Today's trip to Saddle Hill/Makamaka was special for a number of reasons. One being that it is a prominent landmark seen from many parts of Dunedin, another that it is privately owned land with permission needed and finally, that there have been over 60 club trips to Saddle Hill in the past 100 years. Being another beautiful, sunny Dunedin day meant that 23 people gathered at the club rooms with high hopes of spectacular views from Saddle Hill/Makamaka. After the short drive to Saddle Hill/Makamaka we met up with the land owner whose grandfather had lead a club day trip to the area nearly 30 years ago and he was to be our ‘guide’ for the walk. In order to make it more of a 'round' trip, we walked back down Saddle Hill Road for a short distance and turned off to walk through a farm paddock where a bag of mushrooms and a few four leaf clovers were collected before the real business of climbing up the hill began.
After crossing the
paddock, we went through a gate into the cool of a native bush
reserve. From the gate the track zig zagged up the hill under the
shade of the mature fushia trees to the chorus of native birds. The
gradient wasn’t overly steep making it easy to chat while walking.Once at the top of
the reserve, we went through another gate into a farm paddock where
we were rewarded where the views really opened out from Black Head
Beach down to the Catlins.
We spent some time here drinking in the
fantastic views and were hesitant to leave this wonderful spot but
the top was calling. The track lead us around the base of the top of
the hill where we had more spectacular views, this time looking
towards the city and Mosgiel from an angle not often seen. The
streets of Fairfield and Green Island with the dividing motorway were
laid out in front of us.
The final push saw
us clamber over a rocky section to reach the trig at the top of
Saddle Hill/Makamaka. This was the perfect place to sit for a snack
and admire the views over the Taieri Plains that were stretched
endlessly in front of us. We could see the hills that we had climbed
last weekend –
trip #35 Mt Charles and
trip #36 Mt Watkin and also where we were
headed on tomorrow’s day trip into the Silver Peaks for 7 summits.
After the compulsory
team photo at the top, we were reluctant to leave such a magical place
but time was getting on and we started the final downhill section
which took us along an old farm track that zig zaged down to the
landowners house and back to the cars. Despite being a shorter day
of 4.5 km it was a memorable trip with lots of stopping time for amazing views in all directions.
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