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.