This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
(my first WT &MC day walk) Suey 18th August (apologies for the lateness of the report) loomed with family scattered and no commitments, so, spurred by hazy recollection of the trip leader’s promotion speech at club night, I decided to give Lloyd a call and find some more details. It sounded like my kind of trip - over a summit of barely 300 metres, lunch in a sunny clearing overlooking the harbour, a moderate pace and back to the cars before 3 pm.
I duly found the designated meeting spot on the summit of the Wainuiomata hill road and was relieved to meet Lloyd and most of the group. Introductions over we set off down the hill for the 3 kilometre road bash to reach the start of the track. We headed up a steepish slippery track to reach an open firebreak. Our leader had instructed us to wait at a red concrete trig about 100 vertical metres and 10 minutes or so up the track. We enjoyed a welcome cuppa stop, a re-group and brief bask in the sun before heading on up the track to Mt Lowry. The track varied from steep clay gorselined firebreak, open kanuka, beech and classic New Zealand lowland bush replete with ferns of all shapes and sizes. My walking companions of the moment shared some of their botanical knowledge and the time passed very quickly. References to our altitude puzzled
me, but being new I thought this was maybe a daywalk thing. I had a topo map myself and was able to track our progress fairly I easily, though the maze of tracks were certainly not all marked on my map.
We enjoyed the views of Wainuiomata from a totally different aspect and at one point were surrounded by the town through at least 270°, though 200 metres higher (that altitude thing again).
Lunch was enjoyed in a small clearing high above Lowry Bay. The first to arrive bagged the seat and the rest hunkered down and began the serious business of comparing contents of lunchboxes and flasks.
The track down was muddy but generally easy and pleasant. The occasional clearings along the way gave us stunning views of Wellington and its harbour from an unusual perspective. We nearly made it out by 3:00pm as promised, but stopped for yet another view stop which grew to a cuppa stop.
This is a side of the tramping club many clubbies are not aware of. The grey heads far outnumbered any other and at least one of the packs in use should be photo- I graphed for the Club archives, but the spirit of tramping was alive and well. The combined experience of the group would be well worth calculating, as some had been nearly 50 years with the club. —
The atmosphere was a treat, the crowd was amiable, no-one could have a bad day in such company, and I was made to feel very welcome. There was no pressure to perform or keep up. Rest breaks were where needed and there was plenty of time to admire the stunning views, or botanise, or merely check the altitude.
I was relieved to finally discover the reason for so many references to altitude! From deep in his much-travelled pack, our — leader Lloyd Wilkin, produced a truly space age device, a hand held altimeter (bright pink, no less) which when prompted, gave barometric pressure and altitude. It looked more like a Mickey Mouse electronic game but gave excellent readings, even if the butt of many jokes (surely made in envy). It turned out there were three altimeters in the group, all different types and all giving different readings.
Oh well, we made it there and back anyway. The jolly group of 20 was:~ Lloyd (leader and pink altimeter owner), Lorraine, Barry, Olive, Don, Julie; Aylene, ~ Evelyn, Dave, Dot, Ron, Neil, Heather, Carol, John, Kaisu, Juliet, lan and myself (Marilyn D).