Mount Whatno, Black Rock

Sunday, 23 Aug 2020

I arrived at the Cranford St meeting place on a drizzly morning, fully expecting to be the only one there, but Bill, Steve and Karen were there, keen to go. Their appraisal of the weather forecast turned out to be correct, because we got the best of the plains and the high-country forecasts. We didn’t get coastal drizzle and we didn’t get high country strong nor-westers. At the end of the Virgina Road, we parked at the Whitnow shearers’ quarters, signed an indemnity sheet and walked about 5km on good farm tracks to a likely spur up 1396m Mt Whatno.

We ate lunch at 1pm in sunshine on this tussocky hill. Kerry lazed while the three went on to 1714m Black Rock. They had a 100m drop between the two peaks so had a 400m climb and timed it well to get there just ahead of cloud rolling in to obscure the peaks.

We had gone up a north-south spur from the head of Whistling Creek so headed north-east down a nice spur to get on a farm track at the head of the Hut Branch of the Seaward River, then down to familiar ground beside the Waitohi River. We reached Bill’s car at 5:30pm so drove home in darkness after a full day.

We were: Steve & Karen Ferris, Bill Templeton and Kerry Moore (leader). (KM)

Waitohi Valley. Gola Peaks top right. Photo courtesy of Kerry Moore.

Lunch on Mt Whatno, looking towards Black Rock. Photo courtesy of Kerry Moore