Distance: 17.3km   Time Walking: 5h

Elevation: Max Alt 897m     Min Alt 270m     Vert Ascent: 627m

As a counter to having to toil up that arduous ridge in hot conditions right at the start of the Flagpole tramp, the Standards could do the tramp in reverse.  What a great idea!   When driver Alec parked the bus at the end of Flagpole Road, 49 trampers including 3 visitors – Jocelyn, Ailsa and Glenys, it was with anticipation that the Standards were keen to try the recently recce’d route.    The Alternates were happy to go along with their tried and tested route.

                      Colourful flowers all around

Both groups started along the river and the day became increasingly warm with no cloud and little wind.  The Selwyn at this point is quite scenic and the good flow and little pools and eddies tempted the keen trout spotters among us.  The Standards worked on the promise that almost all the climbing would be done before lunch.  From the river it was a hard, hot slog upwards through the canopy of mature pine trees; the periodic water rests could not mask the strain of the long uphill, but they finally arrived for lunch at 1pm. The younger members had been spurred on by the sight of 2 OBEs: Audrey and Brian keeping up with the pack.   The views across the Selwyn basin to the foothills and the Torlesse Range from the saddle when we reached it and had a chance to cool off and catch the breath, were rather grand.

After lunch there was a shorter, easier climb to the top of Flagpole before that long downhill plod back to the bus. There were excellent views across the Plains and down towards the river, and colourful foxgloves well as cabbage trees in full bloom all made for a scenic descent.  (Thanks Peter)

                       Flagpole in the distance.

The Flagpole weather was with us in some ways and against us in others, with the windless heat making trampers shed clothes earlier than usual. We had a lot of mini-goals – places ahead along the farm road where shady spots sometimes held a whiff of breeze.  As the Alts sat in the roadside trees for morning tea, they noticed a lone tramper coming up fast from below.  He turned into our bus driver out for his usual jaunt, and he carried a distinctive wooden pole a Standard had left behind.

This valley, with the Selwyn River’s character (fast-flowing, clear water) so much different from further downstream across the Canterbury Plain could be an area of outstanding landscape character, with some history thrown in.  The old copper mine, still open to anyone who wants to venture within, was never a goer. It was dug in the 1860s or 1870s, and no copper was ever found.

Above the river loop where the Alts stop for lunch, things have changed dramatically because Matariki are logging the hill from high up on its slope with the kind of machinery that makes it obvious why so many accidents can occur.  This pyramid-shaped hill still has some of the tightly-packed trees that used to make it appear as a big green pyramid.

             Heading down to the bus, Flagpole.

Did Lady Barker erect a flagpole during one of her camping excursions on the mountain. No visible evidence of one still exists on the Flagpole’s highest peak.  (Thanks Stan)

When everyone was back on board after one of the club’s longest tramps, it was straight back to Yaldhurst.