Time: 2 hours
Distance: 7.68 km
Start: Mount Cass Walkway car park, Mount Cass Road, Waipara
Finish: Same place (it's loopish)
Date: Friday 12th February 2021
Note: This track closes for lambing in spring. It also closes on hot summer days (apparently they are worried that the adjacent landfill might explode - yikes).
The Mount Cass Walkway is the sister of the Tiromoana Walkway, the brain-children of Transwaste Canterbury, and a panacea to the placement of the Kate Valley Landfill nearby.
At Waipara we turned east off State Highway 1 onto Mount Cass road. It was a cloudy morning that had turned to a rather claggy thick drizzle as we drove north. But when we arrived at the car park, despite the fact that the top of Mount Cass was still hidden in a shroud of cloud, the drizzle happily stopped.
The grass was high and our boots were sodden within a few minutes of walking. However, once over the shock of that, it was actually very pleasant. A steady and persistent uphill climb on a grassy farm track which meanders through interesting limestone fields and outcrops. What's not to like?
I had a map that I'd printed a few years ago and had enigmatically written on it in red (?) pen: "...there is Maori Rock Art on Mount Cass Station". But where? We searched under some overhangs. A spiral looked promising but on closer inspection was probably definitely lichen. There were a couple of fossil shells protruding through. A reminder that this was all once under the ocean. A massive hare was startled and lept springingly through the rocks and away - like a scene from Watership Down.
After one hour we arrived at the lookout with its weirdly Narnia-esque concrete tables. Aslan's How. The sun burst through the clouds with precision timing. The Mount Cass summit trig was tantalisingly close but behind a gate with an obvious 'Private property' sign which we decided to not ignore (tempting though ... and I must admit that I have been unable to resist in the past..but that is another story).
There is a bit of a loop track back down (it's easy to miss the sign which has fallen off the post altogether). A quick 45 minute descent saw us back in the car and on our way to The Old School Collective for coffee and a yummy lunch. I can recommend the keto berry bomb. Yum.
