Banks Peninsula Track Day 2

Day 2

Sarah and Fiona are up before it gets light and make their early preparations by candle light. They are in a hurry to be off as Sarah has a 6 hour drive back to Dunedin when they have finished walking. Again I am slower off the mark, but leave in plenty of time to be sure to get back to Akarowa in time to catch the bus at 5.30pm back to the farm. As I leave, there is no sign yet of the revellers in the other hut. The sun has not yet risen high enough to light up the valley, but is shining on the sea in the bay. A collection of geese are taking an early morning swim in a pool at the back of the beach.

Sunrise at Stony Bay

Geese

The track continues along the coast, with stunning views of the high cliffs. In one place where there is a stack on the opposite side of a bay, a board explains that until 2 ½ years ago there was an arch here, which was collapsed by an earthquake.

Stack

Further along the path another information board explains that this deserted headland was once the site of a Maori fortified village, or pa, which was overrun and destroyed by another Maori tribe. 'Behold the summer grass; all that remains of the dreams of warriors.'

Maori Pa Site

After a couple of hours I descend into a valley with a sandy beach, behind which the 4th hut of the walk is located. It is another lovely old homestead and as I go in through the front door on the hall wall there is an old photograph of the house and the people who lived here.

Otanerito Valley

Otanerito Beach

Otanerito Beach House

Old Photo of Otanerito House

As I am sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea, the owner, Doug, comes in to start changing the beds ready for tonight’s residents. I tell him there is a birthday party on the way that drank the previous hut out of pinot. He is hoping to be able to off-load the remains of a case of sparkling wine that he is stuck with because it has gone out of fashion. He is an English ex-pat who came to New Zealand over 20 years ago and worked as a volunteer to set up the track. He married a Kiwi girl and eventually bought this house when it came up for sale. When the track closes for the winter at the end of the month he and his wife will spend 5 months visiting England to see his 95 year-old father and to travel in Europe.
From the beach house the track turns inland and climbs steadily through the valley of native bush and into a forest of red beech trees, before emerging onto an open saddle between rocky volcanic outcrops known as Purple Peak. Here there are views in both directions – back down to Otanerito Bay behind me and in front of me steeply down to Akarowa where the walk finishes.

Red Beech Forest

Looking back to Otanerito Bay

Looking down to Akaroa

Purple Peak

I get back to Akarowa with a couple of hours to kill before the bus leaves for the farm. I stop in a café and read my book on the veranda while enjoying a cup of tea and a piece of carrot cake. Then as I am walking through the little town to kill time by sitting by the water, I bump into Jeff coming out of a shop. He offers me a welcome lift back to the farm and so by the time the bus arrives with the next batch of walkers I am already showered and have my clothes in the washing machine and dinner cooking.

I have really enjoyed this walk. I can feel that it is locally owned and run and it has a human element created by walking across farmland where people live and work and between the huts, each with their different characteristics. An example of this is the helpful hand-made track signs along the way, which made me smile. I felt as if the track was looking after me, like a parent looking after a child, making sure I don’t get lost or fall off something high.

Some Helpful Track Signs

Banks Peninsula Track Day 1

The beautiful Banks Peninsula lies to the south east of Christchurch. I spent a couple of days here after returning from Melbourne and now that Debbie has gone back to Hong Kong I return here for a few more days, to soak up the scenery and quiet atmosphere once more and this time to do some hiking . The geography here is very different from anything else I have seen in New Zealand. The peninsular is formed by ancient volcanic activity. Akaroa volcano began erupting 9 million years ago, forming a large cone, with lava flows radiating outwards. At its maximum the volcanic mountain may well have reached 2000m; more than twice its present day height. Aerial photographs clearly illustrate that Akaroa Harbour is the original flooded crater, surrounded by a rim of hills, with radiating lava flows and eroded gullies in between.

Aerial Photograph of The Banks Peninsula (photo of an internet photo)

I drive out to Onuku Farm at the end of the road beyond the little French town of Akarowa. Here on this working farm there is a cosy, friendly little hostel and a field for camper vans that has the most fantastic view of the harbour and hills beyond. The farm is owned by an old Kiwi called Jeff, whose family have been here for 150 years and the hostel is managed by Gemma, from Saltash, who is in the process of applying for her New Zealand residency. In the evenings it gets dark early and it’s cold, so an added bonus is being able to go and sit by the log fire in the hostel lounge. Staying in the hostel there is a Canadian ex-pat, who is doing some building work in Akarowa, building a big house for a rich Englishman; a Polish girl who currently lives in Ireland and a Finnish girl. The Canadian guy and Finnish girl talk about winter sports and the Polish girl and I get some tips from him, as we are both going to Canada later on. In the camping field several other camper vans come and go. Some people stay only one night, but others stay longer. There is a German boy, who pairs up with the Polish girl in the hostel; a very nice Dutch couple who have two young children who are almost exactly the same age as my grandchildren; a French guy with a German girl, currently living in Bangkok, who have a 6 month-old baby. I admire the families travelling with young children, but they are all experienced travellers and they all look so relaxed. Everyone shares the open-fronted kitchen facilities and we chat while preparing food and eating. I often sit at the picnic table next to Josephine and Jeff comes by on his quad bike with his little black dogs and talks to me about the farm, his two marriages and offers me advice and tips for my trip to Fiji. One afternoon I am sitting here writing my blog and I feel the table shake momentarily. I look down, thinking that perhaps one of the dogs has arrived and knocked the table, but there is nothing there. I wonder if that was my first earthquake? Later on I learn that Christchurch has had a 5.3 quake.

Onuku Farm

Onuku Farm Van Park

Onuku Farm Hostel Lounge

The Banks Peninsula Track starts from here. This is a different walk from the others I have done, in that it is privately run by the local landowners; crossing farmland and staying in interesting and varied accommodation provided by the farms. Although New Zealand is fantastically set up for tramping in the National Parks and on land looked after by the Department of Conservation; what it does lack is the network of public access tracks and footpaths that we have at home, so this will be a nice change from the wilderness of my previous tramps. The track is 35km long and there are 2 walking options: 4 nights and 4 days, which is a gentle walking holiday; or 2 nights and 2 days for those who prefer longer walking days and spending less money! I choose the 2-day/2-night option and having packed my rucksack, I move out of Josephine and walk about 100m to the other side of a hedge, where Jeff has built the track huts in which every walker stays for the first night of the tramp. Set in a beautiful garden of pampas grass and palms there are two purpose-built huts; one for the 4-day walkers and another for the 2-day walkers. The huts are far more luxurious than the DOC huts on the other tramps, with a hot shower, pillows on the beds and a fully-equipped kitchen. On the slope just beyond the garden there are also several of these little houses that look like chicken coops. They are ‘star gazers’, with a double bed inside and a glass ceiling so that you can lie in bed and look at the stars. I’m definitely sleeping in here. It is very romantic and all that is needed to make it perfect is a nice man to share it with. However, I tuck myself into my single sleeping bag and content myself with looking at the bright, clear night sky through the roof for all of about 10 minutes and then I am soundly asleep.

Onuku Farm Track Hut

Stargazer

Day 1

By morning the clouds have gathered and sit on the hills tops. The other 2 day-walkers are two English ex-pats; Fiona and Sarah, who have a rare weekend away from their husbands and young children. They are used to early mornings and consider getting up at 6.30am a lie in, so they set off before me. The group of 4-day walkers are not in any hurry and are just beginning to wander around and make cups of tea, as I set off at 8 o’clock. After crossing the farmyard, the track climbs the steep slopes of the inner crater and before long I can look back down to the farm; the harbour and hills on the opposite side of the crater and spot Josephine still parked in the field way below me.

Looking back down to Josephine

The track begins to even out and sidles across the slopes across grassland where sheep graze and scatter when startled. This grass contributed to Akarowa’s wealth in by-gone times, as the seed was collected and shipped out in sacks and sold to settlers all over New Zealand who were clearing land for farming.

Grassy Farm Track

Great Big Sheep

View of Akaroa Harbour from the Hilltop

As I reach the height of the crater rim at 700m, the views are obscured by the low clouds and the grass and spiders’ webs are picked out with dew. The track continues along the rim for a short way, before dropping down the outer slopes of the volcano and descending through a dark, steep, ferny gully, where the stream cascades over old lava ledges.

Down at sea level is the attractively-named Flea Bay, where there was once a community of 3 families, a school and a dairy. Now only one family lives here and one of the original old cottages is a track hut, where I can rest for lunch and the 4-day walkers will spend their 2nd night. There is no-one else here when I arrive and I can have a good look around. The house still has the feel of an old homestead containing some museum pieces, and the lounge has an old piano, sofas and a fire place. While I am there a car pulls up and a local woman delivers the packs and supplies for the 4-day walkers behind me.

Flea Bay Cottage

Homestead Lounge

Flea Bay

From Flea Bay the path follows the ups and downs of the coast and I enjoy the open coastal views and the similarities with the high, sheer cliffs and inlets of north Cornwall. Most of the cliff tops are covered in open grassland, but on the sheltered hillsides more exotic vegetation, such as flax, flourishes.

Familiar Cliffs and Exotic Vegetation

The next stopping point is a quirky shelter, built in a small sheltered gully, right up against a granite out-crop.

Shelter

In a cave at the end of the inlet is a small seal colony and I sit for a while listening to the waves breaking on the stony shore and looking for the seals on the rocks. Today is the anniversary of the death of my father, 35 years ago, and I spend a quiet moment resurrecting some memories of him and also thinking of my mother, who has been a widow for far longer than she was a wife.

At the end of the afternoon I look down into the biggest valley so far and the end of today’s walk. This is Stony Bay and I can see cultivated trees sheltering a couple of houses and gardens and the wide valley behind.

Stony Bay Valley

Stony Bay

From the beach the track goes inland for a short while alongside the small stream and then an attractive, welcoming gate is the suitable entrance to the grounds of tonight’s cute and curious track huts.

Gate to the Track Huts

Everything about the place is delightful, full of fun and creativity. Sarah and Fiona have already arrived and the 3 of us are sharing a quaint little hut and they have already lit the fire in the old range and have filled the hut with smoke before they discover that there is a thingy to turn to open the chimney. There are plenty of candles on the table for later, as there is no electricity here. It's like a jolly game of pioneers and settlers, but without the diseases and drownings.

Track Huts

Inside the Hut

The larger hut contains a jolly party of Kiwis, who are here to celebrate a 60th birthday and they are already drinking wine and cooking dinner from the contents of the little well-provisioned honesty shop in another out-house. The last I hear from them later in the evening is someone calling out across the garden in the dark, ‘Well that’s the end of the pinot.’

Shop

Even the outside toilet and shower are remarkable. The toilet has a useful question carved by the door, ‘Is there anybody there?’ and a wooden block hanging on a nail that can be turned around to display ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
There is also an outdoor bath, surrounded by foliage for privacy and heated by an open fire underneath. It is very romantic and all that is needed to make it perfect is…. you know where I am going with this! But I climb in on my own and luxuriate there, watching the steam rise into the evening air, until I am cooked and pink like a lobster.

Outdoor Bath

Heading back to Christchurch

We finish the Routeburn Track not far from Milford Sound, so that evening we drive to Milford, via the tunnel hacked through the rock, and we stay the night in a lively YHA hostel that has a cosy lounge with lots of sofas. We spend the evening sorting ourselves out from the walk; cooking dinner; drinking a celebratory bottle of red wine and thinking through our ideas for the last 3 days and 2 nights of Debbie’s trip.

Overnight the weather changes and when we wake up on Easter morning it is raining steadily and the mist and clouds hang low. The Easter Bunny obviously hasn’t been able to keep up with our itinerant life-style, or doesn't want to get his fur wet; so no choccie eggs hiding for us to find. We drive down to the Sound and take the short walk along the waterfront. In hindsight we probably should have taken advantage of the good weather yesterday to see Milford Sound at its best, but seeing it in its naturally drippy state is far more typical of the place and it is atmospheric in the gloom.

Milford Sound

We have decided to break our return journey to Christchurch by staying in Queenstown tonight, so we set out driving back along the Milford Road and enjoy the waterfalls streaming down from the top of the bare rock cliffs. By the time we reach Te Anau it has almost stopped raining and we find a café for lunch to satisfy our wish for a burger.

As we drive on after lunch I am surprised by how busy the road is. On these country roads it is rare to see more than 1 or 2 cars, but then it is the Easter weekend and I expect people are out and about. We almost have a traffic jam in one place and then we realise there is a cycle race on the road up ahead. There are support vehicles behind a large group of cyclists and it takes a while for the traffic to pass safely. It must be a big event because further along the road we meet another two groups of vehicles and cyclists.

Cycle Race

In the afternoon we check into a hostel in Queenstown. This is the cheapest place we have stayed in this week at only $20 a night for a dorm room; but it is also the least appealing, with deliberately scruffy décor to appeal to the younger travellers; a kitchen that doesn’t seem to expect much cooking to go on, except perhaps toast-making and all rather grubbier than necessary. We make the most of the last of the afternoon sunshine by taking a walk around the public gardens, which are lovely and then across the lake-front beach to the town. It is fairly busy, as I expect it usually is with people walking up and down the waterfront and sitting outside bars and restaurants. Continuing our frugal theme, we look in the supermarket for beer, but find we are not allowed to buy it in a store today, which is Easter Monday, so we go up-market and sit at a bar in the main street instead. 

Queenstown Gardens

Queenstown Beach

The next day we continue driving towards Christchurch and the weather is clear and sunny again. We are hoping that the weather will remain clear enough to make a worthwhile diversion to visit Mount Cook. As the mountain comes into view from the main road it is much clearer today than how we saw it on our previous drive past, so we turn up the road to Mount Cook Village, driving along the lake side and stop from time to time to admire the views of the approaching mountain.

Road to Mount Cook

We decide to do a 2 hour walk up the Hooker Valley, the better to appreciate the mountain and also to visit the lake that is at the end of the glacier here. A large cloud appears to be gathering on the mountain’s left-hand flank, threatening to obscure the view of the peak, but although it continues to accumulate and blow rapidly in the direction of the mountain, it must be evaporating as quickly, because the mountain remains in view. It is very windy today and we have to struggle somewhat to make smooth headway on the stony path.

Mount Cook from the Hooker Valley

As we get closer to the mountain Debbie points out that there is a very prominent face in the snow towards the top of the mountain, keeping a watchful, spooky eye on us as we approach.

Face on the Mountain

We reach the edge of the lake which sits below the small, dirty glacier. Small icebergs are floating in the water, having dropped off the front end of the glacier and the edge of the lake is decorated with ice crystals.

Lake and Icebergs

We continue our journey to stay overnight again at Lake Tekapo and celebrate the end of a successful trip with pizza and beer in a local restaurant. The next day we complete our drive back to Christchurch and I drop Debbie at the airport in the early evening in time for her flight to Aukland and then on to Hong Kong. We agree the holiday has been a great success and that we will definitely meet up again somewhere in the world. Debbie hopes to come back to New Zealand sometime to see some more of the country and do some more tramping.

Goodbye at Christchurch Airport

Routeburn Track Days 2 and 3

Day 2

In the early morning the children are up and rushing around and talking about going for a swim in the waterfalls above the hut. Unfortunately Debbie has woken up with a cold and we make a rather more leisurely start to the day. After our breakfast of instant porridge we are ready for day 2.

Ready for Day 2

Today’s walk is all above the bush line and the track climbs away from the hut and into the open, tussocky and rocky scenery of our evening walk.

Rocks in the Valley

A steep climb brings us alongside Lake Harris, which empties itself at one end via a small stream into the valley below.

Debbie at Lake Harris

Beyond the lake we reach Harris Saddle, which is the highest point of the walk at 1225m. Here there is a small shelter and the option of a short steep side walk to the top of Conical Hill, for wider views of the Darren Mountains and perhaps a glimpse of the Tasman Sea in the distance to the west. Debbie is not feeling so good with her cold, so she takes a rest at the shelter while I leave my pack there and trot up to the top. At the top I meet a nice Israeli man, who is trying to take a self-portrait with his camera, so I offer to take it for him and then he returns the favour. In the style of relating an oft-repeated tale he tells me he grew up in north London and when he was 10 his parents divorced and his mother moved to Israel taking him with her ‘as hand luggage’.

Views from Conical Hill

Back at the shelter Debbie and I have lunch and then set off for the afternoon’s walk. Initially we go quite steeply downhill and pass several groups coming the opposite way, who are looking quite red-faced from the climb in the heat of the sun. On the other hand we are rested and also going downhill, so we pass on encouragement, knowing that later on we might be glad of some motivation ourselves: ‘Only 10 minutes to the saddle’.

The path then sidles along a contour on the side of a mountain, with wide views across the Hollyford Valley below us to the snow-capped Darren Mountains on the other side. We are in the full sun here and the path is edged with a variety of alpine plants, so that it feels as if we are walking through a garden.

Path through an Alpine Garden

Towards the end of the afternoon the path turns a corner up th side of another valley and we stop for a rest atop a huge rocky outcrop and look down to Lake Mckenzie far below us. We can just make out the hut at the right end of the lake, which is where we are headed for tonight.

Looking Down to Lake McKenzie Hut

From where we are sitting the mountain looks almost sheer below us and we wonder how we will get down there, but in fact although it starts fairly steeply it then zigzags more gently down the mountain. Halfway down there is a plaque attached to a rock dedicated to two 13 year-olds who died here in a storm in 1963. We spend a while doing the maths to work out how old they would be now if they had lived. The path and drops into a mossy forest which is definitely home to pixies and elves and maybe also the spirits of the teenagers.

Mossy Forest

It is now only a short walk to the hut, which is another big one, this time with 50 beds. Someone has thought to reserve a long line of beds for the family of 13, so they will be sleeping together lined up like a pack of sausages. After they arrive they charge down to the lake and some of them swim, while others stand around offering the enthusiastic encouragement to get into the icy water of people who know they have no intention of going in themselves.

Lake McKenzie Hut

Lake McKenzie

Day 3

In the morning clouds hang in the valley above the lake. We start the day with a short additional walk from the hut along the lake side, walking through trees with glimpses of the lake beyond, to ‘split rock’, which is indeed an accurately descriptive name for an enormous divided boulder. Full-sized trees grow on the rock, with their twining roots attached to moss and reaching down the rock to the ground. With the aid of a torch it is possible to climb down and slither through the gap through to the daylight beyond. I go so far, but halfway through there are smaller boulders wedged in the gap above my head and it starts to feel more like a cave and cI hicken out of going right through.

Split Rock

Clouds above the Lake

When we get back to the hut to collect our packs the family is getting organised like a military operation and the small boys have to stop whittling with pocket knives; clean their teeth and find socks and boots.

Family Preparations

The walk today climbs back up to the bush line and then opens out into a grassy clearing dotted with ribbon wood trees, which looks like and is known as ‘The Orchard’.

The Orchard

The views across the valley are made more interesting by the line of clouds which hangs in the air, level with us on the path, but below the tops of the mountains.

Clouds in the Valley

After some time we come to the Earland Falls and join a group of various other trampers who are resting on the boulders enjoying the falls. The water tumbles 174m down from the top of the bare rock. There isn’t much water coming down, because it has been dry for some weeks, but the height makes it impressive and a small rainbow hovers in the spray at the bottom.

Waterfall

Waterfall Rainbow

A short distance from the falls we reach Howden Hut at the edge of Lake Howden. Several tracks converge here and some trampers take advantage of this to make a round trip by returning to near the start of the Routeburn via the Greenstone or Caples tracks and so avoid the complication of ending their walk a considerable distance by road from where they started.

Lake Howden

We now have the last part of the walk to complete and the track climbs quite steeply away from the lake. We leave our packs at a junction and make the optional trip to the top of Key Summit to enjoy the views.

Key Summit

Then it is steadily downhill through beech forest with the occasional sound of a vehicle driving along the road rising up from the valley below us. We arrive in the car park at the end of the track and we are grateful to see Josephine parked there waiting for us. So Debbie has successfully completed her first New Zealand tramp, while nursing a cold and her new rucksack has had its maiden voyage. I think the tramp was one of the most enjoyable I have done here so far, with varied and spectacular scenery. Thanks too to Debbie for her company along the way, and who dealt with the new experiences of life on the trail admirably. We talked about life, love and everything and also walked along quietly and thanks also for many of her pictures which I have used here.

Deb 2883 + 2885 End of the Track