After a couple of wet and stormy days, today was beautiful, 25 degrees and mainly sunny, so Marlene wanted to do a good hike, but also wanted to avoid stream crossings as they are running fairly high after the rain.
We drove to the pipeline bridge in the Maitai Valley and then set off hiking uphill towards the Tantragree Saddle, with a plan to decide where to go once we got there. The pipeline bridge is a bridge built on top of the water pipe carrying the City of Nelson's water supply from the dam in the Maitai Valley to the treatment plant in the next valley over. A good secondary use for the pipe.
Maitai Valley Pipeline Bridge
Maitai Valley From Halfway Up Fringed Hill
Nelson And Tasman Bay From Fringed Hill
Stoke And Richmond From Fringed Hill
Rustic Trail Markers And Bees on Black Beech Tree
Track Between Fringed Hill And Cummins Spur
We made it to the Tantragee Saddle in 30 minutes, so the 10 Km loop trail over Sharland's Hill and back up the Maitai Valley seemed a little wimpy. Stupidly, I suggested hiking up Fringed Hill (793 metres / 2600 feet above sea level). We walked up Fringed Hill Road, a gated, gravelled logging road, almost all the way to the top. There was very little shade, and the road climbed continuously, with no respite from the incline. The photo below was taken from about halfway up Fringed Hill, looking back down into the Maitai Valley to show where we started - where the road disappears at the bottom of the photo (you can see the pipeline coming down the hill on the right, and it then crosses the road and river).
The photo below was taken from the same location as the photo above, showing the view of Nelson City and Tasman Bay. The building in the middle of the photo is at the Tantragee Saddle, now well below us.
As we climbed higher, we got great views to the west. The photo below was taken almost at the top of Fringed Hill, looking towards Stoke (on the right) and Richmond (on the left).
We paused just below the summit of Fringed Hill to eat our lunch, having climbed 2200 feet in 2 hours. A much needed break - cheese and marmite on corn crackers (Marlene was trying to empty the pantry today) never tasted so good. Up to this point we had not seen anybody since we left the car.
It was all downhill from here, and we set off on what we believed was the right trail, heading down to Cummins Spur, which you may remember was our destination from the other side of the hill earlier in the week. I had taken a photo of a trail map on a sign board, and had also saved an image of the area from a topographical map I found online, so I was somewhat confident, but would not have wanted to walk back up the hill if I got it wrong.
The trail was not at all labelled at this point and the trail makers were somewhat more rustic than we have become accustomed to. I guess we have been spoiled. The photo below was of the only trail sign we saw. The tree is a Black Beech, and if you look closely you will see that it is covered in bees....the bees like the sweetness, so are very plentiful in the beechy forests.
The trail meandered through a mixture of native bush and mature pine forest (see photo below), and after about 15 minutes we heard an animal run through the bush, scared by our approach. Being Canadian, our first thought was bear, but of course there are no bears in New Zealand. It was likely a deer as we had seen a few areas of dug up dirt next to the trail a little further back. Just after that excitement we met a young woman hiking up towards us, and she was able to confirm that we were on the right track and only about 10 minutes from Cummins Spur.
From Cummins Spur we followed the Dun Mountain Walkway back to Tantragee Saddle, where we rejoined the track that we had climbed on the way up. Along this section of trail we saw many mountain bikers and a few hikers.
We arrived back at the car, 4 1/2 hours after we started, having walked 16.6 Km and climbed 2,260 feet. Needless to say we were glad to get back to town, for a drink and date scone at Yello Cafe.
Marlene seems to think that Nelson is hiking heaven. Or perhaps she is just trying to kill me!
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