Toilet upright and deck positioned. Thanks again to Bill Day for flying us around for free.

All systems go!

Last Thursday Bill Day flew a small team of us around to complete final jobs on the Turks. This included installing the deck and toilet at Mt Hyde, dropping off deck chairs at Polnoon, Hyde, Saint Just and Vanguard and also completing water tank installation at Polnoon Saddle.

I’m pleased to announce everything is go and fully usable so get your boots on, make a booking, grab some food and get out and enjoy yourself.

I have updated the website with photo albums, route descriptions and location maps so please check out the following links to get inspired.

Helicopters and my family are a bit over represented in the photos. This is a product of the installation process and that most of the photos are mine. To balance things up please send me some of your own photos!  Comments are enabled on these pages so it is a good place to ask/answer site-specific questions.

I will be doing more work on the website over the next few weeks including details of what a Turk contains (so you know how to keep your pack light), revised club overview and membership descriptions.

Doing some final touches on a yet to be used toilet. When we flew home we noticed a person missing from the helicopter – if you hear voices when using the Mt Hyde toilet we will know the answer to this mystery.

Membership

There are about 20 people who helped with Turk construction who didn’t make it to the 10 hours required for membership. We are happy for these people to use the Turks on the expectation they will make up the extra time in the future. Make a booking and check it all out. We currently check membership after a booking is made so will let these through.

We are still accepting membership so this could solve some of your last minute Christmas present problems!

Wilding Pines

On the 6th of December a group of 8 headed to Deep Creek to make a start on the wilding pines in the area. We discovered a chainsaw was the best tool since most of the trees had trunks in the 15-25cm range. All the trees appear to be around 7-10 years old and not seeding. There are few new/infant trees so it is worth removing them while they are juveniles.

We got about 1/3 through the trees in the photos below. Since that weekend Rob Ward and friends have returned to do more work and I expect trees shown in the photo below will be gone by Christmas.

It is really pleasing that as well as opening recreation opportunities, the club is also having a positive conservation benefit. Doing conservation work such as this is a path to membership and you don’t need to pay to stay in the Turk while working.

I plan to have a helicopter-supported wilding pine weekend sometime in early 2021 to tackle the more distant areas on Vanguard Peak.

Looking down to Deep Creek Turk from the lower slopes of Coronet Peak. This is the left/west branch of route 2 listed here

I’m off to walk the traverse with my family starting at Treble Cone over the next 5 days. In this modern age being away from electronic devices is a real treat. I know many parents struggle to get their kids off the devices and I find no better way than to be in a place where that is not possible!

Walking in the mountains and playing cards as a family in a wild and remote Turk is as good as it gets!

Cheers
Erik Bradshaw – ph 027 241 8571
20 December 2020