Christchurch Daily Photo

A collection of my photos from my 4km return walk into Woolston from Ferrymead today. I went to the First Few Shops pop-up shipping container shops at the back of Cassels bar. These are the shops that will eventually go into The Tannery shopping arcade.

Along the way I saw lots of interesting things, including a very tame bunny rabbit on its own, a soft toy washed up on the banks of the Heathcote, and an R2D2 themed mail box. It certainly pays to be aware of your surroundings and to walk rather than drive. You just never know what you are going to see.

There’s some excellent reading to be had at Smith’s Books – a mixture of old and new.

The rabbit intrigued me. It was sitting under a park bench opposite The Brewery in Woolston and was not the least bit afraid of me. Very tame but kind of an odd place for a rabbit. I wonder now if he’d escaped from a back-yard somewhere.

Spotted this R2D2 mailbox in Woolston on the walk back

This soft toy dog was placed along the tow path walk near the water. At first we though it had been washed up there. But I’ve since learned that it was actually put there by someone who happens to follow the blog via Facebook. Such a small world we live in!

Walking along the Tow Path back to Ferrymead

I really enjoy this walk and if you’ve not done it before I highly recommend it. You can find the start of the Tow Path by the Ferrymead Bridge. If you just keep following your nose and go under the bridge at the roundabout you can keep walking along paths all of the way up to Rutherford Street. Keen cyclists use this route as a way to avoid Ferry Road.

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Hopkins Valley

Bruce and I ventured into the Hopkins Valley and then the Huxley Valley today. This is a tramping track at the end of Lake Ohau. It was a beautiful day again, and the landscape was spectacular. I also was particularly happy to see how close the birds were coming up to us. The bird is apparently a female Tomtit. It found us while we were having lunch and kept us company for quite a while.

Huxley Valley

We came across this stunning mossy waterfall. it was not very high, but was very wide, and the photo does not do a lot of justice to it.

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This is the walkway that runs along Ferry Road and the Heathcote River at Ferrymead. As you can see it has some rather large cracks in it thanks to our series of earthquakes. There is a sign up saying the track is closed, but I see plenty of people are still walking and cycling through it. Though it might be easy enough to dodge the cracks, I’m not too sure about the condition of some of the buildings that border the walkway though…

It’s certainly a lovely spot and as it is right by the estuary there is a lot of bird-life in this area. To learn more about this walk and others around the Heathcote River you might like to download the CCC guide to Heathcote River Walks.

Click for a larger image

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This afternoon we went for a walk that starts by the Spencer beach surf life saving club and winds its way through sand dunes, pine trees and open areas to end up at the Waimakariri river mouth. It’s about 5km both ways.

Near the start of the walk

Cabbage Trees

Fishing for whitebait at the mouth of the Waimakariri river

The beach in panorama - click for a larger image

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I both love and despise the Bridle Path track – it’s steep and difficult in places and you have to watch your footing and wear good boots or sneakers or you’re likely to slip down it instead. It’s tough going for all but the fittest of people. Thanks to all of our earthquakes,  the track is now too dangerous to walk due to the serious rock fall hazard. If you’re a keen hill walker like me and want an update  on the state of the different tracks have a look at the CCC Port Hills information page.

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This is the historic Packhorse hut, which my partner and I walked to this afternoon. It took us about 2 hours to get up to the top. It’s quite steep in places, but is generally a slow gradual climb. If you are not stopping to take photos all the time you could probably do it much faster. The track starts at Gebbies Pass and is very well marked. I highly recommend it as a nice half day walk, and it’s only 40 minutes from Christchurch city.

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The track up to Major Hornbrook (just to the left)

Tonight my friend Emma and I went on a 3.5 hour walk in the Port Hills (one of our favourite routes). As you can tell from this photo it was a lovely evening for it (well it started off that way!). We struck wind at the John Britten Reserve, a Southerly and it was bitter and strong (we both thought at one stage we were going to be knocked off our feet). We start our walk from Scotts Track which you can find at the beginning of the Bridle Path (it’s the track that goes off to the left about 50 metres from the car park). Scotts track is a lovely walk and it goes through to the Heathcote Quarry. You can then you can take the rather steep Kenton Track up to Major Hornbrook Road.

The view from Major Hornbrook

We go past Major Hornbrook and continue up the hill to the Summit Road. We then go along the Summit Road to the Gondola, and then along to meet the top of the Bridle Path which we go down to get back to the car park. We were both pretty relieved to be in the car – the winds sapped our energy and we both just wanted to get home and have a cuppa tea (have just had mine!).

Left: John Britten Reserve, Right: looking over to the Gondola

The image on the left is taken in the John Britten reserve while we had a snack and some water (during dusk) and the image on the right shows the Gondola on the very top of the Port Hills – we walked around the back of it and then back down. My feet are a bit sore! I plan to be doing a lot more walks in the next few months, so you can expect to see a few more of them!

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Some random people who were puffing as much as me

The Bridle Path is a steep pass over the Port Hills and into Lyttelton (a port town). It has been in use since 1850, with Canterbury’s early settlers arriving by ship in Lyttelton and then having to climb up the track and down the other side with all of their possessions. I can barely do this with just a back pack and a camera!

I often do this walk from Heathcote and just up to the Summit Road and then back down again. But today I decided to keep walking and have a coffee in Lyttelton. The only problem with this idea, is that after sitting in a nice warm cafe reading the Christchurch Press and sipping on my flat white, I had to walk 15 minutes and up 2 sets of steep steps to get to an even steeper road that eventually gets you to the start of the track. And I realised today, that most of the people that do this track are very fit, so don’t despair if you do it and have people passing you like I do! I have particular scorn though for those that can run the whole thing (show off’s!).

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The Rapaki track is a popular walking and mountain biking track that starts at Rapaki Road off Centaurus Road. It climbs up along the hills to the summit. It was my first time doing this track which is somewhat surprising considering I’ve lived in Christchurch for over 14 years! It’s an easy walk but quite a long one (especially if like me you’ve pulled a your calf muscle). But just look at the view at the end of it – this is of the banks peninsula.

Here’s a few more shots from the walk. My friends went right up to the very top of the rocks but I didn’t feel up to it with my sore muscles (plus it gave me time to take these photos!).

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