Time: 7 hours
Distance: 12.2 km
Start: Staverley Reserve car park at the end of Flynns Road
Finish: Same place (it's there and back)
Date: Friday 26th January
Detailed specs:
Carpark to Summit Track junction:1 hour and 45 minutes
Summit Track junction to Mt. Somers summit trig: 2 hours and 20 minutes (track time is 1.5 hours)
Mt Somers summit trig to Junction: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Junction to carpark: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Antsy. Thats what I was. Antsy. It's an adjective - which describes what happens to me when I haven't climbed a hill in a while - a restless state of both the body and the mind. The weather was shaping up to be a real corker, the stars were aligning, and so it was time to climb Mount Somers/Te Kiekie. I have had it on my radar for a wee while now. However, with a couple of last minute cancellations - legitimate excuses all of them - absolutely no one else was up for it. I would have to go alone.
Alone. Gulp. I felt scared. Of what exactly? I asked myself. The answer came straight away. Dodgy blokes. I figured that the majority are probably ok, so I decided to take my chances. Besides, I had packed the PLB and shared my location with my Hoa Rangatira. He and I had climbed Mount Somers together a few months earlier, therefore I knew that it's a really good track, well formed, easy to follow - a bit of a slog. All doable if you put one foot in front of the other for 6-7 hours. No worries.
So I turned up the music in my car (sick beats) and sang my little heart out for the 1.5 hour drive across Kā Pākihi-Whakatekateka-a-Waitaha (the seed bed of the Waitaha people a.k.a. the Canterbury Plains), and arrived at the Sharplin Falls car park at the end of Flynns Road in good time.
Perfect weather. However, there was one bloke in the car park just exiting his car. Gulp. He was minding his own business though. I quickly donned my boots and leapt away at high speed with only a cursory hello. The track is like a highway for the first 5 minutes up to the junction with Tāhekerua - the new Sharplin Falls Track. That one is on the radar for a future Friday Walkies.
Mount Somers is one of a suite of mid-Cretaceous volcanos that last erupted some 89 million years ago (give or take a couple of million years). According to "Mesozoic Geology of the Mt. Somers Area, Canterbury, including Geochemical and Paleomagnetic studies of the Cretaceous calc-alkaline Mt Somers Volcanics", a PhD thesis by P. J. Oliver, Canterbury University (1977), Mount Somers is composed entirely of ryolite [silica rich volcanic rock] which can be subdivided into tuffs, domes, plugs, dikes, agglomerates and flows.
Once past the Tāhekerua Track turn-off, the Mt Somers Track is more of your standard Canterbury Foothills trail, climbing steadily up through beautiful beech forest. The green of the crown ferns contrasting nicely with the black of the beech tree fungus. There were gazillions of wasps flitting about. The forest was literally humming. Obviously the war on wasps is not working. From a stinging point of view though, they are generally not a problem to hikers - unless you sit on them. After about 30 minutes I was at Hookey Knob (731 m) and then soon after, the clearing with the bench seat overlooking the hazy plains to the east and the first clear views of Mount Somers to the north.
From here the flora becomes sub-alpine. The manuka scrub was in flower and there was the odd alpine daisy still hanging in there. I paused on Staverley Hill (1085 m) and the bloke from the car park caught me up. He was quite friendly and chatty - a policemen from Christchurch nearing retirement [so pretty safe then?] and on his way around the Mount Somers Track to the Pinnacles Hut, hoping to avoid the forecasted late afternoon inclement weather.
He went on his way and I turned onto the Mount Somers Summit Track which basically goes straight up the ridge to the top. The track gets quite rocky from here and there is a bit of boulder hopping to be done as you wind your way up through the tuffs, domes, plugs, dikes, agglomerates and flows.
A French girl and a Canadian guy came slip-sliding down the hill from the summit. They had started from the Pinnacles Hut that morning and taken the steep poled route over. The girl said it was too dangerous to descend but I don't believe it so I have that on my radar for a future Friday Walkies (hopefully no one will read this). [Eds note: This blog post describes it as pretty much no worries].
It got steep and slow going - I was starting to flag. The extra kg or two on my paunch from Xmas festivities starting to catch up with me. Two persistent flies hovered around my ears for up to 30 minutes. I finally flicked them away with my walking pole. Gorgeous fat-legged alpine grasshoppers were bouncing around at each footfall. About 3/4 of the way up I suddenly had that moment when you know you are going to make it to the top and your heart lifts. The track flattened for a moment and then there was one last steep section. I counted down the poles as they went by 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
At last, a gentle climb to the summit. I felt a bit dizzy with the altitude as I finally stood at the Mount Somers summit trig (1117 m). Beautiful views in all directions. And incredibly quiet. It was as hot as anything, with an occasional welcome breeze. The Mount Somers Association had built a fence structure up there and I sat in the tiny bit of shade it offered. Kind of unnecssary to build things on summits. Oh well. The message was nice "Revere yesterday - build on today - absorb energy and inspiration from this place - for the future". I ate some nuts and took stock of my water. A quarter of a 1.5 L bottle. I did the math. Hmmm. Not enough for the 2.5 hour return journey.
Because of the water shortage, I didn't linger at the summit for too long. I started the descent, rock hopping along the summit ridge followed by the steep poled route down. The only people I met were a pack-laden young couple on their way to the Pinnacles Hut. She looked like a uni student and he looked like a hunter. Pure speculation on my part. They were friendly and while we chatted I notice that her exceptionally tanned legs matched his beard. Orange. Well suited.
I drank the last of my water at Hookey Knob. Not quite quenched and I still had about 30 minutes to go. Weirdly, I spent alot of that time fantasising about Charlies Honest Squeezed Orange Juice (which I don't normally drink).
At the car I downed a litre of water and felt much better. It was 4:05 pm and the Staverley Store was closed. No Charlies Honest Squeezed Orange Juice to be had. But not to worry, I knew there was a cold Rosé waiting for me in the fridge at home. So I turned up the music in my car and drove across Kā Pākihi-Whakatekateka-a-Waitaha, singing my little heart out to my sick beats.
