The Morda Brook

Having a family bach in St Arnaud is a real privilege. Being based so close to the mountains tempts you to dream ever bigger dreams. Consequently, despite having kayaked to the head of Lake Rotoiti many times to access a variety of adventures up the Travers valley I had never circumnavigated the lake from door to door. The closest I came was sometime in the memory fog of primary school when I walked from the track start on Robert Road through to Kerr Bay. Close? Sure, but not the full circumnavigation and barely remembered at that. It was time to rectify the situation and simultaneously undertake J's first overnight tramp. We begin by heading past Rotoiti Lodge around 9am, quickly down into West Bay and start the trudge up the road. It is not so far but the day is making its intention to roast evident. Around a dozen cars pass by at a range of speeds before we reach the track and escape into the scrub. Back down at lake level the view is clear to the point of unreality. Just below ...

In between lunch and an appointment we decide there is time to sneak in a few volcano ticks or 'bukits' as we have come to know them after our time in Malaysia in January. The day is humid to the point that raindrops indifferently fall in ones and twos without discernible pattern. We initially miss our turn and end up at Polaris Place, where a highly visible worker imitates a dragon and the industry whirs around. This is the former site of Styaks swamp crater though no trace remains and we are not even sufficiently excited to leave the car. We drive on to Hampton Park and walk up an uninviting drive following council signage. The council park skirts awkwardly around a private house and their animals roam the public land. Horses and sheep flee into the long grass. We appear to have ably shed the industrial landscape besides a persistent hum. Standing atop the tuff ring we look down at trees of the height and variety that suggest a settlement long defunct. This suggestion is conf...