This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Mount Climie Easy/Medium Day walk - January 13
by Michael Lightbourne photos by Dave Collett
One unusual feature of this daywalk was using the club bus for transport: there weren't any overnight trips using it, and there were two bus drivers available! We headed to the Tunnel Gully Recreation Area not far from Upper Hutt, which is the beginning of the track to Mt Climie. One of the participants, and her two young children, was using her own transport and had not arrived when we were ready to go. We had told her it would take us a long time to get organised and drop another group off and that she should stop at a café and have a coffee, but actually our group was dropped off first and we were ready to go earlier than expected. Also the Tunnel Gully picnic area is quite a maze of several carparks and roads in all directions and it would be quite easy to get lost. This created a difficulty for our trip leader Glynne Lloyd, who decided to stay at the beginning for quarter of an hour, while the rest of us got underway.
So the walk began on what is a gravel road surrounded by bush. It made socializing much easier, as we could walk in lines of three across, instead of in single file which is generally required on most bush tracks. There is a steady climb involved and the conditions were very warm and humid. This was certainly not the case when we left our homes earlier in the day, and most of us were wearing polypropoline and fleeces. Not far from the beginning, Glynne made an appearance with the family of three. We stopped to put on sunblock. Most of us had to use Glynne’s supply because it did not make sense to pack it when it was raining first thing in the morning. I threw some in my pack at the last minute just because I had got sunburnt on a daywalk I had done a week earlier, not believing for a second that I would use it. I don’t think anyone packed a sunhat, and consequently that area saw much more sun that it should have. It was strange to be above the cloud: all the surrounding peaks were clear, but thick cloud covered the valleys below. We carried on, up and up, sweating in our polypros. After about two hours, we reached the summit which is at 830 metres. There are a number of transmission towers, and great 360 degree views. We were lucky to have no wind as we walked along the summit ridge for quarter of an hour to the end of the track, where we had a light lunch.
The return involved taking the same track down the hill, and care needed to be taken not to slip on the gravel going down. Near the end we took a detour to see one of the tunnels in the area, and it was a very refreshing change of temperature, like walking into a fridge! We met Andrew with the bus a little bit late, picked up the Rimutaka mountain bikers and headed to Kaitoke for our much anticipated BBQ. The coin-operated BBQs were positioned under a nice shelter, but were not brilliant (any club members working for the Regional Council, please take note): there was plenty of space to put up a tent but not a picnic table in sight. Also the electric BBQs lack cooking power: the closest my sausages came to looking brown and cooked were the fake grill marks painted on them before purchase. And anyone who had a steak had to wait half an hour to get them “medium rare”. However we all had some lunch, and sat around (at first in the sun but then in the shade) and chatted, and it was a really nice way to finish the daywalk (or bike ride) and start the tramping year.