Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Fringed Hill

Today was Christmas day, and the weather finally cleared up at lunchtime, so we headed out riding. Our plan was to ride up the Dun Mountain walkway to Third House and hopefully get some views of Dun Mountain. A last minute decision by Helen had us take a slightly different route up and over Fringed Hill (only 750m of climbing!). The views from the top of Fringed Hill were pretty spectacular looking down over Nelson and as far as Abel Tasman National park in the distance.

View of Nelson

There was a track that connected up with the Dun Mountain Track. What we didn’t realize was that the track down from the top was rated ‘difficult’! We started down the track, which was damp, rocky, root-infested and covered in beech tree leaves. This proved to be rather tricky to negotiate on the bicycles. After a few tens of metres the track rose very steeply – it was difficult to push the bikes up! Once we reached the top of the hill the track dropped rather steeply. I dropped my saddle and headed downward; thankful for the new back tire with lots of grip. Helen and Sarah did a lot of hiking!


Intersection on the Fringed Hill track

Eventually the track met back up with the Dun Mountain Walkway at Third House. From here we were all pretty wet and tired and decided to head back home. The ride down the walkway was a gentle gradient through a beautiful beech forest. Unfortunately a navigation error at an intersection had us miss the rest of the walkway and ride down a 4wd road.

Not the most traditional way to spend your Christmas Day and we finished with a meal of burritos!

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