Packhorse Track Bank Peninsula July 23rd-24th 2016
At 7.30am five keen trampers left Timaru on route to our weekend tramp. After parking the car at the Kaituna Valley Rd car park and in fine but windy weather we proceeded to make our way over farm land. After about an hour of steady climbing and the wind getting stronger we arrived at the beautiful old stone Packhorse Hut. This hut has been done up a lot since I was last there and now is very spacious comfortable hut. There was quite a few day walkers coming and going as its very popular and accessible for locals. After a cuppa and early lunch we headed down the Gebbies Pass route, around the hillside and through the plantations which got us out of the wind. We took in some more of the great views from this side of the hills then proceeded to climb back to the hut meeting lots of locals out walking on this sheltered track. We meet a family of four who were also booked into the hut for the night. After a delicious meal we chattered and hoped for a good nights sleep.
It blow and rain in the night and we woke to fog in the morning but this soon disappeared and we decided to take the route around Mt Bradley and up to
Mt Herbert. We had morning tea at the shelter between the two.
Onward and upwards we reached the summit of Mt Herbert 919m.
From up here we had amazing views over Diamond Harbour, Pot Levy, Akaroa and Lyttelton Harbour. Blowing a strong wind now, we move over the top dropping down the other side to look for the Montgomery Track which was our turnoff to head down the valley. This was not well marked but Judy’s good map reading skills had us on the right track. After a lunch stop we carried on to the bottom of the valley and then had an hour or so back to the car.
It was a fantastic trip and would be a great one to do again. Thank you Christine for organising this trip and to Judy and Colin and Barry for your company.
Dawn