With snow on the hills and ice on the streets, it was a no surprise that only a handful of people were brave (or mad) enough to attempt today's trip. Starting at Sunnyvale we slipped and slid our way along Main Road and then Flower Street before starting our climb up the hill. Once we reached the end of Flower Street, we left the houses behind and crossed a stile to wander through the farmers paddock while sticking to the paper road. It was during this part of the journey that we started to encounter snow on the ground but the workout of walking uphill kept us warm.
Once across the paddocks we were onto Chain Hills Road where we really got to experience the snow with a blizzard of fat, fluffy snow flakes coming out of the sky. It was about this time that we took the opportunity to duck under some low branches of a couple of large trees to shelter from the blizzard and enjoy a snack break. After the worst of the blizzard had passed,we emerged from our sheltered oasis to a winter wonderland covered in a white blanket.
We followed Chain Hills Road to the end, then crossed another stile to continue along the Chain Hills Track following what, at first, appeared the obvious route but a layer of snow had covered the track making route finding a little difficult until a marker pole was spied and we were on our way again. The views really started to open out behind us along this stretch of track with Mosgiel on our left, Green Island/Abbotsford on our right and
Saddle Hill/Makamaka directly behind us.
From the Chain Hills Track we emerged onto Friends Hill Road which is another paper road and goes all the way to the top, climbing to 400m and Halfway Bush Road. The gradient up the track is steady and we took our time, stopping often to admire the snow covered views behind us. The snow became thicker with each step higher and the odd small snow flurry added to the experience but the climb uphill kept us warm.
We reached a patch of pine trees that had created a sheltered spot on the track and paused for a lunch break out of the snow. Lunch was a reasonably hurried affair as we cooled down quickly now that we had stopped walking and the sky looked to be getting darker with another blizzard threatening. Back on the upward journey and we soon warmed again with the top of the hill beckoning us on.
There was a cold wind at the top of the hill so again, we didn't linger long and after congratulating ourselves for getting this far and knowing it was all downhill from here, we followed the Brinsdon Road track that connects up with Dalziel Road. It was here we got hit by the full force of the blizzard as we were buffeted by head winds and horizontal snow before reaching the shelter of a line of huge trees where we were able to stop to catch our breath and shake most of the snow off.
From the tree tunnel the road drops steeply down to the next paper road, Abbots Hill track but first we had to dodge a surprisingly large amount of traffic that were on a joy ride to see how deep the snow on the hill suburbs was. The limited visibility from the blizzard and dodging the joy riders made this the most dangerous section of the walk but by listening out for the traffic and keeping to the edge of the road, we made it safely to Abbots Hill track.
The Abbots Hill track proved to be the worst section of the day as the lower we dropped, the snow turned to rain and with the track being muddy and overgrown we put our heads down and continued downhill as fast as we could manage while staying upright. It was during this descent that I began thinking about the different parts of the days walk - from icy streets, into snow covered paddocks, onto snowy roads and tracks before the wind and falling snow arrived and now the rain. It had been a day of many parts and through it all I had remained warm and dry with my layers of clothing and only now were my feet starting to get wet as all the days moisture had started to soak through. After dropping 100m down the Abbots Hill track we were on the sealed part of the road and it was an easy walk down to North Taieri Road and back to Sunnyvale just as the rain really started to pelt down. In total we walked 17 km over 5 hours with 450m height gain.
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