| Leader | Mentor | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Dave B | Dave R | Nicholas W |
| Alternates | Bev | Ali | Jan M |
Distance 8.6 km Elevation 1,105m Duration 3:45 hours
Another Wednesday walk in the Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park. A misterious (sic) morning in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. After navigating nine roundabouts from new part of town, arrive at the Yaldhurst Hotel.
0852 hrs Yaldhurst group picked up by Bishopdale group and bus driver Phil who assures us it is sunny in Springfield.
President Selwyn OBE hands around chocolates acknowledging his newly awarded BTC honorific. Selwyn welcomes new BTC members Lesley and Margaret and visiting walkers Beth, Robin and Margaret.
0939 hrs Depart toilet stop in sunny Springfield.
In two groups we leave the bus on the West Coast Road and head up the first ridge. 15 Standards having morning tea are soon overtaken by 17 Alternates. It’s a clear track to Trig M and the walking is enjoyable, undulating amid snow tussock and spent flower heads of woolly-leaved mountain daisies. There’s moss underfoot in places. The trampolining effect is very different from the early spring snow in September 2024 when we last did this tramp.
The Alternates meet some Americans at Trig M and one enterprising tramper offers them BTC fliers. The observation is made that if the Americans were to join the club the average membership age would plummet. The Standards leave Trig M and encounter the first wet patch of the walk at the bottom of the Rabbit Hill climb. It’s one of those deceptive hills with a summit that when you’ve got to the top, proves not to be. The good news is that it’s lunch time at the real top. And it’s a clear day and we can see forever (almost). We’re surrounded by the Big Ben, Mt Hutt, Craigieburn and Torlesse Ranges. So close they’re holding us.
The Alternates accompanied some of the way by a steer, descend by the Coach Stream Track and can see forever – to the sea. There’s a sharp wind on the Standards’ descent and a blaze of colour on the scree slope opposite. We deduce it’s muehlenbeckia berries.
“I was never so pleased to see the back end of a bus” someone says. Walking across the grassy flat to the Lake Lyndon-Coleridge Road there’s still warmth in the autumnal sun. Mid-week walks don’t get much better than this.
1435 Standards in the bus at the hairpin bend on the West Coast Road to rendezvous with Alternates.
1600 hrs Back at the Yaldhurst Hotel
Text by Jen C
