| Leader | Mentor | Understudy | Tail Ender | |
| Whole Group | Peter | Leonie | Jan Bbr | Paul |
BTC reports of previous Mount Vulcan walks make for dramatic reading. They include The Great Fog of 2017, and The Great Escape of 2020 (the first day out after months of Covid-19 lockdown).
On May 28, 2021, the MetService issued a red alert for Canterbury. Between 200 and 300 mm of rain was expected between Saturday afternoon and Monday mid-morning. The predicted rainfall for the high country in the Mt Somers and Alford Forest area was significantly underestimated with 551mm falling over Saturday and Sunday. The days following included tales of raging torrents – both branches of the Ashburton River burst their banks, daring rescues and accounts of devastating damage and loss.
We were glad to be going north.
Many of us were expecting mud and perhaps some were put off at the prospect of it. As many as 10 ? waitlisted people made it onto the bus (47 in total including 2 visitors: Chris H and Alister). On the way Coordinator of the new online booking system Dave Bastin reminded us to contact him if we have any difficulty navigating our bookings. We crossed swollen rivers, marvelled at the greenness and wondered at how quickly North Canterbury land had dried out.
We walked in one group over undulating farmland – with very little mud. The sky was blue and still and almost balmy. It’s limestone country and apparently there’s a quarry on the farm. There’s also a massive landslide, known as the Montserrat earthflow for which the Little family (who’ve farmed the land for 125 years) initiated a QEII Conservation Trust covenant. We saw beehives and bees out working. Our morning tea stop was observed by a flock of sheep and our walking was occasionally accompanied by the quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle of magpies.
We lunched on the slopes and top of Mt Vulcan (135 metres) which affords a fabulous 360-degree view from alps to ocean. To the east is Motunau Island. Motunau means ‘island of the nau’. Nau grass (Cook’s scurvy grass) is a coastal cress. The island is also home to the only colony of coastal based white-faced storm petrels between Cook Strait and the Otago Peninsula.
The enjoyable walk down to the bus with driver Victor joining us along the way was punctuated with stiles and gates. On our return bus ride President Jan Barber announced that Selwyn Maister had won a Sporting Legend Award at the recent annual Canterbury Sports Awards. Selwyn was resoundingly congratulated.
It was a shortish walk with plenty of time for refreshments at Amberley on the way home. Txt by Jen
