This one has been on the to-do list for a couple of years.
Dave ZL3DRN grew up on Mt Fyffe Station and has been keen to activate it. Finally the weather and time-off aligned and we planned it for the first week of 2023. Wednesday looked like the best day albeit with cloud and wind forecast for the afternoon. We decided on an early (6am) start to beat the heat and ensure we could activate and get down before the forecast weather arrived.
I picked Dave up at 5.30am and we were on the track at 6.05am. It's a bit of a beast - you climb 1411m of the 1602m height over a distance of 8.5km. It's a relentless climb up a 4WD track with little shelter or shade.
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| Biggest Spaniard flower I have ever seen! |
We reached the hut at 8am, had a brief refuel and carried on to the top. DOC signage suggests 1 1/2 hours from the hut to the summit. This is the steepest section and the track becomes a narrow walking track. After a few micro-breaks we reached the summit. The views were spectacular and made it all worthwhile.
We set up well away from the trig. This is a popular summit and we wanted to stay out of the way of other users. 
Not long after we arrived, a helicopter set down it's passengers in the saddle between us and the next summit, Gable. The first of many visitors to "our" mountain!
One of the aims of this trip was to work VHF/UHF into Wellington and Christchurch so I had packed my dual band (Ed Fong design) J-pole. Spots sent and calling CQ but no one could hear me... There must be something wrong, we could see Banks Peninsula! I changed to my usual Signal Stick 1/4 wave whip with counterpoise and bingo, worked a number of CHC stations on 2m. Switching to 70cm, signals were even better so we tried Fusion (C4FM) and this too was successful. No Wellington stations worked despite an "advertising call" via the Belmont repeater.
I then went and worked HF; Australia, USA, Japan and New Zealand SOTA and WWFF Chasers aplenty.
A last round of calls on 2m to see if we could get to Wellington and I am answered by Mark ZL3AB from his deck in Hanmer Springs! Massive surprise but after a couple of repeats, we managed a solid contact. Must have been some knife-edge refraction off a ridge somewhere or maybe sporadic E. Amazing.
By this stage there was a steady stream of visitors arriving at the summit so we had lunch and packed up the HF gear to declutter the view for them. Of course they all decided to leave then!
We headed down, stopping at the hut to replenish our water bottles. Temperatures around 31 C seen on our Garmin sensors at various places along the track... It's just as relentless going down, especially on dodgy knees. 2 1/2 hours later we were pleased to arrive back at the car. Home for a well deserved shower and out to (early) dinner with Francie and Julie at Donegal House.
I was asleep on the couch by 8pm, a big day!
Permission: Not required, Ka Whata Tu o Rakihouia Conservation Park ZLFF-0082/POTA ZL-0141
Trig: Yes
Time: 3 1/4 hours ascent (8.5km/1411m vert), 2 1/2 hour descent.
Repeaters: All Canterbury and Belmont (WLG)
