For the weekend I am/did ....... walk....

Not telling you, you might come around and burgle my place while I'm away!

dont worry, i'm not into womens stuff... not yet...

Not everything in the house is pink! Anyway, I'll start. We went into the now lovely and warm Benmore Hut (thanks Malvern DA) for the night. Then up to the ridge and headed north to a spur (500m south of point 1623) which took us back down into 13 Mile Bush Stream. The last bit from point 828 we followed a very strong and freshly trampled deer trail which we got on to just after a wallow. While we were making our way slowly through the regen, slightly off the spur, I discovered much to my surprise a BW21 map in a protective sleeve, absolutely dry with a compass attached. So we weren't the first through that horrible stuff. Cool to have a map of Castle Hill Peak where you don't need 4 maps to do the climb.

good stuff, you just beat the cold front

There's fresh snow on the Kahurangi hills, down to the bushline. Time to get out the winter gear. Looking at the forecasts there will be heaps more soon.

Given the green light to test knee out so have done two recent day walks; Summit Walkway via Monument Track on Banks Peninsula. Met a lady who is bike-packing the South Island who had biked up from Little River and was asking about camping grounds near Diamond Harbour. Not realising that Purau campground was now closed I directed her there. The second was a nice circuit on Mt Thomas and a wee look at the Bobs Camp Biv Track. Great views. The daylight hours are so short... at this time of year we nearly always walk out in the dark. Took the MTB's to Wharfedale Hut via Townshend River valley. Luckily it was a warm windless day as there were 12 crossings (return) and the water was tepid. The sandflies are surprisingly vicious up there. No mucking about enjoying the views. Stay on the move... above 10km/hr you were pretty safe. Saw some riders fully kitted out coming down the Black Hill Track and were heading up to Mt Oxford. If those tracks are to be kept for walkers some better signage needs to go up directing MTBers. We kept to the Wharfedale Track and would not even be capable of riding the others.

I don't think it's a case of the MTB'ers being unaware that has them doing the tramper only tracks (Fosters Ridge and 'Route 2') that go in a loop up to Black Hill hut. I think they're doing it because they enjoy the tracks. There is lots of signage using the little blue icons indicating who is allowed to use the tracks. One day we were up at Black Hill there were at least a dozen MTB'ers up there. They have gone beyond the hut towards the summit and are modifying the track to create a slalom effect by widening the turns. They've even had a crack at descending to Salmon Ck but so far have been unsuccessful - too steep!

You're quite right @Honora, the little blue icons are on the signs but I'm not sure they are being well, 'noticed'... I think most walkers are pretty resigned to the fact that Mt Oxford Forest is a shared forest and the Wharfedale Track is the entry point for some MTB'ers. The other tracks will remain for advanced riders and hike-a-bikers. I just hope they remember not to 'shred' as they ride through. It was a busy forest on the day we were there! Walkers and riders coming in from both sides of the river.

Interestingly, I recall in the Black Hill hut book a claim made by MTB'ers that they'd descended to Salmon Ck biv. Frank rubbished their claim as we'd seen no tyre markers going down plus there was no entry in the hut book. However the DoC dude defended their claim, saying if they said they'd gone down there, they would have and that Frank was arrogant at times. As it turned out, the MTB'ers saw the entries in the Black Hill hutbook and added that they actually hadn't made it down there to the biv. Now that I think of it, the DoC guy was 'quite comfortable' with the idea of their going down to the biv when in actual fact this is not allowed. Maybe he was tolerant of this because the MTB community have finally done some splendid track work on the Wharfedale after years of our wishing they would make a decent contribution to the upkeep of the shared track.