#89 of 100 trips for 100 years - Nicols Creek - Powerline Track - Morrisons Burn 9 September 2023

 

While the trip today was over part of last weekend's route, the weather was a complete contrast - from last weekend's mist with no views to stunning blue skies and spectacular views galore!  Seven of us set off from the Nicols Creek car park with the first 1.5km being a road walk up Leith Valley Road to the Morrison Burn track, which we had come down on trip #15.  After passing through the gate, the Morrison Burn track follows a maintenance road for a short distance before turning off onto a track through the native bush.  The track winds it's way uphill, over tree roots and through the odd muddy section, under gnarly fushia trees, through ferns and beneath the giant fern leaves of the punga.  After about half an hour we emerged out of the bush onto the Powerline track, which as the name suggests, follows a row of powerlines to the top. The higher we climbed, the more the views opened out behind with the vegetation changing to the flax. 

Taking our time we continued uphill climbing 600m from the car park to the top of Swamp Summit where we stopped for a breather and take in the views.  Deciding that it was too early in the day to head back down, we took a detour over the top of Swampy Summit.  First we followed the gravel road to the Flight Radar or UFO as it is commonly referred to.  From here we could see into the Silver Peaks, up the coast to Karitane and inland to the Rock and Pillars. The panoramic views really are spectacular from here.

Next we took the detour through the tussock to the Swampy Lagoons which we had been to on  trip #9.  There is no track to the lagoons and the ground under foot was mostly sphagnum moss so was very wet . The trick was to try and judge which bits would sink and which would bear your weight - we each had our own method with varying degrees of success.  There are a number of small lagoons and a couple of larger ones and we arrived at the larger one with mostly dry feet.  The colours in the lagoons is breathtaking with the calm, black water of the lagoon perfectly reflecting the browns, greens, yellows and oranges of the surrounding tussock. 

We each found a dry spot for lunch and enjoyed the beauty of the place while munching on our sandwiches.  After lunch, we were faced with the problem of finding the track again so we made our way through the wet, springy moss, tussock and low scrub as best we could to the track which we followed down Swampy Summit to the Moon Track.  The top part of the Moon Track passes through the tussock, beside an old fence and onto the  mountain bike track which zig zag's down the hill, winding through the large rock tors before passing into the native bush .

At bush line, we diverted off the mountain bike track, onto the walking track which takes a much more direct route down the hill.  The walking track crosses the bike track regularly so care is needed to stick to the walking track.  Despite having seen a number of mountain bikers setting off early in the day, we saw or heard no one on either the walking or biking track. The Moon Track initially drops 300m to a lovely vantage point where we stopped for a short break to take in the stunning views of the city.

Then it was down another 200m back to the cars, passing Nicols Falls where we stopped in the cool of the gorge to catch our breath.  The final push saw us back at the car 6 hours and 16.2km's after starting and no wonder we were feeling a little tired, after having climbed/descended nearly 800m.