Round the Mountain via Curry Track
The plan was to do the Ben More circuit but the weather forced us to look for a less exposed location as far from the Main Divide as possible. Akaroa seemed to be far enough.
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Godley to Gebbies: Traverse of the Port Hills
The Port Hills are the closest hills to Christchurch and I’d been thinking about traversing them since I first moved to the city. One day in July I asked Emma if she’d be keen to co-lead this trip as we would need 2 cars, and I knew that Emma was used to running trips like this before breakfast. She enthusiastically agreed – though at the time we had no idea that 30 trampers would sign up for the trip!
Camp Saddle in Craigieburns
We started off at Craigieburn Campsite Shelter. Chris was leading us at an easy-going pace while Alan was covering the back. At Helicopter Hill Saddle, a few of us went to check out Helicopter Hill and the rest of the group continued along Craigieburn Edge Track. We had a quick lunch below Camp Saddle.
Mt Garfield in Doubtful Range
The third Tramping Monday had similar attendance to the first one – only 1 person. Jacqui and I drove to Windy Point which is not too far from Engineers Camp.
Kirwans Hut on the West Coast
Kirwans Hut is probably one of the fanciest huts on the West Coast. It’s located in an area that has been extensively mined. Even the track to the hut was originally built for mining purposes! 6 CTC trampers started off with the intention to reach the hut and hope to not get rained on too much. After having some photography fun at Topffer Creek bridge, we followed Topffer Creek on a very obvious and wide track. We soon split into 2 parties – one was fast, the other one was extra fast.
Bob’s Bivouac via Ridge Track
This was a last minute trip, as I realized a few days before the weekend that there wasn’t a day trip planned for the weekend. There were seven of us including 2 prospective members and Rodney who met us at the Wooden Gully carpark. Wooden Gully Track was closed so we chose the Ridge Track as a suitable replacement. It was the quickest way to get to the tops anyway.
Bealey Spur Hut Track in the winter
On my first CTC trip about 1.5 years ago there were around 12 trampers and I was quite shocked to find such a big group! I hadn’t tramped in groups of more than 3 people before. Well, in a year and half of being a member of the club I’ve grown to appreciate these bigger groups. So far the biggest group I’ve experienced was on this trip to Bealey Spur Hut where 28 people came to enjoy a beautiful day on the edge of Arthur’s Pass National Park.
Mt Somers Loop Track via Pinnacles Hut
As I don’t work Mondays, I decided to organize some Monday trips. The first one was to Mt Somers with only one brave participant, Heidi. We started off at Sharplin Falls Reserve and followed a well marked trail to the start of Mt Somers Summit Track. From there, a steep section of unstable rocks followed.
Camping at Mt Brown Hut
Mt Brown Hut is a beautiful wee hut on the Western side of Newton Range, just outside of Hokitika. Kupkin and I started off at the car park by Geologist Creek. The way up is pretty steep. I wouldn’t take my mum here, even though I took her to Mueller Hut. It took us 2:15h to get up but we were pushing it quite a bit to make it to the top before sunset as we started relatively late in the day.
Mt Herbert via Gebbies Pass
After lockdown, a lot of CTC members and prospective members were so much ready for an adventure! To start the tramping season off, I led a trip to Mt Herbert via Gebbies Pass. What I thought would be quite an easy stroll with a few people, turned out to be quite a long tramp of a group of 23 people. The weather was great which probably contributed to good attendance.