The Tramping Report

Packhorse hut on a wet day

Rivercrossing skills are not usually needed on the Kaituna track to Packhorse hut

We'd been trapped in town by bad weather for two weekends in a row, with the long range forecast looking like it might go to three. We were desperate to get out tramping for at least part of a day. But what to do when the weather was so bad?

The walk to Packhorse Hut is right at the bottom end of what qualifies as a 'tramp'. So that was the mission.

There was little traffic on the highway to the Kaituna turnoff. Sheets of water stretched across the road in places. And curtains of rain were being blown up Kaituna valley by the strong south west wind. But we weren't deterred.

Honora carried her plastic climbing boots in her pack, to put on after the four stream crossings. It was so wet I wasn't going to bother trying to keep my feet dry.

The first crossing was the deepest - just over my knees. We did that one linked up, though not the full MSC method. The next three were almost to knee level.

Crampons might have been useful on the muddy track

After crossing the streams I just wanted to get up the hill and into the shelter of the hut, so I just went for it.

The top part of the track is completely open to the weather and was being lashed with near freezing wind and drenching rain, but I still arrived at the hut steaming.

The hut was dry, and for the whole time we were stopped there we were entertained by the antics of scuttling mice. But it was cold and we only stayed long enough for lunch and hot drinks.

So, it was just back down and home again, making it a 4 hour round trip. But it made for a much better day than if we'd stayed at home indoors

The flooded stream made the Kaituna track much more interesting

Quick trip to Packhorse hut

Had too much on to get away for the whole weekend, but fitted in the couple of hours it takes to walk up to Packhorse hut and back.

And it was great. The manuka was in flower, bell birds were singing in Parkinsons Bush and the Port Hills were illuminated with the slanting rays of the setting sun. And walking back down I got that usual feeling of sublime peace you get at the end of a walk.

Evening walk in Orton Bradley

We had an unplanned reason to go tramping through Orton Bradley again this evening. Honora lost her wallet when she stopped to put on sunscreeen early in our walk yesterday. So we drove over this evening to see if we could find it.

We walked up into the park for about an hour and searched in the places we thought it might be, but without luck.

Never mind. It gave us an excuse to spend some extra time over there.

Come to think of it, I wonder why people don't go to Orton Bradley on week nights. It seems a perfect way to use the extra daylight of the long summer evenings.

Mt Herbert to Packhorse hut

Well we were desperate for at least one day tramping and we did manage to get out of town, but it was a hot day on Banks Peninsula.

Honora had heard some Canterbury Mountain Safety members we knew were planning a social walk up Mt Herbert. That gave us an extra reason.

We drove over Dyers Pass and around Lyttelton harbour to join up with them at the gates of Orton Bradley Park. However we missed them at the start but hoped to catch them up.

We walked through the lower park. The air was heady with the sweet smells of flowering and resinous vegetation, and it was alive with birdsong too.

I walked ahead trying to catch sight of the others. However when the view opened up I could see there was only a solitary person on the whole mountain ahead of us.

It was very hot. The sun blasted into the north facing valley. Now my aim was just to get higher to catch a breeze. That didn't happen until I reached the Mt Herbert Shelter on the ridgeline, 800m above. Skylarks winging into the sky above filled the air with cascades of their silver chain of sound.

I didn't want to start my lunch without Honora so wandered slowly back down the track to meet her. It was magic just taking in the whole of being there. Honora was only ten minutes behind so we were soon relaxing and enjoying the views together.

After lunch we wandered up onto Mt Herbert's flat and uninspiring summit.

That i dotted, we started down the way we'd come. However after our desperate breakout from town, we were in no hurry to get back. We decided to walk the track around the back of Mt Bradley to the Packhorse Hut and back to Orton Bradley Park that way.

The track behind Mt Bradley is one of the best walks in the area. It's been maintained for years by brothers Ben and Colin Faulkner of Governors Bay. They're in their seventies now and they're worried what will happen to their life's work when they can no longer get out and about.

They've got good reason to worry too if people think they can get away with just sitting on their backsides and expecting DoC will take care of it. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure DoC staff really want us to think they have a useful role in outdoor recreation.

Meantime, Ben and Colin could do with some help now in the gorse on top of Mt Bradley.

Our journey continued, sidling through the native bush remnants high on the slopes above Kaituna valley around to Packhorse Hut.

No-one was about when we got there but a family group soon arrived up from Kaituna.

We had our afternoon tea and carried on around the front of Mt Bradley, then turned downwards onto the Tablelands route back to Orton Bradley.

As usual we were the last out of the park at the end of the day.

Kaituna to Packhorse Hut

There was a hard frost in town and a fine day was promised. I wanted to take a walk up to Packhorse Hut (Lincoln M36 853 228) from Kaituna valley before it closed for lambing on Monday. Honora was due to arrive back from Mongolia later in the day so I only had the morning spare.

Out at Kaituna others had arrived before me and were off up the hill already. I crossed the stile and set off walking through the rich verdancy.

The frost had thawed everywhere touched by the warm sunlight.

A young bull across the fence was enjoying the morning as much as I was and gambolled about playfully in his field. A spurwing plover rattled off its tut-tutting tone of consternation from somewhere.

The air suddenly chilled under the trees in the gully. I tip-toed around some muddly patches and crossed the stream on slippery stones.

A sheep looked on, breathing steam, then stamped its foot at me before running off.

Some vines of bushlawyer hanging over the track caught my eye. They usually just catch my hat. I stopped to photograph them this time with the freshly melted frost still on their leaves.

The track climbed out of the stream back into the sunshine. I bent to the climb, then remembered my Pilates training to avoid the trampers' stoop. So I climbed standing up and was able to enjoy the sight of the dunnocks hopping about me and the wetness sparkling on the grass.

As I crossed the fence below the hut I saw the new development. The new loo has been installed by DoC. Yes!

The dreaded visits to the unsavoury overfilled Packhorse loo are no longer a part of the Canterbury tramper's experience. Thanks DoC.

The Kaituna track to Packhorse is now closed for lambing until the first of October. In Spring it's even better.

Mt Bradley - Packhorse

It was looking like it was going to rain on the West Coast all weekend. We didn't feel like getting wet for no view on Mt Bovis, or being blown off the ridges by the nor'west gale on Mt Misery. So we left the Christchurch Tramping Club to pursue their planned trips as they would.

It was hot, dry and windy in town, so we caught up on housework in the heat of the early part of Saturday then headed off for a quick jaunt later in the afternoon.

We drove over the hill to the harbour and around to Orton-Bradley Park. As usual, we parked outside the gates, to avoid problems of being locked in later. Broken auto glass on the ground was a worry.

There were very few people about in the park. Such a waste. I guess most were at the shopping malls or watching professionals exercise.

Anyway off we went, up the track to the Tablelands and onto the track that leads around to Packhorse Hut.

We weren't heading all the way round to Packhorse, well not directly anyway. Honora had talked to Margaret Clark recently about a route she and Jim had taken descending Mt Bradley some time back. Honora wanted to check their route out in reverse.

When we got to the bushy stream the plan was to follow the stream upwards to Mt Bradley. However the bush was a bit too tangled and scrubby, so we sidled on out to the far side of it and just climbed straight up the tussock slopes to the ridge. It was very straight-forward travel.

The weather was still quite warm and we sure appreciated the wind on top.

Honora led off down toward Packhorse hut. The proper track descends in long zigzags well down the Kaituna valley side. But we took the direct line straight down the ridge.

When I'd been up and down here before I'd always stuck to the harbour side of the crest, which has sections of rocky outcrops, boulders and scrub. But Honora picked a line for us on the Kaituna side. It was easy going with only one steeper section of dracophyllum scrub and slabs.

Down at Packhorse we were surprised to find Brian Smith of the Peninsula Tramping Club in residence. He was spending the night there with his brother and young nephew.

It was 7.00 pm and we were hungry. However as we'd only left the road at 3.00 pm we thought "lunch" was probably the meal to have. So we stopped and chatted while we had a quick snack. Brian provided us some entertainment too, when his Coleman stove leaked fuel and was ceremonially launched through the door, a flaming fireball.

All the excitement over without incident, Honora thought it time to be moving on. We headed off at 7.20 around the front-face track back to Orton-Bradley.

The sun was dropping in the sky and we set a good pace to get back to the Isuzu at the gates in exactly an hour and a half.

How easy it is to get a good bit of exercise in grand open country so close to town. And the bonus was bumping into some pleasant lunch companions too.

Mt Bradley

We were busting to get out somewhere but there wasn't time for anywhere further than Banks Peninsula. Dayle agreed to come along too. We drove over the Port Hills to Orton Bradley Park.

The goal was Mt Bradley so we just took the direct route up via the Tablelands track and continued up the fenceline to the Eye of the Needle. We had lunch on the summit, sheltering from the cool breeze  in the lee of a gorse bush. A circuit around to the Packhorse hut made sense so we dropped down to the track on the Kaituna valley side.

There's a magnificent stand of regenerating lancewoods on that side.

At Packhorse we bumped into Dave Garlick, whom we'd met last November in Dunns Creek. Dave was at the Packhorse with his two daughters. Also a large party from the Over 40s TC passed through.

We returned to Orton Bradley via the front track and followed the red pole route down into the valley.

Others were walking out the valley track at the same time as us. That was a novel experience as we're always the last ones out of the hills. And it's usually dark when we're coming out of Orton Bradley.