Time: 1 hour (includes dilly dallying)
Distance: 3 km
Start: Christchurch Adventure Park carpark, 225 Worsleys Road
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 1st April 2022
Gosh. This is a tinsy walk and possibly vying for the spot of our "Shortest Walk Ever". But pouring rain was forecast (didn't eventuate) and so we donned raincoats (unneeded) and headed for the forest.
The Christchurch Adventure Park is technically a bike park but walkers are most welcome to meander along the parks two designated walking trails: the Uphill Trail which we have done before and the Forest Loop Trail which was today's destination.
I had forgotten the map, but there are handy signs near the information center with a map that looks like spaghetti thrown at a wall. We paused for closer inspection and found it surprisingly informative. We were soon on the right trail, walking past the cafe and heading up the hill under the pine trees. These pines must have narrowly escaped the Port Hills fire which ripped through here in February 2017.
The trail, in a nutshell, zigzags up the hill, along a bit and then down. Every now and then it crosses a bike path. These intersections are marked by large warning signs which are not easily missed. However, miss one we did (the conversation topic was a pithy one: Is the song of the grey warbler/riroriro irritating or not?) and before we knew it we were wandering nonchalantly down a mountain bike track. This potentially life threatening situation randomly coincided with the chairlift starting up and alarm bells ringing somewhere across the way. Were the staff trying to tell us something? We eventually cottoned on and scuttled rapidly across to the correct track in an off-piste fashion, pine needles crunching underfoot.
Our walk finished all too soon so we headed to the Christchurch Adventure Park Cafe and Bar for flat whites and raspberry hemp slices. As we were leaving it started to rain. A fine drizzle.
