2008. Victoria Park and Harry Ell Walkway

Two days before New Year, I drove up some of Dyers Pass in the Port Hills, and was the first car parked in Victoria Park for the day. I wanted to walk Harry Ell Walkway up to Sign of the Kiwi, then return via Thomsons Carpark on Summit Road and MTB Jump Park.

While our sons grew up in Christchurch, we'd walked low lengths of Harry Ell Walkway, and we'd had picnics and short walks in Victoria Park, and sons and wife had enjoyed the big slide in the kids' playground. Whenever our overseas family and friends visited, we took them up to Victoria Park to view Christchurch, Canterbury Plains and the Alps.

I started at 9am to avoid summer heat. I looked at the information board below the Visitor Centre, and the white marble plaque on a stone base which stated:

THIS PARK
WAS OPENED ON 22ND JUNE 1897
IN COMMEMORATION OF
THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF
HM QUEEN VICTORIA
BY THE HON WILLIAM ROLLESTON
FOR MANY YEARS SUPT
OF CANTERBURY


2008. 19th Infantry Battalion & Armoured Regiment Memorial, Victoria Park, Christchurch. Port Hills Sugarloaf TV Tower backdrop

I liked the native plants with plastic name labels in the rockery below the Visitor Centre, which I briefly visited. Walking through pines behind the Visitor Centre, I crossed a road and walked along the short, leafy MEMORIAL TRACK, which rejoined the road further on. Across the road, on the backrest of a big, stone seat a bronze plaque stated:

REST AND PONDER
ABOUT EIGHTY PACES
BEHIND THIS PLAQUE IS
THE MEMORIAL TO THE
19TH INFANTRY BATTALION
AND ARMOURED REGIMENT

HANMER MARBLE AND
BLACK ITALIAN GRANITE
SYMBOLIZE THESE MEN
ON FOREIGN SOIL

TREES FROM THE COUNTRIES
IN WHICH THEY SERVED
STAND AS SENTINELS

IN 1953 THE AREA
WAS DEDICATED
THIS SEAT WAS ADDED IN
1978 BY THOSE SURVIVING

LEST WE FORGET


2008. Hanmer Pink Marble, 19th Infantry Battalion & Armoured Regiment Memorial, Victoria Park, Christchurch. Canterbury Plains & Alps backdrop

A female walker passed me, while a grey-haired man mowed memorial grass while seated on a noisy mower. I walked up memorial stone steps past the pink Hanmer marble rock, on which the Italian black granite plaque repeated the memorial's purpose. I preferred the backdrop of four stands of sentinel trees, each with a wooden board in front, stating the tree and war zone it represented:

Olea europaea
Olive
Crete. Greece. Italy

Cedrus atlantica
Atlas Cedar
Atlantic. North Africa

Abies pinsapo
Spanish Fir
Mediterranean

Pinus nigra
Black Pine
Southern Europe

Before the cedar and Spanish fir sentinels, a stone, semi-circular, memorial "desk" stood, which had seven bronze plaques on top, showing a key to the memorial, explaining battles fought, and two Rolls of Honour for the 19th Infantry Battalion and 19th Armoured Regiment.

After walking down the road a bit, I joined Harry Ell Walkway, where four ladies jogged out of the trees, no eye contact, nor greetings. A male jogger panted after them. On the HARRY ELL WALKWAY wooden sign, a blue and white plastic sign warned: DOGS MUST BE ON A LEASH

Cool, leafy Harry Ell Walkway passed through tall exotic trees like pines, cedars and firs, with native shrub understory. The rooty, stony track continued above Dyers Pass road. Several male and female joggers and walkers passed me going up or down. Few made eye contact, few smiled, few greeted. A male jogger passed down with a muzzled, leashed dog. A smiley, girl jogger passed down with a leashed dog too.

Below pylons I drank water at a fountain beside the busy track. A stubby, black-haired woman, with mauve lipstick, jogged upwards, and later smiled at me when jogging down.


2008. Cashmere Valley seen from Harry Ell Walkway, Christchurch

Around a corner Dyers Pass narrowed, and when I passed a family with two infant girls picnicking on a wooden bench, they all smiled. I retraced my steps round the corner, snapped a pic, and on my return the parents made no eye contact. Must've thought I was another psychopath, as a Kiwi psychopath was recently sentenced in Christchurch law courts for murdering a local deaf woman.


2008. Marleys Spur & top of Cashmere Valley seen from Harry Ell Walkway, Christchurch

I passed fruiting apple trees and pink escallonias. More joggers and walkers, including Asians in hats, passed me. I was the only walker in jandals and silence. At a stone bench below trees, a bronze plaque stated:

SKELLERUP RESERVE
ERECTED BY THE
SUMMIT ROAD SCENIC SOCIETY
IN RECOGNITION OF THE VISION OF
GEORGE WALDEMAR SKELLERUP
WHICH MADE POSSIBLE THE
PLANTING OF THIS RESERVE
14TH OCTOBER 1960

I passed through more exotic trees and native bush, and stepped over a dog turd. The next jogger was in for a surprise.


2008. Signs, Top of Harry Ell Walkway with Top of Marleys Spur behind


2008. Cabbage Tree, Top of Harry Ell Walkway with Christchurch & Alps backdrop


2008. Summit Road Foxgloves above Thomsons Shared Use Track, Port Hills, Christchurch

At the top of Harry Ell Walkway, a board stated 35 MINS, but I took longer as I'd admired views and plants along the way. I watched a family with three youngsters start walking downwards, then I walked up Summit Road, and was passed by inevitable MTBs and cars below Sugarloaf.

I passed a THOMSONS SHARED USE TRACK sign on my left, and on my right by the THOMSONS RESERVE sign I sat on a wooden stile and drank CocaCola beneath black pines. A strong resin smell pleased me, while I watched a motorcyclist on a blue motorbike pull into Thomsons Carpark, strip off his leather gear, and smoke beside a rock overlooking Christchurch, Canterbury Plains and the Alps, oblivious to my presence across Summit Road.


2008. End of Thomsons Reserve overlooking Summit Road, Thomsons Carpark & Christchurch


2008. Thomsons Carpark Information Board below Thomsons Carpark, Port Hills, Christchurch

Flax, cabbage trees and toe toe grass plantings were below Thomsons Carpark. A black, white, red sign on a locked gate shouted MOUNTAIN BIKERS!... and warned MTBs not to wreck tracks by riding in the wet. While I read the information board, a gaggle of females emerged from pine trees at the end of Bowenvale Traverse Track - ages ranged from teenagers to leathery old dames, with adjustable aluminium "ski pole" walking sticks. One was leashed to a corgi. Some must've been walkers I'd seen weeks before on Bowenvale Valley Track.


2008. Tracks below Thomsons Carpark, Port Hills, Christchurch

I had a choice of five downward tracks: THOMSONS SHARED USE TRACK; LATTERS SPUR TRACK; MODERATE MTB; DIFFICULT MTB; BOWENVALE TRAVERSE TRACK.

I took the DIFFICULT MTB track, where a red triangle ordered: PEDESTRIANS GIVE WAY Pedestrians! I went down stony "steps" to trees, where on a tree trunk a sign ordered:

NO
FIRES
EVEN A MATCH
IS A MENACE

(Pic of a match)


2008. Fire Warning Sign below Thomsons Carpark, Port Hills, Christchurch

I walked down through Douglas firs and cedars, passed some MTB jumps and found a tall gum tree with a water fountain and two picnic tables below, with magnificent views over Christchurch, Canterbury Plains and the Alps. A grey-haired man loped past in the midday heat, not bothering to stop for a drink.


2008. Track below Thomsons Carpark going to Victoria Park, Port Hills, Christchurch

I turned right towards the trees again, where a fallen sign warned:

CAUTION
DOWNHILL MTB TRACK
CROSSING AHEAD
OTHER USERS PLEASE GIVE WAY

PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE


2008. MTB Jump Park Information Board, Port Hills, Christchurch

I crossed a sheep grid and joined a track I'd walked weeks before, which took me through gums, dry leaf litter and the strong smell of eucalyptus oil. I passed the MTB Jump Park, sans MTBs, where a man constructed a new plank-jump. After the sunny glade and seven tracks choice, I walked straight ahead and passed three sweaty Asians: two girls fanned themselves with twigs. By a locked gate, rejoining THE 19TH MEMORIAL road, I passed a sign I'd seen on the way up:

ACCESS TO UPPER EAST SIDE BUSH
RECREATION AREA

On the gate, a red, white, black sign warned: MOUNTAIN BIKERS!...


2008 Track near 19th Infantry Battalion & Armoured Regiment Memorial going to MTB Jump Park, Port Hills, Christchurch

Back at Victoria Park Carpark, the number of cars had increased to twenty, with picnickers on the grass and in the picnic area, and kids playing on the slide and climbing equipment. Four Asians in hats began a walk in 30 degree C heat that blistered road tar. Beneath an oak tree, I slipped my shoes off, enjoyed cool grass under my feet, and finished my CocaCola. My circular walk had taken three hours, including long stops along the way.

The day after New Year in cool, late afternoon, Leah and I walked the empty tracks in two hours. We didn't linger at The 19th Memorial, and on the top we walked Thomsons Shared Use Track through trees below Summit Road.

On our way down gusty winds shook the trees. We had glimpses of a rain storm over Canterbury Plains obscuring the Alps. I carried our CocaCola. Leah carried a shiny, red apple to eat along the way. Fruiting, pruned apple trees alongside Harry Ell Walkway put Leah off eating her Eve apple.

Contents & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

2008. Hidden Valley and Larva Flow, Port Hills

I parked my car at the end of Bowenvale Avenue, Christchurch, as I wanted to explore the side of Bowenvale Valley opposite Victoria Park. I also wanted to look at the Scott Scenic Reserve above Summit Road.

At the first gate stile, a young woman and her two big dogs hopped over at the end of their walk. I thought those big dogs were pointless in NZ, as there was little chance of her being assaulted in NZ.

Bowenvale Valley Track was muddy after rain, and it was still cloudy while I walked in the late afternoon. At the information board, four men passed me after clambering down the valleyside, dressed in overalls and boots, carrying tools, either fencers or pylon electricians, not recreational walkers like me. By closed gate two, a man greeted me on his way out of Bowenvale Valley.

Between closed gates four and five, a red black and white sign cautioned:

MOUNTAIN BIKERS!
PLEASE CONTROL YOUR SPEED
AND GIVE WAY TO WALKERS

PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE


2008. Hidden Valley Track going left, leaving Bowenvale Valley Track by the sheep grid

By closed gate five, I walked left over a wooden duckboard bridge by the wooden HIDDEN VALLEY TRACK sign, leaving Bowenvale Valley Track on my right.

A dry stream was on my left while I climbed the rocky Hidden Valley Track up steep erosion-stopping wooden steps, interspersed with wooden gutters for runoff into the "stream." Zig-zagging upwards I crossed another soggy, wooden duckboard bridge, and passed woolen mulleins Verbascum thapsus with yellow flower spikes, and low, wire netting bush Corokia cotoneaster, amongst tussock grass.


2008. Looking down the first steep bit of Hidden Valley Track towards Bowenvale Valley Track below & Victoria Park behind

The path was so steep at one corner, a thick rope banister about 15m long enabled me to haul myself up wooden steps. In places along the path, big squares of holey, black plastic had been placed to stop erosion. While I snapped down Hidden Valley towards Christchurch, a male jogger passed me.


2008. From Hidden Valley Track, looking down Bowenvale Valley Track towards Christchurch

On top of the gorge, I passed a fallen pine with bleached trunk overlooking Bowenvale Valley pine forest and Bowenvale Valley Track in the gorge below. Below pylon wires, I crossed a fence stile, and walked on grass and gorse mulch where someone had mown the path. A wooden sign stated:

HIDDEN VALLEY
HABITAT RESTORATION SITE


2008. Looking down Hidden Valley Track towards Christchurch

I thought, "They'd better eradicate all this gorse beside the track to restore this site!" Manuka scent pulled me along, and I came across a white flowering manuka tree buzzing with skinny black flies, bumble bees and exquisite orange butterflies, and Red Admiral butterflies, smaller than Monarch butterflies, and I thought of manuka honey. I sucked a Christmas candy cane I'd carried in my pocket.


2008. Looking up Hidden Valley Track at a flowering manuka & beyond to Hidden Valley head, in Christchurch Port Hills

As Hidden Valley Track went down to join Bowenvale Valley Track again, I left the main path and followed a vague path through wet, thigh-high grass and flowering flax and manuka and lancewood plantings. I crossed a boggy "stream" and slogged up Hidden Valley, till I came to a fence across the valley.

As bush was thick on the other side, I followed the fence and sheep tracks straight up the side of the valley, through tussock, and low, thick, prickly bush-lawyer, and korokia until I reached the rocky crest of Larva Flow ridge, where I found a dead sheep, all bones, no skin.


2008. Looking past a dead sheep on Larva Flow ridge towards Scott Scenic Reserve above Summit Road, Christchurch Port Hills


2008. Looking down Larva Flow ridge towards Christchurch. Hidden Valley Track & Hidden Valley towards the right

Small cairns of stones were on Larva Flow crest. On my right, I looked down on Bowenvale Walkway far below, which I'd walked before. I walked up rocky Larva Flow crest, following sheep tracks on the right and the smell of wet sheep dung, till I came across a wooden sign stating LARVA FLOW below Summit Road. I walked along an MTB track over a sheep grid past another wooden sign stating:

BUSH HEAD
HABITAT RESTORATION SITE


2008. Top of Larva Flow ridge below Summit Road, overlooking Victoria Park left & Christchurch beyond. Below Larva Flow, Hidden Valley lies on the right

It was the top point I'd reached on another walk up Huntsbury Track. I continued along the MTB track over another sheep grid through manuka, lacebark, totora, pittosporum and cabbage tree plantings, till I found a bench above a gully below Summit Road. On the stone base of the bench a metal plaque stated:

THIS SEAT DONATED BY
MOFFATT FAMILY
THE RESTORATION OF THIS SITE HAS BEEN
GREATLY ASSISTED THROUGH THE
PLANTING OF MEMORIAL TREES

Another metal plaque on the wooden bench stated:

IN MEMORY OF
JOHN NOEL FLORANCE MOFFATT
1916-1992
OF BOWENVALE AVENUE

Seated on the bench while swigging CocaCola, I enjoyed the view down Bowenvale Valley. Two male MTBs passed by on the track, and two pairs of male MTBs passed by on Summit Road above. As I'd done lots of off-track slogging up Hidden Valley and Larva Flow, it was a 2 hour slog from my car to Summit Road.


2008. Cabbage Trees in Scott Scenic Reserve above Summit Road, looking towards Castle Rock & The Tors

I crossed Summit Road and joined the Crater Rim Walkway for 20 minutes through Scott Scenic Reserve. At the beginning, I looked back and snapped cabbage trees and the back of Mount Vernon and beyond to Castle Rock and The Tors.

I zig-zagged through fluted macrocarpas and pines, interspersed with soggy grassy glades, speckled with purple foxgloves. Through flax I snapped Mt Herbert & Mt Bradley, while a small cloud chased a cloud bank over Port Hills, then I wandered through thick pittosporum and red flowering escallonia shrubs beside the path.


2008. Top of Scott Scenic Reserve, Port Hills, looking through flax towards Mt Herbert & Mt Bradley on Banks Peninsula


2008. Flax at end of Scott Scenic Reserve overlooking Quail Island & Banks Peninsula

Crossing Summit Road again, I sat on a stone wall swigging CocaCola again, before hopping over the fence by a small dam to join Bowenvale Walkway. The trip from Summit Road down to the bottom of Bowenvale Valley took me 20 minutes as gravity pulled: I stopped myself jogging when I passed THE TRACK wooden sign, and avoided The Track as it looped back into Bowenvale Valley.

I quickly descended a steep farm track to a locked gate, hopped over the gate and zig-zagged down the end of Larva Flow Track to three wooden bridges in the valley.

Along the way I brandished a plastic electrical conduit pipe I'd found in Scott Scenic Reserve, and whistled a Strauss waltz while conducting with the pipe, and tinnitus drummed in my ears. Anyone watching would've thought I was mad. As it was late, I had Bowenvale Walkway and Larva Flow Track to myself.

On Bowenvale Valley Track I waltzed over the three wooden bridges, and waltzed through mallow wasteland, and was annoyed by CAUTION MTB, SLOW DOWN signs. In the pine forest I saw two plastic vases with fresh flowers by a concrete bridge, with an Oamaru stone, carved bird, the white bird's wings raised in flight. Behind the bird a wire was stuck in the ground, with a red metal beetle on a spring on top, moving in the wind. A speeding cyclist had died by the bridge.

Two male MTBs sped past, fewer than on another walk, as it was evening: 7 pm.

The walk from Summit Road back to my car took 50 minutes.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

2008. Bowenvale Tracks, Port Hills

One mid December afternoon I drove to the end of Bowenvale Avenue and parked my car, as I wanted to walk up Bowenvale Valley to the top of the Port Hills, look into the caldera, then walk down Bowenvale Valley to my car.

Tracks and signage along the way made it sound complicated: up Bowenvale Valley Track; up Bowenvale Walkway to Summit Road; along Bowenvale Traverse Track at the valley head below Summit Road; down Latters Spur Track below Victoria Park; down East Side Bush Track; rejoin Bowenvale Valley Track back to my car - a big circular walk.

Starting off I saw nine grey old ladies emerge from Bowenvale Valley Track, all with similar backpacks; similar boots and hats; similar aluminium adjustable walking sticks, one leashed to a corgi; all staggering to their cars, and I knew it would be one of those walks. I just walked in jandals, shorts, T shirt and backpack. A starting wooden sign stated:

BOWENVALE
RECREATION RESERVE
TRACK INFORMATION 450m
NO PARKING BEYOND THIS POINT
PLEASE ENJOY YOUR VISIT

A black and red metal sign stated:

NO
VEHICLES
PAST THIS POINT

A male jogger jogged out of the wide gravel track. Like at Huntsbury Track, wooden power poles had strips of metal around each pole at head height, to stop Aussie possums climbing poles.

At the first metal gate and wooden stile two male mountain bikers (MTBs) passed me and manhandled their bikes over the gate. A red and white sign on the gate ordered:

MOUNTAIN BIKERS!
IF TRACKS ARE WET DONT RIDE
IF YOU RIDE IN THE WET YOU CAN WRECK ALL THE GOOD WORK
DONE BY VOLUNTEERS WHO MAINTAIN
AND DEVELOP THE TRACKS. THINK ABOUT IT!

PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE
CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL
YOUR PEOPLE YOUR CITY

While I read the signs, two slim women in blue tights and tops climbed over the stile and vanished in a waft of perfume. Two stinky male joggers followed them, the smell of sweat and eucalyptus oil fumes from gums above nauseated. Another male jogger nipped past, while I read the ATTENTION ALL DOGS... green sign I'd seen before on Huntsbury Track. I loathed the signs and crowds even before I started.


2008. After the start of Bowenvale Valley Track, Port Hills, Christchurch

I caught up with the male jogger while he pissed under a gum tree. I studied the information board about Bowenvale Valley and Victoria Park tracks carefully. Another male walker passed me going down.

I passed beside two locked gates, each with a rectangle of red aluminium attached. A male jogging down smiled at me. His black mongrel smiled too. I passed beside a fourth locked gate with a red tag on it. Gates stopped vehicles, but allowed walkers, joggers, and MTBs to pass next to the gate. Bowenvale Valley Track narrowed with tussock grass on the left slope and dead gorse on the right.


2008. Looking down Bowenvale Valley Track towards Christchurch. Note metal strips on power poles to discourage Aussie possums

At a fifth locked gate I climbed over a wooden stile, and on the downward side of the gate a red and white sign with black lettering yelled:

MOUNTAIN BIKERS!
PLEASE CONTROL YOUR SPEED
AND GIVE WAY TO WALKERS

PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE

I wondered how speeding MTBs could possible read the small signs?


2008. Junction: Hidden Valley Track left & Bowenvale Valley Track right

Bowenvale Valley Track forked by a wooden HIDDEN VALLEY TRACK sign pointing left. Nearby a green and beige plastic sign stated:

CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL
THIS TRACK IS PROVIDED FOR
YOUR ENJOYMENT
PLEASE RESPECT AND PROTECT
THE PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

(Series of pics with forbidden lines through some)

TAKE ONLY PHOTOGRAPHS. LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINTS

By a sheep grid and fence another sign in brown lettering and beige aluminium stated:

PRIVATE LAND AHEAD
WALKING AND MTB
ACCESS PERMITTED AT
YOUR OWN RISK
ACCESS MAY BE
CLOSED IN WINTER
FOR STOCK FEEDING

THANK YOU
PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE


2008. Cabbage Tree down Bowenvale Valley Track just before the pine forest

At the start of a pine forest, three more signs were on the sixth locked gate. A dry steam bed ran between rocky cliffs, and in the forest on the trackside, amongst red plastic cones, two more signs on poles facing down the track screamed:

CAUTION
SLOW DOWN

PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE


2008. Unsigned track going up from Bowenvale Valley Track towards Victoria Park, Port Hills

By one of the signs on my right I saw a wide stony track with wooden steps going up through the pine forest, but no sign stated what the track was! The seventh locked gate had a sign and red aluminium tag on it.

Sugarloaf loomed above, as the forest thinned into a mallow wasteland sprinkled with purple foxgloves, where pines had been chopped down on both sides of the valley. ("Please respect and protect the plants and wildlife?")

Where Bowenvale Valley Track forked again, with walkers going left and MTBs going right, another sign bellowed:

CAUTION
DOWNHILL MTB TRACK
CROSSES AHEAD
OTHER USERS PLEASE GIVE WAY

PORT HILLS RANGER SERVICE

Given the plethora of signs on the shared track, it was obvious that downward speeding MTBs were a big problem. Pylons on both sides of the valley threaded 220 000 volt wires across Bowenvale Valley. Once shot of the MTBs and pine forest, Bowenvale Valley Track narrowed and pleasantly zig-zagged over three wooden bridges crossing the dry stream bed.

When I climbed over a wooden fence stile I saw flax plantings up on the left side of the valley. When I stepped up and over the fourth wooden bridge, I saw Sugarloaf and Summit Road up ahead.

Following the stream bed I saw more flax plantings and native plants like manuka and griselinia, amongst tussock grass, but also green gorse and bindweed. I crossed a couple more wooden bridges, and on a rocky knoll above stood a lone pine. At a T junction, by the tracks a wooden sign stated:

BOWENVALE WALKWAY
TO BOWENVALE AV
20 MINS

As I'd been on the Bowenvale Valley Track for an hour, I must've spent 40 minutes reading all the signs. Another wooden sign lying on the grass stated:

BOWENVALE WALKWAY
TO SUMMIT ROAD
35 MINS
VICTORIA PARK VIA
EAST SIDE BUSH
30 MINS


2008. Junction: Bowenvale Walkway going left towards Victoria Park & Bowenvale Valley Track on right

Bowenvale Walkway became narrow and rocky, and while I snapped down Bowenvale Valley the two sexy women bumped into me, giggling and chatty, on their way down. "Whoops!" I said. "Sorry I'm deaf." They continued on their way to Victoria Park.

Bowenvale Walkway went up through flax, tussock and a cool breeze. After I crossed another small bridge, a male jogger passed me going up towards Summit Road. Thereafter Bowenvale Walkway zig-zagged and got steeper and wider, full of sheep dung, but no sheep.

I'd walked over tons of dry, black, sheep dung on Farm Track, Huntsbury Track and Bowenvale Tracks. In wet weather dung would decompose into compost. In dry, summer, windy weather faeces would blow over houses on the hills, polluting people, food, clothes, cars and gardens.


2008. About half way up Bowenvale Walkway with Victoria Park & Christchurch behind


2008. Top of Bowenvale Walkway below Summit Road, with Scott Scenic Reserve behind


2008. Below Summit Road: Start of Bowenvale Traverse across Bowenvale Valley head, continuing from top of Bowenvale Walkway, with Larva Flow Ridge, Huntsbury Hill & Christchurch behind

Trackside was tussock and Californian thistle, till I reached Bowenvale Traverse Track and a locked gate and wooden stile over a fence to Summit Road. I sat on the stile, drinking CocaCola, and snapped Bowenvale Valley below and Huntsbury Hill in the distance on my right.


2008. From Summit Road: Sugarloaf & TV Transmitter on top of Port Hills, above Bowenvale Valley

At the Summit Road carpark I saw pinickers scoffing a late lunch, while I snapped Sugarloaf. Below in the caldera I snapped Dyers Pass and Governors Bay.


2008. From Summit Road carpark: overlooking Crater Rim towards Dyers Pass, Governors Bay, Head of the Bay & Banks Peninsula


2008. Latters Spur Track near the end of Bowenvale Traverse, going down Bowenvale Valley above MTB Jump Park

A male MTB passed me on the narrow stony Bowenvale Traverse Track. I enjoyed looking down on the tracks I'd just climbed, while I passed tussock and Californian thistle. A breeze up the valley kept me cool, while I walked below Sugarloaf until Bowenvale Traverse Track divided into three sheep grids, without a single sign.

I took the right track down wide stone steps into a pine forest down the valley. By sheep in a paddock a small sign stated LATTERS SPUR TRACK, which led me to the MTB JUMP PARK amongst trees on my left. In a sunny glade beyond MTB JUMP PARK, I came across four male MTBs and a female jogger who eyed me warily.


2008. Victoria Park Information Board surrounded by 7 tracks, with MTB Jump Park behind

I had the choice of seven tracks: one to my left, one straight ahead, and five on my right going down the valley. Choosing the non-MTB Latters Spur Track (unsigned) passing under a pylon, I zig-zagged through cool pine forest, sprinkled with macrocarpa and gums, till I came across a junction with wooden signs: EAST SIDE BUSH TRACK, a continuation of the LATTERS SPUR TRACK I was on; VICTORIA PARK; BOWENVALE AVENUE.


2008. Sheep grid, locked gate & MTB caution signs on the way down Bowenvale Valley Track

I took BOWENVALE AVENUE TRACK which zig-zagged down the pine forest to BOWENVALE VALLEY TRACK I'd started on, rejoining at the CAUTION signs and steps I'd seen earlier. I encountered three male MTBs speeding down, and thirteen male MTBs sweating upwards.

As it was late afternoon, they were after-work, fitness fanatics. Most wore helmets, but two had helmets attached to backpacks for use on the down race. Two joggers passed me going up, one using a map, another leashed to a spaniel.

The circular walk took me about three hours, excluding snap stops and reading all the signs.


2008. Alpha & Omega of Bowenvale Valley Track & Bowenvale Avenue, Christchurch

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

2008. Attention All Dogs on Huntsbury Track

I drove up Major Aitken Drive, parked at Westview Place and walked to the top of Huntsbury Avenue where Huntsbury Track began - a hard, stony track climbing a ridge to Summit Road in the Port Hills.


2008. Tethered Highland Cattle by the start of Huntsbury Track, Port Hills, Christchurch

Midday: At the beginning of Huntsbury Track on my right by Tussock Hill, I looked over a fence at two tethered, long-horned Scottish Highland cattle. On my left, in the distance I saw Montgomery Spur, and close by near an open gate and a concrete reservoir, I saw a 1992 black Mazda Familia, registration number XM 3470 - jacked up, wheels gone, door hanging open, window smashed, dumped. A young couple passed me, going down, hot and unfriendly.


2008. Dumped Mazda near the start of Huntsbury Track, Port Hills, overlooking Christchurch


2008. Gates & Stile near the start of Huntsbury Track. Sugarloaf & TV transmitter beyond

I walked up the wide gravel track to two locked gates and a wooden stile, behind which a green sign stated:

ATTENTION
STOCK GRAZING IN THIS AREA
ALL DOGS
MUST BE ON LEASH AND UNDER CONTROL AT ALL TIMES
CONTACT CCC

I climbed over the stile and looked at Sugarloaf in the distance on my right. Huntsbury Track got narrower and steeper as I passed a young macrocarpa hedge on my left, with sheep sheltering behind. Electric pylons stitched the track in pairs and threaded wires across the valley from Farm Track on the next ridge. On a pylon, a black, white and red sign stated:

DANGER
DO NOT CLIMB
LIVE WIRES 220 000 VOLTS


2008. Gate along Huntsbury Track, Port Hills. Mount Vernon behind

Mount Vernon loomed ahead, and the pylons continued across a valley towards Bowenvale Tracks on my right. I sweated through tussock grassland, with Californian thistles beside Huntsbury Track, to another closed gate with two signs on both sides of the gate stated:

PLEASE SHUT THE GATE
PLEASE CLOSE THE GATE


2008. Lone Cabbage Tree beside Huntsbury Track, Port Hills

I passed a small dam on my left, and a rocky knoll and solitary, skyline cabbage tree on my right. I had hot Huntsbury Track to myself, and saw native bush and plantings at the bottom of a valley on my left. Along the tussock track, I came across a third closed gate with a sign:

PLEASE SHUT THE GATE

Sheep grazed in the next paddock: a shorn ram, with unshorn, staring ewes, with red and yellow plastic tags in their ears. And unshorn, wary lambs. My silent communion with sheep - some trotted away, most stayed put.


2008. Sheep near the top of Huntsbury Track overlooking Christchurch

After another closed gate (signless) near the top of the track, I left the track and followed the fence upwards, and crossed Bush Head Track which contoured below Summit Road. Joggers and a cyclist passed me on Bush Head Track.


2008. Natal Iceplant (Hottentots Fig) Carpobrotis acinaciformis & NZ tussock grass below Summit Road, near Huntsbury Track

Carpobrotis acinaciformis iceplant smothered an old fence below Summit Road. The last time I saw bright purple iceplant flowers from Natal, was thick iceplant ropes hanging on the cliff above Edwin Mouldey Track.


2008. Tussock Grass near top of Huntsbury Track, overlooking Christchurch

I climbed on a rock, hopped over a fence and briefly walked along Summit Road towards Sugarloaf. Looking down the valley towards Bowenvale Track, I saw cabbage trees and flax plantings.

I came across Crater Rim Walkway, which circled me back above Summit Road through Scott Scenic Reserve's cool pine forest and some gums and purple foxgloves beside the path. In the forest, just above Summit Road I sat on a stone bench with a spectacular view over Christchurch and Huntsbury Track. On the bench backrest a bronze plaque stated:

JOHN FLINDERS
SCOTT
MEMORIAL RESERVE

The walk from my car to the top took me 75 minutes.

After the pine forest, across Summit Road a wooden sign stated:

MOUNT VERNON RESERVE
LAMAR TRACK 650m


2008. Behind Mount Vernon with Witch Hill, Castle Rock & The Tors beyond

Behind Mount Vernon, I snapped Witch Hill, The Tors and Castle Rock. Over Crater Rim, I snapped Cass Bay, Quail Island, Diamond Harbour and Banks Peninsula.


2008. Behind Mount Vernon, Port Hills, overlooking the Crater Rim to Cass Bay, Quail Island, Diamond Harbour & Banks Peninsula

On top of Huntsbury Track a green sign stated: ATTENTION ALL DOGS... Another sign forbade cyclists riding wet tracks, as it wrecked tracks.

On my 45 minutes walk down Huntsbury Track, the nor'wester came up and cooled me. The track was mine again, and sheep had hardly moved since my upwalk.

Near the pylons I found dumped Toyota engine parts, bleaching like sheep bones. At the open gate near the dumped Mazda, a male cyclist whizzed past.

Near my car, a man in a green tractor cab gave me a friendly nod, while he mowed a verge with his tractor's extension-arm-mower. Grass flew, and all I felt were vibes.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.