Come and join me for a pot-luck picnic lunch at one of my favourite places in the Wairarapa, the Mount Dick Lookout car park, and celebrate the first day of the new year.
On a clear day it seems you can see forever -Masterton to Lake Wairarapa (and if you are lucky, Palliser Bay).
This 'mountain' was named after Richard 'Dickey' Nicholas Sayers who was born in Wellington in 1844 and moved with his family to Wairarapa's Three Mille Bush (Carterton) around 1859. On Arcus Road in 1860 he built a slab house from trees he cleared and he made a subsistence living as a pig hunter in the Tararua Ranges. This slab house is one of a few remaining in NZ. His son built Sayer Hut at Totatra Flats in 1907 or 1909 on the banks of the Waiohine River. In about 1945-47, the hut was dismantled and rebuilt on the present site as it was thought a change of the river’s course was going to threaten the site.
Please bring:
- something to share for a picnic lunch and to toast the new year;
- something to sit on;
- camera/binoculars;
- a pen to sign the log for GC95M5R Dickey's Vista Reborn (Wairarapa) if you haven't already found it.
Getting There:
Drive west on Dalefield Road (ahead you will be able to see where you will be driving up to the Lookout). Before you turn right the road rises, I think this the Wairarapa Faultline and the result of the earth movement caused by the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake. This is followed by a left hand turn and soon tarseal ends. Drive past bike park and the Carterton Urban Water Supply Station. Soon you will turn left (the waypoint) and start climbing (about 5 kms). My Nifty Swifty is more than capable of being driven on this road to the lookout and has done so several times.
Weather:
I will make an announcement via the webpage at 10 am if the picnic is going ahead or not. If it isn't I will let you know where we are meeting (indoors).
As one 'Attends' an event rather than 'Finds' an event, there will be no FTFs on offer.