Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes (car park to top of chair lift)
Distance: 5.6 km
In the aftermath of a 100 year flooding event in Canterbury earlier this week, we thought we should go for something "safe" today and so decided to check out one of the walking trails within Christchurch's "own" Adventure Park.
A Canadian company, Select Evolution, bought land in the Port Hills and developed Adventure Park: a network of at least 50 km of biking trails through pine forest with a chair lift up to the top. It opened in December 2016. Exciting stuff? Yup. Certainly Christchurch Hospital's radiology department thought so. Two months later, a massive fire, started (for unknown reasons) close by and burned for 7 days through a total of 2075 hectares of the Port Hills. Adventure Park lost most of it's trees and, with infrastructure damaged or destroyed, was subsequently closed for 10 months.
In 2019 Christchurch City Council bailed out the beleaguered owners to the tune of $4.9 million. During this time, a court case was proceeding with Adventure Park eventually (2020) being ordered to pay $12 million to local land owners. According to Wikipedia: "The Adventure Park had kept the chair lift running throughout the fires and the chairs appeared to catch fire and subsequently start new fires as the chairs returned to the bottom of the Park." The case is currently under appeal (as at 2021).
We met at the car park at 9 am on the dot (I felt a little guilty about our extreme punctuality). I had only recently discovered that their are two walking trails in the park (Thank you Lara!!). A shorter Forest Loop Trail and a longer Uphill Trail to the top. We were planning the latter because, from the top, walkers are allowed to descend for free on the chair lift. This was exciting!
The park was not opening until 11 am though and so there were "closed" signs on both the gate and the start of the track. Luckily, we are not so easily deterred by such petty obstacles. We all clambered over the rope barrier with relative ease and paused for a photo shoot in order to capture, in time forever, our blatant misdemeanor.
The track is well formed and zigzags uphill pretty much all the way to the top through regenerating pines. The baby pines are that lovely lightish green colour. They smell divine and are pleasant to walk through. Especially on a sunny winter's morning. Fresh and healthy, but alas, also a weedy pest. On the other hand they do suck carbon. So the question is: are they good or bad? I am conflicted. New Zealand householders typically install one in the lounge every year at Christmas time. After a few days of this torture, the tree begins to register it's disapproval: the branches droop, turn brown (it's summer after all) and all the decorations fall off. Only to be painstakingly returned. This is all part of our kiwi "cultcha".
As we strode up the hill, we paused from time to time to catch our breath and admire the views of the city. Some fog (or smog) was rolled out in lines across the landscape. In the distance the snow capped Southern Alps could be seen. After nearly two hours we were at the top of the chair lift. We could see over to Lyttelton Harbour and out to sea. We pottered around at the top for 20 minutes taking photos and admiring the views until the chair lift bell rang at 11 am on the dot and it fired up (not literally).
We clambered on and (those of us without vertigo) enjoyed the rapid and steep decent. Bluffs rolled past us below. A plethora of primary school boys were ascending with their bikes. Teacher only day. They looked slightly manic but happy.
We headed to the Adventure Park Cafe for victuals.
