipori Gorge. Medium. Leaders: Bill and Lesley, Graham and Doreen.

Grainger Road Tramps

Grainger Road Tramps to Maungatua summit and Woodside.
Steep, Long. Take plenty of water.
Cars park at Graingers Road.

8. 11/11/2015. Trampers. Grainger Road.
A change of plan due to the weather. 7 of us went to Grainger Road and parked at end of road by the pylon. Steep track up the side of the Maungatuas. Steep was what Hamel’s book said and was steep. Morning tea Ken left and went back down. Rest of us continued up as far as the markers were. No more track to be found so after much looking around the decision was made to go back down. Early lunch with the paddock’s two resident horses and a shower of rain sent us on our way home. Still a good workout. – Helen.
7. 31/8/2005. Trampers. Grainger Road to Maungatua Tussock slopes only. Spaniard grass thick. Leaders: George, Doug J.
We climbed in the bush, and came down in tussock and farm. – Ian

Lunch on Maungatua slop. Hazel, Dorothy, George — Break in Bush. George, Ria, Who?

Lunch on Maungatua slop. Hazel, Dorothy, George

Descent round a large rock. Who? in rear rear. Doug M front.

6. 16/9/1998 Grainger Road, Woodside. Leaders: Bill H, Graham

5. 29/4/1998. Maungatua via Graingers Road, return – round trip. Leaders: Bill H, Graham, Ian.

4. 14/8/1996. Grainger Road to Woodside Glen. (Car Shuttle) Medium+. Leaders: Wendy, Bev H, Bill H.

3. 7/12/1994 Grainger Road, Maungatua, Woodside. Steep and long. You may go part way on this one and a leader will bring you back. Leaders: Nancy, Rob Q, Joyce S, Colleen

1/10/1994 Leaders: Joyce S, Nancy, Colleen

2. 11/5/1994. Grainger Road, Woodside, Maungatua. Med+. Long. Leaders: Nancy, Colleen, Rob Q, Joyce S

1. 11/3/1992 Leaders: Bob & Audrey, Denise, Doug M

Brighton Beach south

Location: 15 km.

5. 16/9/2015. Trampers. Brighton to Kuri Bush.

Seven trampers started out from Brighton to walk the beach to Kuri Bush. The weather was overcast, but fine all day, & no wind, which made pleasant beach walking.
As lunch was taken before we reached Kuri bush,

we never quite made it all the way there before turning back. As the tide was starting to come in,

we walked some of the way back on the road, until we could get back

onto the beach. – Heb.

4. 7/11/2013. Both. Brighton to Bruce Rocks. Leader: G Haggie.

3. 10/11/2010. Trampers. Brighton Beach walk south. Medium. Leaders: All.

Brighton-Sth. Beach walk. GPS of route, courtesy Ken

This was the first tramp without a recce or leader. Overworked leaders had begun complaining as low tramper numbers had meant frequent leadership duties. Ironically 10 of us turned up on the day. We had morning tea at the same spot as last time – at the point where the unbroken beach gives way to rocky outcrops and small bays. As you can see, the tide was well out.

The two small waterfalls pictured in the last tramp were almost indiscernible trickles, so dry had the season become. So far out was the tide, that we were well beyond the point we had reached on the previous occasion. Fortunately Ken drew our attention to the fact that we had gone over 8 km, only about 2 km short of Kuri Bush. Far enough. So we lunched. On the way back some striated rock face drew our attention.

We got well strung out on the walk back with one or two getting well ahead and a tail-end group dropping well back. But we all got there, with several taking the opportunity to enjoy going bare-foot in the surf.

However we all made good time covering 17 km all up, getting back to the cars about 2.30 p.m.

A lovely sunny day. Tide well out. Good hard sand. It was great. – Ian

2. 20/8/2008 Trampers. Brighton Beach walk south. Medium. Leaders: Ian, Sabina

Tea stop. Lex, Ken, Pat, George, Sabina, Who?. — Tea stop

This beach tramp from Brighton south was merely a replacement for a soggy winter Spiers Road circuit but proved to be a gem. After the first unbroken beach walk from Brighton, the small sandy bays at its south end were a welcome delight and of endless interest.

The rocky points between them proved not too difficult to negotiate, provided one carefully stepped between slippery seaweed. Again there was constant interesting variety of shapes and rocky pools.

(Of course a welcome sunny day interrupting a dreary wet August was quite a help too.) And to top off the specialness of the day, George observed that this was the first time the club had attempted the walk, although the Trixies had it on their calendar.
This is a walk to be planned only when low tide occurs between 12.00 and 1.00 p.m. as at high tide the sea comes right up to the steep banks. As it chanced it was a 12.00 p.m. low tide day. 1.00 p.m. would have been even better as we had to plan our return early enough to get back beyond the last rocky point and onto the unbroken beach again before the returning sea had encroached too much.

And at this point was a further point of interest. George had told leaders Sabina and Ian when they were still at the planning stage that horse riders used a parallel track through the sandhills when the tide was full, so here was a landscape of its own to vary the return trip and avoid the soft sand of the upper beach that the returning tide would have forced us onto. Mainly marram grass and lupin, the dips and rises, gullies and ridges led on and on in a world seemingly quite divorced from road on one side and beach on the other, interrupted only by a web of road-to-beach tracks constantly crossing our walk.
At last, the return to the cars with nine of us having enjoyed a day of welcome break in the weather and a rewarding treat of beautiful hidden bays of which we had hitherto been completely ignorant. – Ian

1. 10/10/2007. Hikers. Beach Walk. Brighton. Easy. Leaders: Jean, Dot B.

Protected: Committee Minutes 7/9/2015

Protected: AGM Minutes 27/8/2015

Concord Blackhead

12 km from car park
No. 103 on old hardcopy list of 113 club tramps. “Concord – Blackhead – Brighton Rd Year Round”
Concord – Information and Trips Library

1. 1/7/2015. All. Midwinter Dinner. Concord Tavern. E. Leaders: Elaine and Eric.

Well! Records set. At least for the tramp. 40! Yes, 40. And 50 for the meal. Much due, this reporter suspects, to the way Elaine crafted the walk’s publicity. Easy? Well, not altogether with a bit of a climb into Abbotsford maybe a bit hard for some.

First problem was to number the carpark’s milling crowd off, but Fred got it right by standing at the corner by the road. Elaine set off at a brisk pace down …

… the “Main South Road” (surely it’s time to name it the Old Main South Road), around the corner at the bottom and then level walking towards Green Island. Then a stop. Question time.

Date of motorway completion? Wow. Peter had the exact answer. 1974. Take a prize! Then on. Stop again, outside an imposing gateway. What do the initials IRMO stand for?

More knew the answer this time. A prize again. Onward. Stop – outside Harraways Office. Now a generous distribution …

… of complimentary Oats Singles packets. Take more than one. Onward again. Across rise where most recalled the railway line that once crossed the road. To collect coal from Saddle Hill once, someone said. Last stop, at the curly beginning of the impressive overhead footbridge, spanning Kaikorai Stream, the motorway, …

… bush, and finally the railway before turning right into Neill Street and left into Matthew Street, and second entrance on our left into a property with a wonderful back covered porch.

A further surprise. We were regaled with mulled wine or soup served in pottles with generous refills. (A recent email from Elaine says a further whole thermos of mulled wine got overlooked. – Damn, as she so feelingly put it.) Next, in through a door leading under the house to view …

.. a model train set.( This reporter can testify it was even more elaborate than any he saw at the recent display put on at Wobblies.) It was N gauge (9mm). Unfortunately, the owner didn’t have it going, lest he exposed himself to an embarrassing derailment. Too bad. It was capable of running two trains at once. There’s a wealth of ancillary detail also, all to scale. A close study will prove most rewarding! To this reporter, this is the engineering equivalent of close needlework.

After this wonderful surprise break, it was back down Matthew Street and away along Neill Street to our left to reach a hidden pedestrian underpass at the foot of Armstrong Lane …

… and to emerge onto a little path that skirted round to the foot of Harraway Road, across a Kaikorai Stream bridge, out onto the “Main South Road” and back to the Concord Tavern for the Dinner. Here we met with the non-walkers and filled an almost overcrowded dining room. Some of us neglected to pick our table first as we found we were supposed to (including this reporter) before we lined up at the servery to place our meal order, but waiters found us eventually and all was well.

Again, due to Elaine’s homework with her sponsors, there were little prezzies on the tables and under-the-seat tickets for rewards. What a girl she is!

So, thanks to Elaine and Eric for such an imaginative midwinter dinner function effort. Well done, to put it mildly. – Ian.

16/8/2000. Concord – Blackhead. Leaders: Les W, Diana and Ray.

26/5/1999 Concord from Tavern to Blackhead. Leaders: Jean, Ngaire, Bev McI.

19/5/1993 Concord Corner, Blackhead, Beach, Brighton Road, Allan Road, Green Island Bush Road. Round Trip. Leaders: Jack, Rosemary, Joyce I, Joyce S

23/9/1989 Concord Hills from Wine and Spirits carpark. Easy+ Leaders: George, Ria L, Pam, Ria H

Topiary Trek.

Five intrepid (or foolish!!) tramper/hikers (of Kepler fame!) turned up for 9.30 a.m. start at the car park in spite of heavy deluge. President Les made a brief appearance to say he wasn’t going, and Lester turned up and left again when he dicovered the furthest we were going was to Topiary Café for morning rather than afternoon coffee. So, that is where Jill, Pat, Judy, Elaine and I duly proceeded [Meaning? – Ed.] to. We sat on the comfortable couches and relaxed and enjoyed coffee, pikelets and stimulating conversation.

5 Happy Hikers on a wet Wednsday (Bev pic and caption)

Back to car park and to own cars and pursuits.

I went and did usual grocery shop and then took 3/4 hr to get to my home in Dunedin, with much aqua planing and “deep river” crossings!!
Better than just sitting at home watching the rain. – Bev.

Neehoff Farm, Hindon.

23 km from car park.

1/4/2015. Both. Neehoff Farm, Hindon. M. Leaders: Ian F and Arthur H.

A goodly number of thirty Trampers and Hikers, as you can see from the GPS map, set off back alongside the road we had arrived in, the Leaders searching for one of several elusive ridges, each separated by bushed gullies and leading down to a main gully at their foot. However, due to their number (six in total!) and too tentatively choosing one ridge too soon but finding it too stunted to be the one, we ended up turning back (about 0.7 kms on GPS map) instead of going on, and descending the ridge futher back only to be forced to have to climb out of the gully beyond its foot (red spot about 1.4 kms on GPS map) and up onto the one originally planned on. By now it was time for morning tea. (Sorry about the lack of photos – we didn’t have John and his camera with us this time.)

On down the right gully now this time and into the main one across its foot, left skirting its side and crossing at a bridge and struggling up the slope directly ahead. (Red spots about 1.6 kms on GPS map.) Then it was on, up to our left, climbing gradually for the most part, through a number of paddocks and gates, until by various turns we reached what appeared a paper road. (About 3.7 kms on GPS map.) This formed a long ascending route to the point where we turned into a paddock again. (About 5.8 kms on the GPS map.) En route, we met up with the Neeehoff farm’s neighbouring owner. He reassured us he had been consulted, but it now became apparent that we had spent more time on his farm than the other! Ah well, another permission to prudently seek next time. It was in the new paddock that the mushroom pickers got really busy. There had been some mushrooms in the first paddocks, but here their number appeared endless. This led to a prolonged hunt by the aficionados while most went on to stop for lunch not too distant from one particular loiterer who shall remain unnamed. (6.1 kms on the GPS map.) Some great mushroom fry-ups would be on the menu that evening!

Around the head of the gully facing the luncheon eaters, we descended to the big gully again, but here bridgeless, with its water-way just a step (or more in some places) too wide. Many just plunged through, but the tail on the GPS map indicates a walk upstream for the few patient enough to wait to be led to the only dry one-step crossing. (About 6.7 kms on the GPS map.) From there we had to walk back along to our left and the corner of a paddock ahead, and wait for leader Arthur to switch off the hot wire of what we now knew to be the Neehoff boundary fence. (About 6.9 kms on the GPS map.) Once through the fence, ahead lay the long steep slog up the longest and principle of all those six ridges leading back up again, – also the nearest to the homestead. (Kms 7 and 8 on the GPS map.) Now we were back up onto the original paddock and soon back to the cars.

Well, this was one of the now controversial “both” walks, set down for Trampers to join with Hikers the first Wednesdays of the months. It was moderately hard only in respect to the steep climbs out of the gullies. But not particularly long or challenging. There were happily more Trampers than there had been recently, generously tolerating the slower pace of the Hikers for the sake of “Recreational” togetherness and getting to know fellow-club members better. Perhaps the emerging arrangement of this along with a track-clearing option on the same day, is becoming a way through of providing a flexibility of choice for Trampers to exercise in accordance with their own preference. – Ian

20/2/2013. Trampers. Neehoff Farm, Hindon.

22/2/1995. Neehoff Farm, Hindon. Medium. Leaders: Molly, Jack and Rosemary, Eleanor.