| Leader | Mentor | Understudy | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Peter M | Graham W | Brent | Kay and Kate |
| Alternates | Eric | Norma | Gary G | Min |
Distance 10.3km; duration 4hrs 20min; vertical ascent 414m
For our first walk of the year we had 45 trampers including one visitor, Judy S. Our driver was Viktor. We welcomed the return of Selwyn and Pip following surgeries and injury. On a day like Wednesday was, this is a perfect first walk for the Club. Gentle ups and downs, sun and dappled shade and views of the glacial turquoise of Canterbury’s biggest braided river, the Rakaia. The river was formerly known as Ō Rakaia meaning the place where people were ranged in rank, referring to the practice of strong men standing in line to break the force of the water when crossing. For Ngai Tūāhuriri of Kaiapoi it was a mahinga kai/food gathering place. Apparently at the river’s mouth up to 1,000 earth oven sites used for cooking moa have been recorded.
Mention has to be made of the wrought iron bridge – one of the country’s oldest. Constructed between 1880 and 1882 by Oamaru’s W H Barnes, the bridge features a timber deck and handrail atop its wrought iron plate girder and truss. The truss is unconventional in having no bottom chord and its ties fan out from the gorge’s edge carrying the load forces to the bridge’s anchors. It’s a handsome bridge.
It was a walk filled with catching up with summer goings-on, news of growing families and adventures had and planned, house moves and bathroom renovations. We do look forward to finding out who got first use of Brent’s new bidet! Punctuated by bellbird song and walking amid knee-high grass with Tussock Butterflies floating beside us talk turned to frequency of cat grooming, finding indestructible toys for dachshunds – and turtles.
Alternates and Standards all lunched beside the river and on our return walk some of us followed a side track to look at the old coal mine site. When all were back on the main track our two groups had merged and we walked out together though a little crawling was required by some with a fallen tree over the track. One of our number was all over the fallen tree issue and once on the bus had reported it to Snap Send Solve by 1526 hrs. By 1600 hrs she had received five replies ultimately advising that the issue of the fallen tree is currently with ECan. Hopefully ECan will deal with the tree promptly. The track had been busy with mid-week walkers – domestic and international.
In response to our tramp leader’s enquiry the Hororata Café advised that they were short-staffed and closing at three so Viktor drove us home without stopping. A thoroughly enjoyable first walk for 2024. Text by Jen C
Sources
Te Maire Tau, Anake Goodall, David Palmer & Rakiihia Tau. Te Whakatau Kaupapa: Ngāi Tahu Resource Management Strategy for the Canterbury Region, Aoraki Press, 1990
Aidan J. Challis, Ka Pakihi Whakatekateka O Waitaha: The Archaeology of Canterbury in Māori Times, Department of Conservation, December 1995
G M Jones; ‘Rakaia Gorge Bridge – The truss that isn’t‘ (PDF 1MB), Proceedings of the 1st Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference, 1994.
