Our Walk in the Blue Mountains
In late April my family and I walked on the Blue Mountains. We started in Whisky Gully and walked the tops, then down into Black Gully. First let me tell you about our family so you have some idea of who can walk this track. We are a family of five, there is Mum and Dad, my brothers Thomas12, Daniel 8 and myself (Alexandra age 13). We live in Wellington and had come to Tapanui to stay with our grand-parents (Click on the images for a larger picture)
Whisky Gully
We set off at 11.00 in the morning on a cloudy and not such a warm day just to walk to the waterfall. We followed the stream up through Whisky Gully, we found lots of beautiful native bush, heard lots of bell birds and had fantails following us along the track.
From the car park it took an hour to get to the waterfall. Just before we reached the waterfall we looked at the sign which told us that the waterfall was 15 minutes away. We prepared ourselves for another 15 minutes of walking and set off around the bend. Just as we rounded the corner, what did we see? The waterfall! - it wasn’t 15 minutes at all, it was just two minutes. We weren’t feeling tired so continued on our way across Whisky Creek.
From there it was a steep climb up to the ridge. Partway up the mountain the beech trees gave way to small shrubs, some with berries. A wide clay path now lay in front of us which we followed all the way up to the top of the mountain. At that point my family and I sat in the shelter of the grasses and ate our delicious lunch. At the top we could see all around us, in front we could see the patchwork fields of West Otago and behind us the eastern side of the Blue Mountains.
The Tops
Wow - what a view! Out to the east we could see the Clutha River but because there was a lot of cloud we couldn’t see the coast. Not only could we see lots of mountain ranges to the west but we walked past some tarns - so unexpected!. The turf on the tops was really strange - small cushion plants and grasses! We followed a line of poles with orange plastic on top which we could see from a distance.
There were a few rocky out crops that we stood on to see the view. My family and I really enjoyed walking over the spongy ground. I fell over but it didn’t hurt because it was so soft! When we looked back at where we had come from we were amazed at how far we had walked.
Black Gully
After the long walk along the open mountain tops we came to the top of Black Gully where the
vegetation changed again to trees and shrubs. We started down the track surrounded by native bush and bird song but as we walked down further the air became warmer the bushes and ferns disappeared and the trees changed to Black Beech. The ground was littered with small round leaves and all around us was the black bark of the beech trees. It was a relief reaching the trees because up on the tops we were starting to get cold.
We found we needed plenty of snacks to keep up our energy and extra layers of clothing in case we got cold. We were also pleased we took the cell phone because then we could contact our grandparents to tell them wewere doing the complete walk. We walked past an emergency exit which we could have used if anyone of
us was hurt or couldn’t walk any further. We were tired at the end but satisfied that we had completed such a big walk – it had taken us six hours. Remember, the signs don’t always tell you the correct walking time! It was lots of fun telling the rest of our family about our adventures.
