CPS Field Trips

Each month there is a field trip (usually on a Sunday) to somewhere reasonably close to Christchurch. These are well attended and are an opportunity to get to know members and learn more from each other in the field

Details will be included here, on the Noticeboard page and also in the weekly email to CPS members.

Waimakariri Wander Field Trip 7th November 2010

At one minute to eight, the eleven people who were gathered at Chaneys Corner clicked on their seatbelts, ready to follow Ulysses who came out of retirement to lead us on this fieldtrip. “Zoom! Skid-stop!” A twelfth person who shall be nameless, but whose alliterative initials look like upside-down ‘W’s, inserted his vehicle into the line just as we were about to move off to the northern motorway.

Billed as “Waimakariri Wander”, the trip turned into Ashley Amble instead. We farewelled the Waimakariri on the north side of the river and headed for Oxford, where we admired the rural-themed artwork in the People’s Relief Centres, their doors appropriately distinguished by a rooster for the Hims and a hen for the Hers.

From there, we drove to the narrow Lees Valley road which winds through the foothills above the Ashley River valley for twenty kilometres. Our first photo opportunity came where Clematis paniculata was flowering among beech trees at a convenient height for long-lens close-ups. Further along and higher up, a view of a U-shaped bend in the gorge afforded scope for landscapes.

After morning tea, which was partaken of in warm sunshine in a grassy clearing just before the Middle Ashley Bridge where the road crosses to the true left of the valley, we climbed through forest. The incongruous sight of two tree stumps which had acquired orange witches’ hats brought us to a halt. While some photographed those, macro enthusiasts exploring the steep roadside bank discovered a tiny plant with whipcord characteristics which has since been identified as a very young Helichrysum intermedium.

At last, rounding yet another bend, we saw spread below us the secret gem of Lees Valley tucked between the foothills and the Puketeraki Range. It was at its spring best, green and fresh, a rural scene at its most idyllic. Lambs gambolled in the warm sunshine or obtained sustenance from mobile milk baas. Cows and calves looked curiously as we passed by.

Lunch was at the Top Ashley Picnic Area, with the quiz following. The winners of the Single-pen Multiple-Brain section were Graham Stewart and Robin Wood, runners-up being Brenda Ayers and Fran Sumner. The Single-Pen Single-Brain section was won by Mike Molloy, with Lesley Tuffley the runner up. In the absence of the genuine article, facsimile chocolate fish were awarded. These were a variety of cut-out pen-and-paper art-works by our very own Ulysses himself, with legends such as, “A chocolate very long finned eel. Whilst not strictly a fush, it does swim”.

We pushed on to the ford through the Okuku River, which was judged too deep to cross for the one car in our convoy. The occupants returned by the way we had come while the four remaining vehicles continued along a road which became increasingly rough. Black-fronted terns at the Okuku River performed for the bird-photographers while other people made interesting landscapes using rear-vision mirrors. Eventually we wound our way out over Lees Pass, through hilly farmland then pine forests, to the relief of a sealed road not far from North Loburn.

It was a splendid day in an area not well known, and we thank Ulysses for deciding to make the change from the scheduled route after doing a reconnaissance of both. It was also good to have Robin Wood on a fieldtrip again after a long absence.

Those present were: Ulysses (a.k.a. Chris Newman), Brenda Ayers, Ray Bruning, Anita Kirkpatrick, Luda and Ivan McLellan, Alec Mills, Mike Molloy, Graeme Stewart, Fran Sumner, Lesley Tuffley and Robin Wood.

Ulysses-in-Drag.

Clematis paniculata by Lesley Tuffley

Well, we’ll stand out at the coven by Lesley Tuffley

Lees Valley by Lesley Tuffley

Helicrysum intermedium by Brenda Ayers

Morning tea with special friends by Brenda Ayers

Lees Valley by Brenda Ayers