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Mount Te Aroha

This summit has been on my to do list almost from the outset. But I have feared it – on the map it shows 900 m of straight up – not a friendly walk. Well I was at 99 unique summits and had a day to myself so thought I would knock the bastard off to quote another famous climber. 4 hours of uphill climb in total. There is a good lookout about 1 hour in across Te Aroha which is well worth a stop to take in the view and catch your breath.





Unfortunately the top was clouded in. No view from the summit. In fact I couldn’t even see the top of the tower. The photo I took for the banner was after I had descended – typical! The cloud lifts after I leave. I had arranged to hang around to catch a summit to summit with Geoff ZL3GA in Christchurch. I got up to the summit a little earlier than I thought I would (I underestimated myself) so had a wait while surfing around the bands catching contacts. The shack was in the shelter of the building (the garage area). Not comfortable but dry. I managed 8 contacts in total – 4 before and 4 after UTC day change. There is a decent noise floor at this summit which does make it a little difficult. Still – 6 points, unique number 100 plus a few summit to summit points made it all worthwhile. The walk back down was about 2.5 hours and I was very pleased to take the boots off after this one.





Details

Summit – ZL1/WK-035 Te Aroha

Height –953 m (Climb 900 m)

Access – Park on Wilson St Te Aroha – walk back towards the pools into the domain and the track is on your right (signposted). Follow the upper track around and eventually the summit track will peal of a sharp right and up. Go up for ages.

Coverage – Cell coverage good, 6625 and 5575 VHF repeater good.

Summit Marker – Trig

Land Access Permission – Not required – DoC Track