11/6/06: Hiking in the Port Hills Near Christchurch

Yesterday (Sunday) had been unseasonably warm and often sunny, in contrast to the rainy and cool weather that was expected today. Fortunately, up until dinner, the worst that the weather dished up today was dry and gray and 50-60 degrees, which left an opportunity for a hike.

Being from Minnesota, and this being my only free day in Christchurch, of course I headed for the hills and the ocean east of the city. Took a city bus out to where the houses petered out and the farmland and the Port Hills park reserves started, and hiked around the headland (maybe 4-5 miles?).

The Port Hills are a point of land that stretches east of Christchurch. There's ocean to the north and east, and Lyttleton Harbor to the south, with the Banks Peninsula on the other side of the harbor. The land is hilly, with houses hugging a narrow strip of the northern coastline where the land is relatively flat. With newer building methods and increasing population pressure, houses are spreading up into the valleys, often built on very steep slopes.

The bus took me to Sumner, a suburb of Christchurch on the north coast. I foolishly didn't ask what the best place to get off was, so I ended up going too far and backtracking to pick up the trail to Taylor's Mistake Beach. Not a bad thing, though, as I ended up walking and talking for a while with about six local folks in their 60s who were heading out for walk. They asked where I was from, and it turns out one of the women was from Iowa. She'd met a Kiwi who was studying in Iowa and ended up marrying him. These kind folks set me straight on the trail to take to Taylor's Mistake Beach. The beach was named after a captain named Taylor who thought he had rounded the point of land into Lyttleton Harbor. Unfortunately, he had not, and had instead simply entered a bay, and his ship soon ended up on the beach.

At first the trail passed by houses, but soon the terrain transitioned to tussock grasslands and rocky outcrops, and I started seeing sheep and hearing lambs. Saw a dolphin near Taylor's Mistake and a couple of amazing green birds that were flying together. For the most part there were no man-made sounds; just birds and the occasional baa of a lamb. Even planes going overhead were scarce. It was a splendid transition day to my vacation.

I hadn't decided how far to hike when I started. It was so peaceful at Taylor's Mistake beach that I decided to continue on to Godley's Head, which is the high point of land to the east. There were gun emplacements and radar here during World War II, which have been abandoned. From Godley's Head, I couldn't pass up taking the Crater Rim walk coming back along the south side of the hills (how can you pass up a walk with a name like Crater Rim?). That trail eventually linked up with the Captain Thomas walk to come back north along a lovely valley to Sumner. The trail hit the road, by happy circumstance, exactly where the bus stopped. The valley walk was lush, passing through trees and shrubs and lots of spring flowers.

Had a conversation with the bus driver while we waited for the time the bus was scheduled to depart. He was from Fiji, and had once had a significant position with the Fijian government. But there was a coup, and he lost everything, and he’s now driving a bus in New Zealand, hoping his family is still okay in Fiji, where there is another coup expected. Kind of puts things in perspective…

Tomorrow morning we start the tour, meeting in the lobby of a nearby hotel at the civilized hour of 10:00. The rain that had been scheduled for today is now due tomorrow. I ran into someone in the hotel elevator who was on another company’s tour. It was the last day of her tour, and she was very much looking forward to the trip being over. Hope that’s not how I feel!

Yesterday's and today's pictures are here.