Kaikoura TOP 10
Saturday, February 23: Sunny and clear skies to begin with but clouds started forming by the afternoon as the sea wind condensed
GPS Tour
Gentians on Mt Fyffe
Today was the day for the Mt Fyffe ascent. Breakfast was still pretty rudimentary but managed to nab another jar of vegemite, salt, some bacon which I then fried and packed into sandwiches for the hike. A roll of gladwrap was gratefully found to wrap the sandwiches up in, and a can of waterproofing spray which would be welcome for the boots.
Was then off to the i-SITE to get some basic information on getting to the start of the track and as the car was nearly empty anyway I thought the question of security could remain unanswered. Then it was down the road and along a gravelled section to the Fyffe carpark.
View from Mt Fyffe with the clouds rolling in
Pretty steep climb from the word go and there appears to be only one vertical direction. Passed a couple who were already labouring away, also a woman enjoying the view from one of the lookout benches. Arrived at Mt Fyffe hut after just two hours where I joined a gent for lunch. He pushed off soon after and was apparently doing the complete loop. The hut is at 1100 m, so the last climb didn’t appear to be particularly critical. Views up to now had been pretty spectacular, even if the distant ones (Kaikoura Peninsula) were a bit marred by haze. Then the clouds started rolling in in a big way.
This picture says it all
The climb up to the summit (1600 m) took about 45 minutes and here some views were still available – at least on the seawind lee side (inland) so I set up a bracketed pan and took a couple of pictures of wildflowers. Then I commenced the descent. Even this was pretty hard going, but I made it down through the clouds, arriving under them in just on another two hours. So much for DoC’s estimate of eight hours return.
| GPS Tour: Mt Fyffe |
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Back in town I went shopping for some of the lost stuff (but couldn’t find a hairbrush or any earphone covers) and finished up with a little more than some orange juice, razors, a marker pen, and some chips.
After setting up the computer to process the pictures I continued shopping around in town, looking for a place to eat. Found a folder for my paper collection, but nothing else, and chose tarakihi and ½ scoop of chips for $7.2 from the fish’n’chip shop opposite the motorcamp. Nailed down the pizza place from 2009 – The Black Rabbit – and was sorry to have missed it yesterday. The iconic sunset hill with the trees on it was also spotted.
