Kelly's Canter

Saturday 18 October 2008

The first of the club's summer walks was held starting from Port Chalmers. 15 members turned up. Craig picked me up from St Leonards and we met the walkers opposite New World. Rain was threatening and it was quite windy.

We walked over Back Beach, the opposite way to the half marathon, then onto Carey's Bay. We went up past the cemetery coming out on Mount Street. From here it was the back road to Sawyer's Bay and along SH 88 to our cars. A walk of around 10km.

Sunday 19 October 2008

On Friday night Craig suggested we do the Kelly's Canter (4km return) walk up to Puhetapi starting from the Palmereston Railway Station. We left at 2pm with mainly runners but a number of the participants finished up walking as it is a very steep walk. The first part was a steady climb but the last stretch to the Cairn was almost on knees to get up. Once at the top we had to come down the other side of the hill. It was equaly steep and I had to be carefully not to slip or fall. On two parts I had to crouch and slide down almost on my bottom. Once that section was over Craig and I were able to walk at a steady pacee to the finish. My time was 51:26 minutes. My goal was to do the walk in less than one hour. It took 29 minutes to get to the Cairn.

Outram Hill Free Walk

It was a beautiful day with warm weather for the Outram Hill Free Walk. There were big numbers when the 1okm walk and run left at 9.30pm. My aim was to do under 8o mins and I managed 78:52 mins. Not a PB but a sescond best PB. I beat the time I did last year of 83:16 mins.

Rock and Pillar Range Trek

Shortly after 7.50am I drove to Middlemarch to Noel and Rebecca Matthews' B&B called "Rose Cottage" arriving at 9am. After a catchup Noel drove to the start of our entry to the Rock and Pillar Range which was 5km north of Middlemarch near the McKinnon Road Junction. The Department of Conservation call it Access point 4 on their brochure "Rambling in the Rock and Pillar Range". We started out trek at 10.25am.

I had this image of a very long gradual climb along the ridge but soon learnt we were going up the face of the mountain. We followed orange marker pegs up a steep and winding course. We stopped regularly to catch our breath and admire the view. We climbed at a steady pace with the marker post at the start saying it would be a 2-3 hour walk. The brochure said 3 hours. When we hit the snow line you could feel the cooler temperature. As we got well into the unthawed snow region and closer to the top the wind became stronger and cooler. However we reached Big Hut in 2.5 hours. It was decidedly chilly. My tee-shirt was soaked in sweat from carrying my backpack. I changed into a polyprop and it felt good.

Big Hut (1300m) is not quite at Summit Rock (1450m) and maybe one day we could do this. Big Hut is 1.2kn SE of Summit Rock

We had lunch inside the hut. While in the hut I noticed the colour on two finger tips of my left hand were going white. Then very quickly they went numb which was an odd sensation. I had never experienced this before. I put on my gloves but the numbness became more pronounced. We did a wee bit of scouting around and started our descent at 1.37pm. We made wonderful progress through the snow line and then it was hard work after that. I found it very slippery and landed on my backside a number of times. My shoes kept slipping on the Marrem Grass. The jarring on my knees made stops necessary. We got down in exactly 2 hours.

It was a wonderful experience doing this walk (trek) but I felt knackered afterwards. I thought I was reasonably fit.

Once at the B&B it was a couple of beers and then into a shower with fantastic pressure. I could feel the stiffness ooze out of my body. I spent the night at Noel and Rebecca's home and left early in the morning. The heavy rain put a halt to my plans of walking to Ngapuna on the Rail Trail.

As I type this 24 hours later I feel a wee bit stiff but nothing major.

A Great Week for Walking

It has been a wonderful week weather wise for the first week of the school holidays. I managed to walk over 100km for the first nine days of the holiday break. Two walks of significance were on Monday when I did the Home - Logan Park - Mt Cargill - Roseneath - Home loop and on Friday I walked up Stuart Street and Taieri Road from the Hocken Building. On the way back to my car I went along Helensburgh Road - Balmacewen Road - Driver's Road - Frederick Street.

On Saturday morning Ruth, Craig and I assisted the Caversham Club with marshalling at the National Road Relays. We stsrted off at the Outram Hotel at 8am and marshalled from 9.30am. It was not the most pleasant of experiences as we had to marshall for two legs which meant we did not finish until 1pm. As one of the roads we controlled was closed we had hassles with people wanting to go down the road. However as I had been in a number of walking races it was my turn to do my bit.