Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes
Distance: 8.5 km
Start: Diamond Harbour Stoddart Point Jetty
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 21st August 2020
We were all on time (😍) for the Diamond Harbour Ferry which departed Lyttelton at 8:50 am pronto. With the cute cottages and the Port Hills receding into the distance, we rolled across the swell for a quick but scenic 10 minute trip to the Diamond Harbour Stoddart Point Jetty.
We were planning a loop, so headed straight to the beach with the toilets and then onto the Mt Herbert Walkway all the way up through the bush to Bay View Road. This part of the track is only about 25 minutes but midway we were slowed down by a sewerage leak into the stream. Yuk. We lept across this great divide like Thompson's gazelles. I hope someone is going to fix it sometime soon.
Heading west along Bay View Road there are no footpaths but it's a quiet street and we walked on the road with no problems. At number 51, just past the topiary kiwi tree (which half of us missed), there is a hidden set of stairs (blink and you would miss it) which I know about from previous discussions with a local. It is supposed to be a paper road/public walkway but the land owners on either side have planted their gardens to obscure this as much as possible. You feel like you are trespassing. We strode on confidently, down the steep grassy hill and at the end clambered over some landscaping stones onto a driveway and then finally back onto Marine Drive.
From here we crossed the road and found the side track just before the red letter box at number 303 down to Church Bay (blink and you would miss this one too).
This is the Diamond Harbour Coastal cliffs walkway, a gorgeous track that hugs the coast all the way back to the Jetty. In spring/summer it has weedy flowers in abundance: Purples (echium a.k.a viper's bugloss and pride of Madiera); yellows (saltbush a.k.a boneseed); pinks (aloe vera, banana passionfruit and geranium); blues (possibly wandering willy although I have my doubts); whites (a mystery but some sort of legumey tree). Add this to the pine trees and the blue ocean stretching out to the heads and you could almost be in Spain (albeit 20 degrees cooler).
 |
| Unknown |
 |
| Aloe vera |
 |
| Echium (Vipers Buglos) |
 |
| Protea? |
 |
| Don't know |
 |
| Wattle |
A kind soul had left a "Letter To A Stranger" and we added our ten cents worth. Then, before we knew it we were back at the bay with the toilets and dilemmering over where to have coffee. This is always a tricky first world problem. To stay in Diamond Harbour would have meant probably rushing our flat whites (horrors) or missing the next ferry (even worse) and facing the fact that the cooking school has gone and the new cafe is just not up to the same standard. The verdict: Lyttelton. This meant a 20 minute wait for the ferry. We did a small detour on the way to the jetty to check out the sculptures then watched the kids fishing off the wharf (supervised but slightly alarming). The wind had whipped up and I was glad for my soft-shell trousers, down jacket and extra covid lock-down belly layer. The others were beginning to look somewhat hypothermic.
Not a moment too soon, the ferry arrived and whisked us back to Lyttelton for hot drinks at Supre (good music but freezing) and lunch at the Lyttelton Coffee Company (Yum).
Not a moment too soon the ferry arrived and we were whisked back to Lyttelton for hot drinks at Supre (good music but freezing) and lunch at the Lyttleton coffee company (Yum).