As well as chipping off one of the Pouakai routes, made a start on a wee project to walk the taranaki coastline, in bites. As the tide was still fairly high i walked bare foot, but as its quite stoney for the most part, might try crocs or sandels next time. Theres generally enough ground above even high tide mark to make good progress. Was kinda fun.
Two good day trips for me:
On the Friday I parked my car at Gebbies Pass and walked up to Packhorse Hut, ate my lunch and walked back down.
On Monday I walked up Mt Thomas in north Canterbury. this is part of my program to knock off all of the main Canterbury foothill tramps before winter sets in.
I only have Mt Oxford still to do, and a half organized (half baked) idea to do the Mt Somers track in a month or so when the numbers drop a bit. Maybe....
I will be walking up Mt fyffe near Kaikoura early next week depending on the weather.
This post has been edited by the author on 8 April 2015 at 10:59.
Heres a classic..a co-worker of mine and 11 other Irish friends (so thats 12 Irish) all headed to Mt Somers Easter Friday to overnight at Woolshed Creek hut.
They left a car at Woolshed carpark then drove over to Sharplin Falls carpark to walk from there,via Pinnacles Hut to Woolshed Creek.Then it went pearshaped as they went left instead of right and ended up on the South Face track basically heading the wrong way.
Anyway,they pushed on and 9 hrs later arrived at the hut in the dark.Luckily they were well equipped with tents,torches etc,as usual the hut was overflowing.
The one scary part was hitting the swing bridge just before the hut and in the dark didn't notice the 1 person at at time sign.She said there would have been 5 Irishmen on there at once.Could have been nasty!
We had some Irish neighbours who used to go back-block exploring in their 4WD, with no map, no intended routes, no extra fuel or gear for an extended stay etc. Yet they somehow miraculously returned every time without mishap. If you asked where they went, they had no idea, nor their actual location, or how to get back to that place and even in what direction it was! Luck of the Irish, it has to be.
Easter Uruwera trip ended up as: Otutu bridge -> DuckVille -> (tops) -> Casino -> Saddle -> Apiti -> (river) -> Twain -> Wiakokopu -> Waihua. The last bit of the loop was going to be over the tops to Mangamako and back out ... but ended up a 'hut behind' all the way round, and ran out of time.
Popped out of some random forestry block where the map claims there's a track (but isn't) 16km north of Galatea in the pouring rain, and managed to get a lift off a relief milker on his way to buy a pack of smokes. Needed the windows open and the fan on full to stop the whole car misting up as the saturated pom steamed slowly in the passenger's seat. Good on him though - not many would have stopped.
Spent abt 6hrs of the weekend cleaning ratshit out of huts. Saddle was a state, little used, rat-permeable and full of it - understandable. Waikokopu was even worse - lovely renovated ratproof hut, 'xcept the previous resident had left all their gear behind and the door open. Chewed up mix of mattress, sleeping bag, books, clothes ankle deep on the floor. Mattresses had warrens or rat-tunnels chewed into them! Arrived 3pm and it was 5:30 before I could even carry my pack inside.
@geoffnet
We were at Woolshed Creek when the bunch of late Irish folk arrived - quite the performance getting 6 tents up in the dark, but made for an impressive looking campsite once all up with 12 headtorches sitting round eating a late dinner.
What a day they must have had!
@bradley1
Where does one draw the line when it comes to main Canterbury foothill tramps? There's soooooo many there to be done!!
Next on my list is Mt Torlesse - I'm sick of looking at it every day knowing I haven't climbed it!!!
IMO if you're in Canterbury and you can see the plains then it counts as a foothill summit, unless you're on the Port Hills. So that's basically Little Mount Peel through to Mt Grey.
I've been meaning to do Mt Torlesse too for the same reason. I think it probably needs a pretty early start, which I'm not organised for.
Coal Hill down by the Rangitata River is another one to consider.
canterbury foothills - can be seen across the plains from the port hills, have snow in winter, and can be climbed from christchurch in one day return?
Easier filtering method is cap it by height. Say above 900m? That brings the numbers down somewhat :-)
This post has been edited by the author on 9 April 2015 at 20:21.
