Distance 13.18 km; total duration 4 hrs 57 min (walking time inc breaks); 626 m elevation gain

In the Chinese zodiac it is the first week of the Year of the Snake and on the local calendar it is the eve of our national Waitangi Day holiday. The day promises to be a hot one when 21 of us set out from Bishopdale. We’re delighted to have Mark from the UK – holidaying with family here – tramp with us again for the next few weeks. Our driver is Alan and he drops us at Barnett Park where we connect with Chris S and Pip who shares chocolates which we eat before they melt. Thank you Pip and congratulations on your mid-birthday.

We split into two groups and largely walking the same route, spend the next few hours parting and re-meeting. There are 12 in the Standard group, 6 women and 6 men – which produces some entertaining communication; and a solitary male among the 11 Alternates – there must be an apposite David Attenborough observation?

We stop for morning tea at the pine trees on Summit Road. Talk turns to flossing – the dental sort – and a recently published study in the American Heart Association Journals. The study asked 6,258 adults how they flossed and followed them for 25 years. The study suggests that flossing your teeth once a week reduces your risk of stroke by a fifth. Floss more often and you reduce the risk further. Want to know more? Go to https://doi.org/10.1161/str.56.suppl_1.19 . The Standards leave the shade of the pine trees to the arriving Alternates.

The Standards climb Mt Pleasant / Tauhinukorokio – site of a Ngāti Māmoe settlement in the late 1500s. Soon both groups meet again while encountering a bright orange hi viz clad group clambering out of vans. They’re fourth year UC geology students studying volcanic deposits – flossing and strokes far from their thoughts.

We stop for lunch at Te Ana Marina and enjoy the rare comfort of sitting on sleek bespoke seats with backs rather than on the ground. We eat and read distant boat names. Someone says It’s like going to the optometrists.  The Alternates arrive and it’s time to move on again.

It’s hot now and the water looks inviting. We walk around the bays. The school year has begun and there aren’t many people in the water.  On the Cass Bay shoreline the much-admired copper house is weathering well. We’ve one last small incline to climb through a stand of eucalypts. There’s the song of a bellbird to distract from the grind of the hill in the heat and we’ve arrived at Pony Point. The Alternates follow the coastal path with 51 trees planted by the families of the victims of the 2019 mosque attacks – the trees symbolizing their continued presence.

When we last did this tramp the sculpture on the Point had been vandalized.  Happily today at the tramps’s end there is a fabulous new sculpture high on a plinth and Alan with our stowed water bottles to rehydrate and the luxury of an air conditioned bus to drive us all home.

Text by Jen

Ascending towards the Summit Road

Morning tea stop under the pines

Mt Pleasant views

Crater rim trail from Mt Pleasant

Major Hornbrook Track

Alts enjoy a relaxing lunch

Lyttelton Marina carving

Lunch at the Marina

Alts group photo at Cass Bay

Restored Pony Point sculpture

Stats: distance 9km, vertical ascent 730m, time 4hrs 45mins.

Driver Peter and a smaller bus greeted us at Bishopdale as the larger bus had a faulty window frame needing repair. The early start had caught a couple of trampers out with one almost sleeping in and the other requiring a prompt from a timely phone call.

There were 31 including Jack from the Christchurch Star and 3 other community papers. Thank you, Graham, for arranging this initiative.  President Jen had cancelled with a sick green turtle Zorro at home needing some TLC. Not sure how you know when a turtle is sick but perhaps they turn even greener.

With no microphone DP Graham advised us of the roles for the day and welcomed Jack before we left Yaldhurst. For some it was their first New Year outing so the noise level in the smaller bus sounded like a student pub on a Friday night. The raging nor’west wind battered the bus as we headed towards the DOC car park for Mt Alford under threatening skies with an obvious nor’west arch and storm clouds of various shades of grey hanging over the mountains. I don’t think many were feeling optimistic for pleasant tramping conditions after encountering the wind force at the Rakaia toilet stop.

At 10am, 21 Standards followed closely by 10 Alternates set off up the farm track to enter the beech forest in what was now to our surprise just a gentle breeze. Magnificent beech, lush ferns, the always present muddy sections, an attractive stream and across a 4-wheel drive track before re- entering the bush which now headed more sharply uphill. At 10.45am morning tea now in bright sunshine in a clearing with grand views to the plains.

Now the tussock basin, up the steep fence line, through large deer gates but no sign of any deer underneath the observatory buildings at 900m. The day getting noticeably warmer and little wind to cool us. The poled track continues steadily uphill through sub alpine scrub with lots of daisies and spaniard grass in flower to be very wary of. We reach the ridge line at 12.15pm where we decide it is lunch time and make the decision we won’t go all the way to the summit at 1171m as time will not allow.  Disappointing as I know the faster ones could have made it but with drink stops and the odd wait, the right decision. Couldn’t complain about the view of plains, river and mountains with no snow in sight despite a fresh fall reported on Mt Hutt on Monday morning. Two chose to lunch a little further down the track and sort out all the world’s problems and rejoin us on the return journey.

Our return was uneventful until the final section in the bush when the men especially were beginning to notice masses of black seeds clinging tenaciously to the hairs on their legs. This is hook grass, or some trampers call it, bastard grass, where tiny barbed fish hook extensions on the seeds attach themselves to hair, wool and the feathers on birds that feed on the ground. When they scratch all the seeds off, the plant has done its purpose of redistribution. We may need a leg inspection next week! Back at the bus at 2.45pm where the others had been waiting since 2pm.

The Alternates enjoyed lunch at the now rickety picnic table at the start of the tussock basin. Their highlight appeared to be a strip show provided by a member who is not normally noted for stripping. This was a complex striptease involving multiple layers and re-organising of garments. Three had walked up the fence line returning the zig zag route, unlike the others lounging in the tussocks being entertained by the free strip show.

Jack had interacted well with many finding out how BTC operates and learning something of trampers’ personal stories and the part the club plays in enhancing their lifestyle. He freely shared his story through broadcasting and journalism school to his role today doing something he loves.

Congratulations to Marie-Therese featuring under Bright Lines in the Listener with her modern proverb on home gardens: “Absence makes the lawns grow longer”.

Text by Kate

On the Beech forest trail

Stds take a morning tea break

Stds negotiating the steep trail

Alts ascending to lunch spot

Alts enjoying lunch in the sun

Journalist Jack lunching with the Stds

Panoramic views of the Canterbury Plains

Stds on the afternoon descent

Distance 13.6 km; duration 5 hrs  20 min (walking time with breaks); 788 m elevation gain

A glorious sunny day greeted us at Bishopdale for our tramp from Hoon Hay Reserve to the Sign of the Bellbird. Our driver Callum got us to Princess Margaret Hospital in record time where we picked up a few more members and proceeded up to Dyers Pass and then right on Summit Road to be dropped off at Hoon Hay Reserve at around 9:30.

The trip reports do not show this as a tramp the Club has done before. While it starts the same as the Hoon Hay Reserve to Omahu Bush tramp (which we last did 27 May 2022), the Alternates return after lunch at Coopers Knob to the Sign of the Bellbird; the Standards do not explore the Omahu Bush but rather ascend Gibraltar Rock and then return to the Summit Road/Crater Rim Walkway to the Bellbird.

Hoon Hay Reserve did not have quite the glorious weather we experienced at Bishopdale – clouds hung over Lyttelton Harbour and the breeze was a little cooler than many had expected. The 24 Standards immediately took off while the 6 remaining Alternates proceeded at a somewhat more sedate pace.

It took the Alternates about an hour to get to the Sign of the Bellbird for morning tea. Our leader offered us the option of having tea in the bush as you start up Cass Peak/Ōrongomai or inside the shelter across the road. Shelter from the wind won out quite quickly.

After tea, the Alternates continued on the Crater Rim Walkway, through bush and brush and flax, over hill over dale, and up and down the rocky passages, all in typical BTC tramp fashion. The sun finally broke through about 30 minutes before lunch. The breeze had by this time turned into a steady wind from the East/Northeast making a lunch priority “where can we get out of the wind”.

As we began our return trip to the Bellbird, we could see the Standards across on Gibraltar Rock just below the ridgeline. I am told the group took a circuitous route to get to Gibraltar Rock and that our President had to plead with the Standards’ leader to stop for lunch. And while stop he did, he was the only Standard willing to brave the wind to have lunch at the top of Gibraltar, managing to lose the cheese out of his sandwich to the wind.

Both groups arrived at the Bellbird windblown but in good time, having walked the road part of the way. We were back on the bus to Bishopdale arriving around 3:30. Another good tramp with good friends.

Text by Michele

Stds negotiate Omahu Bush Track

Up Gibraltar Rock

Alts lunch spot Coopers Knob

Gibralatar Rock

Distance 10.65 km; duration 3hrs 27min (walking time) 4 hrs 10min (with breaks); ascent 529 m (total of each ascent phase) lowest point 275 m, highest 450 m. Source: Graham W’s watch

A forecast high of 14deg for Rakaia Gorge turned out to be pretty much on target. 30 trampers set off from the starting point in two groups, 23 Standards were off and away including visitor Rebecca S, plus 7 Alternates who moved more slowly. Bus driver Peter remained with the bus at the drop off point, always good to have our transport and driver awaiting us.

There were many questions (and a bit of philosophy) along the way. Would the obstacle of the fallen tree that had been reported to ECan twelve months earlier be removed? It must have been, as today there was no crawling beneath branches when advancing along the well-trodden track. Agility counts for much when there are big steps up and down, and muddy patches to be avoided. Both situations occurred with some frequency along the way.

Stripping off clothing and stopping to take photos are good things, but they are not to be combined, definitely a no-no. What was the noticeable foul smell that accompanied us for much of the way? This was instantly recognisable to me as being hemlock (Conium maculatum). I recalled how my older siblings made blow darts using the hollow stem of the hemlock plant – until discovered by a parent (this was in the fifties). Lucky nobody died, although Socrates didn’t come off so well (died a tad earlier in 399 BCE). Apparently crushed hemlock smells like mouse urine. There were also potato plants growing trackside, these would be more palatable than the stinky and deadly hemlock.

Is a “drop off” a drop off when nobody actually drops off? There were many view points of the Rakaia River with big drops, fortunately no tumbles. Eventually the cloud lifted, but the spectacular vistas which we have enjoyed on previous tramps were mostly not visible.

Why did a large tree stump at the side of the track have “Sober” painted on it? Several of us had been breathalysed earlier in the morning, noting to the officers that we were en route to catch a bus. Sober at the start of a tramp is a good thing. Nodding off in the bus on the way home after a good day out isn’t a bad thing either. Unfortunately today there was lack of time for a drink stop, straight home for us.

Both groups arrived at the boat harbour lunch stop about mid-day, Standards having done a longer loop to a vantage point. Listening to the murmur of voices and river while munching food is a most satisfying way to while away the time. The “five minutes!” call from leaders, and the cooler easterly breeze was, however, sufficient to stir us into action, with Standards leaving marginally ahead of Alternates. Both groups had arrived back at the bus by 1400hrs having encountered and encouraged many family groups on their outward walk.

There was slight envy as the knees of one nimble runner were observed. The young woman was outpacing everyone. It was not the knees per se, but their ability. And we actually all did OK.

Text by Marie-Therese

The walk underway…

Morning tea stop

Awesome river views

Short stop

Stds make headway along track

Lunch stop by river

Follow the leader…