Mount Somers is a mountain in the Southern Alps range, about
an hour’s drive across the Canterbury Plains to the south-west of Christchurch.
There is a tramping track here which forms a loop of 25km around the mountain
and I am going to walk it over two days. I am very lucky that the good ‘Indian
summer’ weather is continuing to hold. As I leave my campsite in the early
morning and drive the last 25km along the straight road across the plains
towards the mountain range, a hot air balloon floats gently in the morning sky.
Leaving Josephine parked in a small car park the track begins, as so many do,
by following and crossing a stony river and climbing steeply through the wooded
valley.
Following the River Upstream
After a couple of hours of clambering over rocks and tree
roots, the path breaks out of the forest and I get my first close-up views of
the mountain along whose side I have been climbing. This is the sunny north
face and its rocky cliffs, beyond which the summit is hiding from my view.
Mount Somers North Face
I stop at Pinnacles Hut and sit on the sunny veranda to have
my lunch. The views from here are across the forest in one direction and over
to the north face of the mountain in the other, where there are pointy rock
formations, which gave the hut its name.
Inside the hut there is evidence of people staying here and I guess they
are rock-climbers as I can hear occasional voices in the distance from the
direction of the pinnacles, although I can see no-one.
Lunch at Pinnacles Hut
Views from Pinnacles Hut
After lunch it is another steep and slippery climb up to a
saddle, with views of the mountains to the north and also a good view back the
way I have come, with the Canterbury Plains forming a flat line to the west in
the V of the valley.
Looking Back
Mountain Views to the East
After the saddle I am grateful that the path sidles more
gently around the mountain and without having to watch my footing quite so
carefully I can take the time to appreciate the grandeur of the rocky open
scenery in all directions.
Path through a Rocky Landscape
Grassland and Mountains
Then the path starts to drop and I stop for a rest at a
small stream crossing in a sheltered valley and take my boots off and cool my feet
in the water. I can only put my feet in the water for a few seconds at a time,
because the water is so cold it makes my bones ache.
Stream
The stream then drops steeply into a deep gorge and the
rocks close in on either side.
Approaching the Gorge
Then after 6 hours of walking, I can see my hut for tonight
sitting on a flat terrace on the other side of the stream.
Woolshed Creek Hut
As I cross the stream
I notice a collection of beer cans and wine bottles cooling in the water. When
I arrive a large Kiwi group of adults and children is sitting round one table
in the main room. They look well-established here already at 3pm. They are
playing cards and the adults drinking. The hut sleeps 26 on sleeping platforms
in 2 rooms and has the usual communal kitchen/dining area with a great
wood-burning stove that is already going a treat. The hut fills up rapidly,
mainly with Kiwi families with young children and I discover that this is a
very popular hut, because it is only about an hour’ drive from Christchurch and
there is a relatively easy 3 hour walk in to the hut from another car park
along an old miners’ track. It is also the last weekend of the school Easter
holidays, so families are taking advantage of the great weather to get out and
about before the new term begins and winter draws in. Just before dark another
family of four arrives and find that all the bunks are taken. Luckily they are
planned enough for this eventuality and have brought tents. As it gets dark the large Kiwi group play a
raucous drawing game and the line of empty bottles gets bigger.
I chat to a Kiwi couple, Mary and Alan and discover that he
spent 6 years living in Devon, as an overseas player for Bradninch Cricket
Club.
Fortunately in my bunk room people settle down pretty early
and the bunk rooms stay cosy and warm from body heat, but it is a long night,
with several professional snorers and many coming and goings of people going to
the toilet.
Day 2
In the morning I am glad to be up when the first people start
moving at dawn. There is a light frost on the ground and the kitchen area is
cold and the fire has gone out, but is soon started up again. A Kiwi mum and
her two young sons have slept on 2 mattresses on the floor underneath the
counters. She is struggling to contain the growing tantrum of her younger son.
He is complaining firstly about the colour of the leggings he has to wear. She
tries unsuccessfully to persuade her other son to swap leggings. Then the
tantrum escalates to complaining about pretty much everything, including that
she is being mean to him. This little drama dominates the whole hut as people
make their preparations for the day. I
start today’s walk early and at about the same time as Mary and Alan and we
agree that it is nice to be out of the hut on this perfect day with only the
sounds of nature around us and maybe to remember to plan future tramps outside
of school holidays.
The walk begins with a dramatic swing bridge across a gorge
and then climbs up and around a steep valley. The early morning sunshine lights
up the views back towards the hut and across the mountains and valleys.
Swing Bridge
Early Morning Sun on the Landscape
I notice that Mary is limping and find out that she had a
motorbike accident some years ago. She nearly lost her foot completely and was
told she would probably never walk again. She has had it reconstructed but she
has no cartilage in it and it doesn’t move properly. She does really well to
tramp at all and the walk this morning over such rocky terrain is a real challenge
for her. But she says she would rather do this, ‘than act the cripple’.
We negotiate a steep rocky gorge and stop to take pictures
of each other at the overhang known as the 'Bus Stop’.
Bus Stop
After crossing an area of open grassland it becomes obviuos
that I am now about halfway round the mountain, as the Canterbury Plains are
once more visible to the west
Grassland and the Canterbury Plains
I part company with Alan and Mary here, as they head back to
the car park and I wish them well for their wedding in 3 weeks’ time. They are
very excited that they are ‘running away’ to get married in secret on the Cook
Islands.
My path continues around the south face of the mountain with
relatively easy, but muddy walking and continuous views out over the Canterbury
Plains below. The sea is just visible in the distance. The short spiky alpine
vegetation grows right up to the path and scratches my legs as I walking
through. I might have worked out the reason Kiwis love to tramp wearing
leggings under shorts. It’s not a good look, but maybe practical in such
conditions. If I had some gaiters with me I would put them on; but I feel pretty sure that gaiters and shorts is a look to be avoided too.
Plains and Sea
After 4 hours I stop for lunch where there is a small
shelter conveniently located at the halfway point. My life at the moment is
composed of a series of short sketches and as I am sitting on the sunny veranda,
next across my stage is a local hunter followed by his young son [entrance
stage left]. They are both wearing hi-vis hunting vests and the dad carries a
large green hunting pack on his back and a gun across his shoulder. They stop and
chat for only a minute. He tells me they have climbed up from the station below
(this means a farm). He shot a large stag yesterday, but it got up and ran off,
so they have come back to spend a couple of hours looking for it. I ask him
where he thinks it will be and he waves his arm towards a steep wooded valley
above us and says, ‘Up there in the gully’ [exit stage right].
In the afternoon the path follows a ridge along a series of
flatish open tops followed by steep wooded descents. At the end of each flat
section there is a lookout, before the path drops away. It feels as if you
could just take one giant leap from the edge of here and splash into the sea,
as if from a huge diving board.
Lookout over the Plains
I end up back in the car park where I started from yesterday,
with the muddiest boots from any walk so far. This is tramp number 10
completed. I have about another 3 weeks left in New Zealand and if the weather
holds, I should manage a few more before I leave.
Muddy Boot
