Group Leader Mentor Understudy Tail Ender
Standard Alan Keith Jan Bbr Judy
Alternate Min Wendy Linley T Leonie
Distance: 14km Time: 6 hours 18 minutes Ascended: 1070m Descended: 1070m
It was a perfect day for what is probably the toughest tramp in the BTC schedule. Cloudless, no wind and about 19C predicted. The Alternates were doing the Ryde Falls tramp and as the two groups separated almost immediately on alighting from the bus, separate journal writers were assigned.
Once aboard the bus, President Keith advised that we had 29 members in attendance and that Basil P was again a visitor for the day. As we were at Alert Level 2 again, masks were worn on the bus. The North Canterbury countryside was sparkling in the morning sun as we travelled up Tram Road. Oxford (without the dreamy spires of its UK namesake) is looking prosperous these days and we stopped to soak up some atmosphere as well as to derive some comfort from their public conveniences. It is only a short drive from Oxford to the start of the Ryde Falls/Mt Oxford tramp at Coopers Creek and by 10am both groups were on their way.
From the bus, the sight of Mt Oxford towering over 1.3km into the air is a daunting prospect but fortunately we had about a 300m start at Coopers Creek, reducing the climb to just over 1000m. When the groups separated, 9 hardy trampers remained in the Mt Oxford group, none of whom had done the climb before. The question was posed…..what did those who had summitted before, know that we didn’t know?
Leader Alan set a steady early pace across the flat land and into the well blazed track up the beech-covered slopes, with morning tea taken in the beech-filtered sun after about 40 minutes. On the way we had passed dozens of beehives but despite these bee numbers, the wasps were dominating the honeydew collection from the black beech (nothofagus solandri) trees. This honeydew is produced by a small-scale insect that lives in the bark of these beech trees. These insects have a very simple body structure, and they insert their mouths into the tree and extract the nutrients they need to survive. However, they extract more sugar than they need and so excrete the surplus sugar through their anal tubes and this provides the drops of clear sugary liquid which sparkle in the sunlight. They are ok to eat! Unfortunately, the wasps were busy and we were keen to avoid being stung.
The track through the beech forest is unrelenting in its upwards slope, very steep in places, and it is surprising how high the beech forest extends up the hill. It was 2 hours before we emerged into the sunlight and the sub alpine scrub; dracophyllum, hebes, tussock etc It is always a sudden change of scenery when one emerges from the bush and on a day like this it was stunningly beautiful. Onwards and upwards we strode but now we had the splendour of a panoramic view across the plains, whenever one could manage a glance up from the concentration of negotiating the rocky track. At one point, our Leader Alan provided an interesting geology lesson, having noted some volcanic rocks which were glinting in the sun.
There were some very steep pinches above the bush line as we headed up to what appeared to be a communication tower of some sort on a peak ahead. We hoped this was the summit. It was, and the views on reaching the top after 3 hours of grunt, made the effort well worthwhile. To the east, the Port Hills in the distance were shrouded in mist while immediately to the west was the flat grazing land of the Lees Valley. To the south, the road up to the Cheeseman ski field was visible with a couple of wisps of snow in valleys on the higher slopes. Lunch was taken in beautiful conditions with now just the slightest puff of a breeze. Mandatory photos were taken, including, after several ‘takes’, a successful group photo using a timer, when the first one taken was a ‘selfie’! Amongst the tussocks there were some bright white flowers, contrasting vividly with their brown background. Subsequent analysis suggests these are gentians.
There was some apprehension amongst the group about the steepness and footing on the descent as we all headed down carefully following our leader, who appeared to be skipping down in places. It took us 2 ½ hours to get back to the bus so our descent was not much quicker than the ascent. At several points on the way back through the beech forest, Kay and the writer got cramps (not writer’s), and in each instance Kay’s miracle spray brought about a rapid recovery. Nicky also sustained a cut on her leg when she lost concentration for an instant and had a small fall off the track. The Ryde Falls group were there when we arrived back but we hadn’t kept them waiting very long. As we looked up at Mt Oxford from the bus there was a sense of satisfaction that, in the words of Sir Edmund, we had “knocked the bastard off”. txt by Selwyn
