Time: 3 hours and 10 minutes
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Distance: 11.5 km
Start: Tiromoana Bush Walkway carpark, Mt Cass Road, Waipara
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 17th July 2020
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 17th July 2020
When the Christchurch dump was shifted from suburban Burwood to the beautiful rolling hill country around Kate Valley, Transwaste Canterbury created two awesome walkways nearby as a softener: the Tiromoana Bush Walkway and the Mt. Cass Walkway.
Just over an hours drive from Christchurch, the Tiromoana Bush Walkway has got all the ingredients of a good walk: farmland, native bush, pine forest,wetland, a pond and a beach with fossils. Admittedly it would be better to pick a fine summers day, but instead we chose a drizzly Christchurch winters morning. Plus fog to boot.
The upside, which became apparent as we set off down the hill through the pine trees, was that it was the perfect conditions for fungi. Literally hundreds of these phallic-like little buggers were popping out all over the place. The bolete, I know to be edible, and a few of the others looked promising, but wild mushroom collection is best left to those who know what they are doing (i.e. Zhanna who - rather inconveniently - was in a work meeting elsewhere).
At the bottom of the hill, through a weird Narnia looking gate, we exited the pine forest, passed the portaloo (a quick stop) and then took the side track to the beach. This involved crossing a small stream with a makeshift bridge (a precarious log). I picked up a long stick that could have been easily mistaken for Gandalf's staff. As I stepped onto the log it sunk down into the water and I lost my balance. I had visions of the Balrog of Moria and someone shouting "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" as I narrowly avoided falling in. Nicole stepped nimbly across without mishap.
This golden sand beach with no name is on the North Canterbury fossil coast and the first rock that we inspected had a fossilised sand hopper (or something similar) in it. We were so excited that we then spent the next half an hour earnestly fossil hunting. The steep cathedral mud-stone cliffs are simply spewing mud and fossils here. You probably wouldn't want to linger under them in an earthquake. We could have easily filled a back-pack but decided to leave the rocks for the next visitors. No sharks teeth to be found but lots of shells and even a 2.5 million year old soft coral fossil (according to The Kiwi Fossil Hunter's Handbook).
We returned to the main track which at this point climbs up the hill steeply. [Update 2022: halfway up this hill, there is now a 15 minute side track to the lookout: Te Matairangi which has fabulous views on a fine day. Well worth the detour.] We decided to cut across Te Ara Kanuka which crosses a kanuka grass grove (a weird combination) and then sidles through native bush to join the main loop track again. The rain stopped and the cloud cleared enough to be able to see the gorgeous views back to the beach. Tiromoana means "Look at the beach" in Te Reo Māori.
Over the hill is Kate Pond, home to a bunch of those little round-bodied buoyant black ducks that you often see and wonder what they are. Well, they are the endemic New Zealand scaup (papango, Aythya novaeseelandiae). I must remember that.
The last stretch was a steep track back up to the main loop and a retracing of our footsteps, past the shrooms and back to the car. We decided to check out the Office Cafe in the Old School Collective on Main Road. Excellent food and coffee and some quirky shops. I could hardly believe my luck to buy a meter long shoe horn. And Nicole bought a teaspoon. You never know when these things might come in handy.
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