Leader: Lawrie Halkett

This trip left from Lawrie’s place in Richmond with another group waiting at the Badminton Hall. 13 people travelled in three vehicles to the forestry road up to Inwoods Lookout in the Golden Downs area.

A wrong turn at one junction, and one car discovering that they had a leaky radiator, meant we had to pack into two vehicles for the drive up the road to Inwoods Lookout.

We parked slightly further up the hill where the track to Hunters Hut was signposted. We started the tramp about 8:50am, initially through bush that alternated between beech and semi-open clearings.

Before long we were climbing an open ridge with rocky sections. We took a break at the top of a steep section and Chris, who had done the trip previously, pointed out the sidle that we were to use, turning south to meet up with a ridge that linked our route with the Gordons Knob massif.

This ridge was a series of nergs; some in the bush, some on rocky ground in the open which was more demanding than it seemed when viewed from either end.

Once out of the last bush section, it was just a slow climb onto the top; the steepest sections were probably in the bush in the middle sidle section.

There was a fast group who had to be back early, and the main group, which met this group on their descent about half-way up the climb.

While the natural route onto the top at 1685m would have entailed a curved approach, many sidled the intermediate humps on the northern side and all the group were on the summit before noon.

(Note the point we climbed is unnamed; the true Gordons Knob was 100m lower and to the west of our summit.)

Those with cameras were able to take photos from the summit. Both Tapu-a-oenuku and Mount Travers could be made out clearly and a section of Lake Rotoiti. Plus a good segment of the Robert Ridge was also clear. We had  been able to make out Mount Taranaki away to the north from early on in the climb.

Many found the descent rather demanding, partly because the slashed vegetation that was covering the track made it quite slippery. Occasionally, we heard the sound of a chain saw and at the car park we meet the person who had been doing some wilding pine clearing. This was fortuitous, as he was able to take the overflow of the group down to the other vehicle, saving us from having to cram ten into the People Mover.

We arrived at the carpark at 3:10pm, though it was closer to 3:30pm before we set off down the road. We were back at Lawrie‘s place by 4:30pm.

Club members: Lawrie Halkett (leader), Kate Krawczyk, Sue Henley, Chris Louth, Ian Dohoo  (photos), John Whibley, Mark Graesser; Visitors: Sally Ward, Madeline Rohrer, Sharon and Joe Bretherton, Tim Tyler and David Cook (scribe).