Valentines Day 14.02.23. Along Waimate Hunter Rd, then Upper Hook Rd, I drove 13 km NW from Waimate to Mt Studholme Rd, a dirt road going steeply up a Hunter Hills ridge to Mt Studholme summit, 1085m. A red skull & crossbones, pesticide threat sign by the roadside farm gate:
WARNING POISON
Potassium cyanide
DO NOT touch bait
WATCH CHILDREN at all times...
DEADLY TO DOGS...
NZ farmers & foresters were a poisonous lot, happily poisoning or hunting verminous animal & plant species. Never mind copious amounts of Roundup sprayed on gardens & road verges!
The left upside of Mt Studholme Rd (forestry area?) was like a war zone, dead vegetation completely grey-sprayed to hell for 2 km farmside of the foothills road, till I parked my car by a farm / forestry(?) fence at the DOC bush area. A DOC sign:
Mt Studholme Conservation Area
Road suitable for 4WD vehicles only
In a roadside ditch near the DOC sign lay 2 animal skeletons, so hunters had been busy in the hills.
I trekked up the rocky, zigzag road for an hour odd through native bush, passing roadside native plants like Pseudopanax 5 fingers, Tutus, Hebes, Coprosmas, Pittosporums... Roadside, there were exotic plants too, like gorse, thistles, broom, foxgloves, wooly mulleins... DOC didn't spray the roadside exotics. The higher I trekked up Mt Studholme Rd the better the view: bushy ravines both sides of the road; low clouds, green farmlands & Pacific eastwards; Gunns Bush & Waimate southwards; Hook Bush & Mt Cecil northwards; low clouds scudding over Mt Studholme summit westwards, last gasp of Cyclone Gabrielle which had devastated the N Island, causing widespread slips & flooding.
Above the bushline, for another hour odd, I trekked up the rocky road through tussockland, mostly tussocks interspersed with spear grass, Dracophyllum & stunted flax. Notable were Celmisia white daisies by roadside rocky cuttings. I had missed NZ Alpine plants in their natural state over the last couple of years, due to Covid-19 restrictions, my Cochlear Implant op at St Georges Hospital, Christchurch & hearing rehab (2021) & my catching Covid flu (2022). My fitness training walks around Pleasant Point gone to waste!
Midday. Mt Studholme summit views: N & S over Hunter Hills; SW Waimate; E farmlands & Pacific; W Pentland Hills & Campbell Hills, gouged by Waihao River below. I didn't continue along the summit road or explore cycle tracks, as last gasp, Cyclone Gabrielle was threatening lowering clouds. The summit mast & two locked electrics cabins were already rattling in the wind so it was time to get off the mountain, soon covered in mist & sporadic rain showers. On a locked door a final threat sign:
CHORUS
Operational Area
This is a Multiple Hazard Area
Wear Test Specific PPE!
Beware Trip Hazards!
Beware Exposed Live Metal Low Voltage DC!
Heed Posted Warning Signs!
From the DOC sign 2 km up Mt Studholme Rd, my walk stats:
Time 4.5h return (2.5h up, 2h down).
Return Distance 11km.
Height climbed 700 vertical metres.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont
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