Taieri Recreational Tramping Club
Mid-week recreational and social walking group based in Mosgiel NZ
This page of club tramps and hikes in the South Coast area groups together trips to Waldronville and incorporates Blackhead, Kaikorai Estuary, Ocean View and Brighton.
Road distances from Mosgiel carpark.
Waldronville 2024 – 2003 (14 trips, 10 with reports, 4 no reports or photos)
Beach Walk, Blackhead, Kaikorai Estuary, Ocean View, Brighton Tramps. 2009 – 2004 (6 trips, 2 with reports, 1 with photos only)
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
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.