tramping new zealand

After such a lovely day the day before, it felt like summer had finally arrived. Better make the most of it.

It looks like a good day to climb a hill to the new Leaning Lodge, a 900 m climb, only I needed to start near Middlemarch, so towards Dunedin and the end of the Otago Rail Trail.

I’d come down some of the track on a visit to the previous Leaning Lodge that has subsequently been rebuilt, but had done a cross-country back to my car, which I left at the start of the Big Hut track.

There was no signage on the road about the start of the track, but I turned onto a farmhouse road. Fortunately, 100 m further on there was a DOC sign indicating where to park, and then the orange-topped poles showing the route.

Once on the four-wheel-drive track, it was easy.

Just climb.

It was overcast and looked threatening, but I’d made a commitment to get to the track, and I had some wet-weather gear. Initially, it was light drizzle and seemed little point in stopping for my raincoat, but near Botany Hut, it started to rain properly and I ducked in there to shelter for a while.

Suddenly, I was cold, so I persevered up the hill, now with my raincoat on. It was needed.

It takes about three hours to get to the hut, and by that time, I was solidly in the mist.

It was strange to visit a hut that had been rebuilt, as the previous quite recent rebuilding was not constructed to some aspects of the Building Code.

$170,000 was spent on replacing a hut that was better (by far) than 70% of DOC’s stock of older huts.

I had a short stop to re-document the hut, which looked almost identical to the previous one, as it used the same bunks, double-glazed windows, and stainless steel bench. Then, I beat a hasty retreat back down the hill.

With 300 m of verticality to go, I spotted a few teenage trampers trying to get around a bunch of curious cows way below. When I passed them, around 5 pm, I mentioned the three-hour climb, but they looked unconcerned, and the eight of them marched on.

I went past the cows on the track more confidently, although I was brandishing my walking pole and making erratic movements that startled them.

By the time I was back to the cabin in Ranfurly, I felt a good effort had been put in for the day.