Sunday 15 June 2025

Leader: Viv Roberts

I had no definitive plans and was still based in Feilding, so I decided to do the Coppermine Loop Track for a nice Sunday afternoon jaunt.

Slippages and track changes which are not shown on the map made for an interesting walk. For example, the map shows the track climbing up the hill after a ten-minute walk from the carpark through the stream. However, this is no longer the case. It now leads directly from the car park, past the picnic area, across the creek and up the hill across some farmland for the first couple of 100 metres…. I didn't know this fun fact, and so I headed up the river hoping to find the right track. I never did find the point where I was supposed to head up the ridge and so I ended up continuing up the track until I got near the site of the old hut. Sadly, I didn't manage to see it; I think the track nearby had been washed away. I had also hoped to see the mine workings which is shown on the map to be another 15 or 20 minutes further on. I wondered about pushing on upstream, but the sun hadn’t yet made it into the valley, and it was cold. My feet were sodden and frozen and I didn’t feel like pushing it on my own…. So, I headed up the hill.

I got to the top of the track where it meets the way down again. A touch over 1 hr 20 minutes from the carpark to the top of the hill by that route not counting rests. I had a fantastic view of the Wairarapa on the way down.

Just over 1 hour back to the carpark, the track is on farmland from about the 580 m line back to the carpark – which is about the last 20 minutes or so. A total of about 3 hours counting rests. I’m sure the river would be more fun in summer! 😊

Those on the trip were:

Viv Roberts

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.