Mt Campbell - Kahurangi National Park

Saturday 26 August 2023

The trip was brought forward to the Saturday as the weather forecast was not the best for the Sunday. As a result, some could not make it, but those that did come experienced near perfect conditions to be on the exposed top.

We started from the Badminton Hall in Richmond at 8am and went on to Joy’s place as it was planned to take her 4WD. The road up to the start was rough and half-way up a new sign stating that TDC was not maintaining the road past that point, made our decision to take the 4WD and my 2WD Hilux a good one.

With the road to follow to the top it meant that we could walk without staying in one group. Younger members soon got ahead while the more mature ones enjoyed an easier pace. Morning tea was at the second gate about two-thirds of the way up, for the back group.

All made it to the top in a light breeze with wall to wall sunshine at 11:45am. We had lunch on the north side of the building in the sun and sheltered from the cool breeze.

Joy suggested going onto Little Mt Campbell and we decided to give it a go, but it looked longer than Joy’s estimate of ½ to ¾ hour. With a turn round time of 12:45pm we were getting close so we carried on to the top of Little Mt Campbell reaching it about ¾ hour from leaving Mt Campbell.

The return started from Little Mt Campbell at 1:15pm and we got back to the cars at 4pm. The add-on gave us a welcome change from the road walk and was well-worth it.  

The group included Joy, Sue, Tessa, Penny, Roger, Maria and Rob (scribe)