We started by driving up a cool mountain pass from the city of Christchurch to the Banks Peninsula. Alltrails came up with at least a half a billion cool looking hikes on the peninsula so, as usual, we wished we had more time to explore. The hike was called “Gibralter Rock” and gave us a nice workout with views like the one above.
We had to do some scrambling to get up to the top of the rock so to speak. The views were awesome as usual. Notice no sheep in the fields. This is very rare around here.
This hike was interesting as it had views from the top of a mountain as well as what we would call “regular” hiking that took us into the bush and along a nice stream for quite a while. The bush was a welcome sight as the sun gets devastatingly intense in New Zealand.
Had to take a picture of this signage on our way out of the bush part of the walk. Seems pretty random but New Zealanders take their fire danger very seriously. Never would have thought people would go out hiking, trying to commune with nature while lighting up a cigarette?
Caught Laurie trying to grab a few minutes of shut eye up here on top of the world. It was so peaceful a nap would not be out of the question!
In search of what locals call “A Puffer”, or a hike that gets you breathing hard, we found a dead end road with a kiosk describing a nice hike up the hills for a good view of the lake. The water was once again, a fabulous color and it was warm enough for Laurie to don her summer shorts.
As we are now becoming veterans of the New Zealand driving scene, this sign was not only not a deterrent but a big “welcome to an adventure” advertisement.
This fabulous road wound along the lakeshore for almost 12 miles. Very rarely was there a guard rail and many times the drop to the lake was at least 50 feet. No oopsies here!
We figured that were there is a cattle stop sign, there should be some cattle to get a moo-on with.
Who is speaking the more fluent NZ cow language? Me or my friend? Fabulous creature!
If you look closely you can see the road winding along the shore. The hike up a farmers path was a good workout but no views for pics and the wind almost blew us off the mountain. All in a good days hike.