Mt Richardson - 29 November 2015

An impromptu invite after church led to my son Toby and I joining 3 others on an afternoon romp up Mt Richardson. It's one we've both done before (see here for the post), but still made for a good afternoon's exercise. For Sara, Ian, and Alison, it was another step in the training towards Sara's planned walk from Akaroa to Christchurch, a fundraising venture for the Westpac Rescue helicopter service (details of her walk are on her page here), which I hope to join them on.

The day itself was rather drab, with thick cloud and mist hugging the tops above about the 800m contour. While this meant it wasn't too hot, unfortunately there was no reward of a view from the summit. This didn't deter us however, and we made steady progress up the reasonably steep climb, gaining the summit in 2 hours. On the way up we met a group of hunters who'd spent a wet night on the tops in their pursuit of deer, in which they were successful.

After a quick snack stop on the summit, we moved on, striking out along the Blowhard Track that leads along the tops. It was very cruisy travel along here, generally slightly downhill, and before too long we were at the turn off point to make our way down the Bypass Track, which heads down a bush spur back down to the Glentui River.
Uneventful travel saw us down in good time, entertained along the way by Toby and Ian's constant gamesmanship as they attempted to douse each other with water shaken off trees as the other went past. The discovery of an abandoned quad bike on the track caused some bemusement, not quite sure of the story behind that one!

A nice afternoon out - no photos from this one, partly because I wasn't planning to tramp, and also because the weather wasn't conducive to photography anyway.

Crown Copyright - Land Information NZ

Access: From Oxford, take the signposted road to Ashley Gorge and then continue on to Glentui. Turn left onto Glentui Bush Rd and follow to the large carpark and picnic area.

Time: Carpark to summit 2hrs, summit to Bypass Track junction 45mins, Bypass Track to carpark 1hr 15mins

Map: BW22 Oxford

Hut: None