Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Distance: 4 km
Start: Sign of the Bellbird car park, Summit Road
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 20th May 2022
This is a great walk to do when it is either mid-summer (36 degrees and the cicadas are deafening) or end-of-autumn (today) when it's cold and drizzly and you would prefer to stay at home but you know in your heart of hearts that you will feel good once you get out and get going.
The cancellations came rolling in, but us hard-core ones rendezvoused and drove up to Summit Road. We parked at the Sign of the Bellbird car park (which is in the process of a fancy renovation) and set off down the hill, past the Sign of the Bellbird stone house and the composting loo (quick stop) and then onto the Orongomai Circuit Track.
Edel had heard on a Radio New Zealand book review ("52 ways to walk" by Annabel Streets) that it's ever so good for you to walk in rain because the dampness causes the release of molecules from wet tree trunks, soil and leaves, which are beneficial to your health. I took a deep sniff and sucked some of those beneficial molecules in through my nostrils - which were actually still slightly blocked (they gave a faint whistle) from having Covid a few weeks ago.
The plan was to zigzag all over the place, thereby walking all tracks in a complicated loop-de-loop fashion. We took the first right onto Totara Circuit Track which headed disorientatingly back uphill for a bit before eventually circling back down onto Fantail Track. Under the bush canopy it was dark and lush and green, with bellbirds/korimako singing and fantails flitting fittingly about.
We had a short stretch back on the downhill Orongomai Track and then turned first right onto the Quarry Track. The remains of the quarry could still be seen, chizelled out of the rocks. Probably volcanic black basalt and possibly used to build the Sign of the Bellbird stone house that we had passed at the beginning. I gleaned all this and made some wild guesses after reading the histories of Harry Ell and the Summit Road and the nearby Halswell Quarry. Who the hell was Harry Ell you are asking? Well, he planned a summit road with a series of rest houses along the crater rim. The Sign of the Bellbird was built in 1914 and was once a caretakers house and tearooms. After the 1940's the house fell into disrepair but was eventually resurrected as a shelter.
We crossed over to join the Fantail Track again and then turned left back onto the Orongomai circuit. This took us all the way down, past a matai and totora (which we missed) to the stream. We paused for a kereru sighting before the big climb back up. At the rock lookout, the clouds had cleared and we could see all the way out to the Southern Alps which overnight had had their first dumping of snow for the season. Heart-lifting.
The last leg was on the Totara Track and back up to the Sign of the Bellbird stone house. We headed to Dusk Cafe which has fabulous views over the city. We rendezvoused with Nicole and nattered about life and death and stuff over coffees and scones.
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| Map from "The Port Hills" by Mark Pickering |