This day trip is mainly a road walk with the addition of the Cloud Forest of Leith Track and is part of the #100 trips as we follow in the footsteps of members of the OTC 100 years ago who would have walked similar distances before they got to the start of the trip. Like trip #22 we weren't sure how many would be keen for a road walking trip so were pleasantly surprised when 11 people gathered at Woodhaugh Gardens.
Starting at only 20m above sea level we walked along the side of The Leith through Woodhaugh Gardens then along Malvern Street for a couple of kilometres before turning off onto Patmos Avenue. It is here that the real work began as we started on the 560m climb towards Mt Cargill/
Kapukataumahaka. Patmos Avenue winds it's way up the hill, passing from houses into farm land. We managed to catch glimpses of Bishopsgrove which is a large historic home built in the 1880's for Dunedin's first bishop as we continued up the hill. We only had a brief rest to admire the view of the city as we crossed the bridge over Dunedin's Northern Motorway. After crossing the motorway there is a steep section of road before joining Pine Hill Road which marked the halfway point of the height we needed to climb. Luckily we didn't realise it at the time or maybe some of us would have turned around here but with the top of the hill beckoning we continued onwards and upwards. Cowan Road was reached and this road is one of those roads that just keeps on giving with 250m of height gained over 2.5km on a straight road. It was deceiving as we thought we had reached the top but there was always another small rise to climb, eventually though at 560m we reached the turn off to the Three Peaks Track where we thankfully stopped for a drink and snack break. We had been down the Three Peaks and Cloud Forest tracks in February for trip #30 when the temperatures were over 30C, today it was much cooler with around 10C so the green tunnel of interlocking branches was not quite so welcoming as previously. The track was slippery in places and required some concentration to stay upright but not to be deterred we plunged on down the track, coming out on a four wheel drive track that sidled around the hill to the power lines and a fantastic view overlooking Waitati, Warrington and down the coast to Karitane and inland to the Silver Peaks. The next part of our trip took us down the Cloud Forest of Leith track which is a rough track through the forest, climbing over fallen logs, stepping around tree roots, forging through mud puddles and pushing through ferns. This track has everything a forest in the clouds has to offer while winding it's way through the native forest, crossing a number of small streams with board walks covering some of the muddier sections. After a half hour of this fun, we emerged at Sullivans Dam covered in varying amounts of mud for a well deserved lunch break on the shore of the picturesque dam. The final six or so kilometres is back to road walking with about half of that on a gravel road. The gravel road section follows the Leith down through a gorge with steeply forested sides allowing very little sunlight to reach the bottom during the shorter winter days while the sealed section is flatter with houses along the river bank. As it is all downhill, a good pace was set and with very little traffic we could walk and talk with others in the group. Eventually we had retraced our footsteps and arrived back at Woodhaugh where we had started about 5 hours and 18.6km of mainly road walking with around 680m of ascent.
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