We had planned to do the full circuit around Mt Somers in a day, knowing full well it was going to be 26km and take us anywhere between 10 and 12 hours. Well we got half of it done, and it was more a case of the weather beating us down than our inability to complete the task.
The Dingle Burn Valley stretches from the upper Ahuriri in the east all the way down to Lake Hawea in the west, with access to the Ahuriri via Birchwood Road just out of Omarama.
An early December 2021 tramping club trip was rescheduled due to weather, it went from plan A to plan D in the space of about a week, I wasn't too worried as I was eager to get out and it didn't really bother me where we were going.
Kakahu Bush is 15 kilometres from Geraldine, on the way to Fairlie. It's somewhere I have heard of but never been to before, and was glad to have the opportunity to check it out.
The initial part of this track follows a marked walking/mountain biking track that takes you to Lake Emma, but to get to Mt Harper you divert off this track and aim for the clearest spur going up. There is no marked path and the initial climb is significantly steep, but the views are worth the effort.
