“Two parties set off for Whare Flat - one of which made the journey successfully, but the other was stopped and warned off by Ben Rudd, the old hermit whose property was long afterwards purchased by the Club. Scott Gilkison was one of those cut-off and still remembers the feelings of alarm as they encountered the stocky, bearded little man with the shot-gun. As a result of this, the Club arranged with Ben Rudd that he would cut a track through the manuka scrub, thus providing a route to Whare Flat while keeping members well away from Ben's property. For this he was paid the princely sum of £5, and the track was under very heavy use for the next 11 years until it was blocked by extensive scrub fires in 1935.” - recollection of an OTC trip on September 23,1923
The 23rd of September is significant in OTC/OTMC history for two reasons - one being it is one month exactly since the formation of the club, the second being it is the day early members first encountered Ben Rudd, colloquially known as the Flagstaff Hermit. This started a long relationship between the club and Ben Rudd until his passing in 1930. The land he owned on Flagstaff became available for purchase in 1946, and was bought by the OTC, and is still owned and managed by the club to this day.
One hundred years to the day since the standoff with Ben Rudd, 16 of us gathered at Woodhaugh Gardens to commemorate the occasion. A number of recent trips have departed from Booth Road at the bottom of the Pineapple Track, so to make this trip different we opted to walk from Woodhaugh. The first section follows the Water of Leith - a usually slow-moving, idyllic river, however with the recent rainfall it was running a bit higher than normal. Crossing the bridge at Malvern Street, we entered the Ross Creek Reserve where there were a few ups and downs as we continued to wind our way alongside the Water of Leith. It wasn’t long before we turned a corner and were faced with a stone wall rising above us, with large metal stars dotted around which signalled we were (nearly) at the reservoir. The only obstacle that stood between us was a steep hill, so we gritted our teeth and got on with it. Thankfully this section was short and sweet and in what seemed like no time at all we were leaning against the fence surrounding the reservoir catching our breath.
The tracks from here are a bit of a maze, with a junction every 100m or so. It is the type of place where if you don’t know where you were going you could easily become lost. We studied the map meticulously at each intersection to ensure we were on track - how embarrassing would it be for the OTMC to become lost on a well-marked and signposted track so close to the city! Thankfully some of our party were very familiar with the area and were able to navigate us safely to Booth Road.
We raced up the now familiar gravel road to the water treatment station, by this point the weather was changing and a fine layer of mist descended upon us. Most of us opted to tough it out without raincoats at this point as we were headed into the thick bush of the Ross Bush Track, where the towering trees would offer protection from the elements. Despite the dampness in the air, we soon warmed up as the track climbs steeply through the lush forest. The Ross Bush Track is also known as the old Pineapple Track, and was used as the main route up Flagstaff until the installation of the current Pineapple Track. Having been up the Pineapple Track many times in recent months, it is always nice to use an alternative route to climb Flagstaff. We indulged ourselves in a couple of stops to catch our breath and admire just how green and lush the bush around us was, reminding us just how lucky we are to have places like this so close to the city centre.
It wasn’t long before the bush started to thin out and it was lighter which could only mean one thing, we had made it to Pineapple Point. Emerging from the sheltered bush, we were shocked at how much the weather had deteriorated in such a short amount of time. The fine layer of mist had turned into a persistent drizzle obscuring the view from the lookout, and the cold wind straight from Antarctica had picked up leaving us scrambling to don our jackets, hats and gloves.
With the cold wind biting into us, we didn’t hang around long at Pineapple Point before continuing up the hill. We were pleased to be heading uphill as we soon began to warm up again, and enjoyed chatting to those around us while we walked. In what seemed like no time at all we had made it to the junction at the top of the hill - from here we could either head towards the summit of Flagstaff or towards the track that links up with Swampy Summit, both of which would take us to our destination of Ben Rudd’s. After consultation with the leader, we opted for the latter option. The standard of this track was a change from the well-maintained Pineapple Track - it was muddy and slippery in places, meaning you had to concentrate in order to stay upright.
We continued our speedy pace from earlier, arriving at the skid site in record time. The original plan had been to have our lunch at the skid site, however with the inclement weather we opted for the drier option of dining in the Ben Rudd’s shelter which is another 15 minutes down the track. We wasted no time in getting down there as our tummies were starting to grumble, having missed morning tea in our attempts to stay warm.
As this was a celebration of the first encounter with Ben Rudd, this was a special occasion! We were treated to some live music during lunch, thanks to Ricky Kim. Some early OTC trips had a piper accompany them over Flagstaff and whilst we do not have any pipers in the current club, we do have a keen flute player in Ricky and he delighted his audience with two musicals. Once replenished with food and Ricky’s musical performance was over we packed up and headed back up the track to the skid site before heading to the Cross Track which joins back up with the Pineapple Track. As the weather continued to be wet, we wasted no time in heading down the hill, past Pineapple Point where we saw a couple of people up at the seat not that they would have seen much with mist starting to swirl around below them.
The lower we went, the faster our pace picked up and we reached the Booth Road warm and in good spirits. We crossed the road and dove into the shelter of the Ross Creek Bush, taking a different track to one that we had come up but that isn’t surprising since there are so many tracks criss-crossing their way through the bush. Eventually we reached the dam and rested for a few minutes for everyone to catch up before continuing down the hill, past the stars and along the side of the river back to Woodhaugh and the cars.
By Jade Pettinger
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