Time: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Distance: 9 km
Start: End of Vernon Terrace
Finish: Same place, it's a loop
Date: Friday 12th June 2020
Start: End of Vernon Terrace
Finish: Same place, it's a loop
Date: Friday 12th June 2020
Updated: August 2024
The day started at 6 am with the agonising First World question: "To ski or not to ski??". It was the first day of the Mt Hutt season but there was also a massive Low looming over the South Island. I felt pissed off because it had been blue skies all week. Fuck. I pushed my ski boots to one side and rummaged around for my tramping boots. Friday Walkies was on.
Luckily the others had ignored my dithering and already organised to walk the Rapaki Valley Track. Under wintery cloudy skies we met at the end of Vernon Tce and marched up the valley while the wind whipped around our ears. This track is our "local" and often walked, so when the opportunity arose we decided to explore unknown side tracks.
The first turn-off was about 10 minutes up the valley track. A stile (not a turnstile) at the second gate and a 30 second detour to an impressive volcanic rock overhang with a waterfall (waterless in the summer). The second side track was past the meditation kiosk and a right turn onto Marie Antoinette Track (or something like that [Ed's note: Marette Taylor Track]) which at first headed uphill but then looked like it was going to go back down to the car park [Ed's note: it does]). This seemed like a good time to go off piste so we went straight up through the tussock and over a challenging barbed wire fence to Mt Vernon Track. Hill fix. Tick.
We followed the Mt Vernon Track direction Summit Road for awhile and then, just before the pylons, we branched off again at "Stoat Point" - so named because we saw a stoat. There was a farm track of sorts but we abandoned it and worked our way along the fencelines up to the Lamar Wheelchair Track. I tried to take my dad on this once but he wasn't having a bar of it.
The wind was whistling atmospherically through the pylons and the cloud formations looked like a Kim Lowe painting. We followed Summit Road down to Rapaki Track (amidst the cyclists) and then descended Rodgers Track back to Rapaki Valley and the cars.
We warmed up with coffees and friands at Fava Cafe (update 2024 - now called Cocoa Black), chatting about periods and art and stuff like that. My bad mood had disappeared and, in perspective, it didn't really matter that I wasn't skiing because it was such a nice wild, wintery walk.
