The Tramping Report

The Ben More Range - a big hill

There are some good things to be said about a walk on the Big Ben Range.

One is that there's an 800 metre climb to get onto it, and once up there the ridges are long so you need to walk briskly to complete any circuit.  You're guaranteed to get some exercise.

Also there are good views from the top of the range. The views are all of things a long way off and you'll need a telephoto lens and probably a tripod to impress people back home. But when you're up there, there's a sense of wide openness that's hard to fit in a camera.

Another is that when the higher mountains are stormy with nor'westerlies, the Ben More Range is usually clear. It might be windy, even windy enough to fling stones at you but probably not rain on you too.

But none of these were part of our decision to go there.

Honora wanted to do a day trip with the Peninsula Tramping Club. And as it is with clubs, their calendar said they would run a trip to the Ben More Range today. So that's where we went.

Three carloads of us headed off, over Porters Pass, and turned off onto a gravel road to the south. We travelled past Lake Lyndon and parked by a dis-used airstrip, marked on the map.

This was a handy place for our circuit. Our route was up onto the end of one spur, along to the main range, over the Ben More formal summit, then back along another spur and down to the cars again.

It was a congenial group. People could wander along in their own thoughts, without intrusion. And that suited me today. Previously I'd only done trips on this side of the range with the CTC. I remembered the style of those trips, and I enjoyed being with a group without the unpleasant competitiveness and point-scoring that the Christchurch Tramping Club is notorious for.

 

High Peak & Quartz Hill

I went on a 'moderate' graded day walk with the Christchurch tramping club to High Peak. The trip was led by Susan Pearson.

The idea for putting the trip on the club's programme had come from Pat Barrett's 'Foothills & Forests' route-guide. Quartz Hill was an addition to Barrett's route. I understand a club old-timer had also told Susan she should include a diversion to Snowy Peak as well. This wasn't on our plan.

We drove past Rakaia Gorge and turned up a side road to the Quartz Hill farm. Susan told us that farmer Colin Guild had insisted on meeting us. She said he complained about his phone number being in Pat Barrett's route guide, as people were ringing him to ask permission. Apparently he found it an inconvenience having people come and walk across his place as he 'had to' go out and meet them when they arrived and again when they left. I guess he's chosen to believe the Federated Farmers nonsense about OSH. Whatever, I understand a bottle of wine then changed hands and we were allowed to go for our walk.

We walked along a farm road to the hillside then up a fenceline to Middle Saddle and on up a tussock slope to High Peak.

We paused briefly on the broad flat 'peak' and then hurried on. There were views if you wanted to risk tripping over to look at them. I watched where I was putting my feet. Perhaps I'm just used to taking frequent micro-pauses for the view. The CTC style is for just two or three set stops on a trip, and an uncompromising, resolutely athletic pace between them.

So on we went, strung out and the stragglers trying to keep up, east along the ridge and down another fenceline to another saddle.

Beyond the saddle the ridge had grand rocky outcrops. A 4x4 track bypassed this, gaining the ridge further along. The keener ones knew the outcrops were the main event and couldn't miss going up through them. The others, preferring an easier pace for a while, opted for the 4x4 track.

After regrouping we stopped for lunch.

On we went again, northeast to point 821 m. Then we dropped down to a saddle and climbed to Quartz Hill. That had a great panorama to the west and it would have been a great place to linger. But on we went down the slope on the other side to a 4x4 track. This took us back around the west side of the hill.

Farmer Colin met us again as we came down.

We walked out along the farm roadway, to the constant roar of stags.

Nothing actually went wrong on this trip, but it just seemed to lack the usual pleasure that I get in the hills. It's not that the area doesn't have anything going for it. Maybe the report we received of Colin's comments just made me feel unwelcome there.