| Leader | Mentor | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Peter | Dave R | Shirls |
| Alternates | Michele | Linley | Joanne |
Distance: 11 km, Elevation: 760m/640m, Time: 4hrs 45mins
Our trip to Awa Awa Reserve set out with 31 trampers, including our two guests Sharon and Chris, and two long-time associate members Norma Porter and David Eddy. We were all delighted to have Wendy back after her excitement this Winter. Our bus driver was Steve who sported some snazzy orange and purple striped socks. We arrived at the Reserve at about 10:15 to glorious weather.
Standards input from our esteemed President, Graham:
The group of 17 Standards set off with Peter as Leader setting a good pace. We stopped at the junction of Scott’s Saddle Track and Ridge Track for morning tea before continuing on up to the bench seat lookout. Plenty of treefall across the track from recent weather, testing our limbo skills for going under, and climbing skills for going over these. Some clearing work has been done, but our walk took longer than last year avoiding these hazards.
Continuing on, we got to our usual lunch spot about midday, at 1152m, with nice sun and no wind overlooking the Mt Hutt access road. No serious slips or falls on the walk, and we were back at bus just before 3pm, enjoying another opportunity to see the rhododendrons before the Alternate Group arrived.
Alternates input and remainder of report by Michele:
The 12 Alternates had the Standards in sight for about 4 minutes. After that, no sightings until they caught up with us at the Opuke Trail cutoff just above the parking area on the way down.
The trail up to morning tea is just a grunt, no other word for it. The Alternates addressed the challenge with about 5 “scenic time-outs” which their leader (me) attributed to making sure Wendy was fine and not to my own puffing. We had one fall on the way up, but of course the response was “I’m fine” and “I’ll clean it at lunch”. Our trusty tailender offered the entire medical kit when we stopped for tea, but “I’m fine” was the response.
We made our lunch spot at 12:30 where we too enjoyed the views. The return trip took just as long (right at 2 hours) as we carefully negotiated the logs referenced above and the holes in the trail hidden by overgrown grasses. We chose to take Alder Track instead of the Opuke Track, and were glad we did. It is slightly longer than Opuke, but it was a wider and better groomed trail although still quite steep in spots. Those comfortable with maths in the Alternates estimated the Alder Track was about twice as long as the Opuke Track, but we were happy with an additional 20 minutes.
It was a fairly quick trip back to Christchurch, back to wind and much cooler weather than we had at the Reserve. Another good BTC tramp (although the suggestion was made by my husband that night that perhaps we could bring a keg next time to reward us).
Text by Michele
