Banks Peninsula

Sunday morning I left Christchurch bright and early to head out to the Banks Peninsula just south of Christchurch. I ultimately wanted to get to the town of Akaroa in the heart of the peninsula, and I decided I would hike there instead of hitchhiking. Akaroa is an 85km drive from Christchurch although geographically speaking it's just 40km away. To get there I decided to follow a route called the Te Ara Pataka although I started from Diamond Harbour instead of the official start point elsewhere.

After catching a bus to Lyttelton I took the short 10 minute ferry ride across to Diamond Harbour where I began the walk. The weather wasn't on my side however and I couldn't even see the peninsula when I arrived. The Banks Peninsula is of volcanic origin and encompasses two large harbours as well as many smaller bays and coves. It is a very hilly area however with the highest peak Mt Herbert being 919m which to put into perspective is higher than Cadair Idris for example. The first part of my hike was to climb Mt Herbert which was fun because shortly after leaving the harbour I entered the cloud and the visibility was very poor. Luckily the path was pretty obvious.

Eventually I managed to leave the cloud and before long I was literally above the clouds and made it the summit. It was very surreal looking out just seeing random peaks stick out the cloud including the Southern Alps in the distance. From Mt Herbert the path followed the ridge line where the clouds eventually began to clear a little and I could see a couple of the bays. I even managed to find a few geocaches along the way! I eventually got to the point where I had to drop down into the valley to the hut I was staying in for the night which meant going into the cloud. After arriving I relaxed and by the time I got a fire going it was actually really warm unlike outside where the temperature just plummeted when the sun went down.

Come morning I actually had a really good night's sleep and after leaving the hut headed back up to the ridge line. It was amazing being somewhere in the middle of nowhere and unlike the previous day there were no clouds which meant some of the views of the smaller bays were stunning. I even found a few more geocaches although they were challenging in a terrain point of view as they were all mainly off the main path. One of them in particular took me to this cave which was only accessible climbing up this rock face which was incredibly slippery.

I eventually reached a point called the Hilltop which is where I finally saw people again, and where I also got my first views of the Akaroa harbour. From here the path dropped down to the road although the path was pretty treacherous as it was made up of slippery rocks and was really muddy elsewhere. I got down eventually and when reaching the road made it to the Hilltop Tavern which was the official end of the Te Ara Pataka. I had lunch and a well earned pint here, ordering one of there famous pizzas. It was nice as the pub was on top of the hill giving great views of the Akaroa harbour. From here I hitched a ride into Akaroa arriving mid afternoon where I checked into my hostel. It turned out I was the only person in the entire hostel though!

On Tuesday I had a more chilled out day although the weather in the morning wasn't great. It cleared up by lunchtime though and before long it was blue skies. I decided to best way to explore the town was to go geocaching. Akaroa was colonised by the French in the 1800s and that connection still goes on today with many of the street names being French. The harbour it lies on is home to the hector dolphin, the world's smallest and in the summer welcomes in large cruise liners! My walk took me along the beachfront where I saw the harbour, lighthouse, and beaches. I also headed up a couple of the hills to get a more aerial view of the town. Wednesday I had a more relaxing day, heading out to the Giants House in the afternoon which was a garden full of mosaic artwork and sculptures! The weather was a little more grotty though but it was nice to have a chilled out day.