Distance: 5.2 km
Time: 2 hours
Start: Norwich Quay, Lyttelton
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 5th May 2023
Foggy. Very foggy. But at least not drizzly as per the forecast. We parked at Norwich Quay and headed straight up Canterbury Street. The streets of Lyttelton are fairly unforgiving and soon our lungs were in hyper-drive (May the 4th be with you yesterday). I think if you lived here you would get used to it but we dilly dallied a few times to catch our breath.
We were aiming for Somes Road and the start of the Major Hornbrook Track -to which there were handy signs directing us on every street corner. Major Alfred Hornbrook was a local landowner who used this route to take supplies from Lyttelton to his house in Mt. Pleasant in the late 1800's.
We reached the Major Hornbrook Track and climbed for about ten minutes to where a small obscure trail branches off. This is the Chalmers Track - technically closed after the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, and so there are no signposts. Blink at the wrong moment and you would completely miss it.
Luckily (despite being heavily involved in a debate about whether the tooth fairy should write a letter of apology), one of our crew spotted the elusive turn-off and we were soon on a clear (ish), albeit overgrown trail. Heading east. There was a slightly unsettling off-piste feel to the whole affair and I could see the others looking a little uneasy. Where the fuck is she taking us this time? And true, it was not exactly the one hour amble I had breezily promoted the day before. And the "FOOTPATH CLOSED" sign didn't instill much confidence either. The grass was tall and wet, the path was muddy and narrow and we were soon completely saturated. Brushed with dew at every turn, even our hair was sopping. The views would have been fantastic but you couldn't see a jolly thing in this pea soup.
We squelched along to the old quarry and then nearly missed the next turn-off: an unsignposted even more overgrown trail running behind the water tank and wire security fence. Still heading east. Blink and you would miss this one too. I was in the lead at this stage and, besides being completely saturated, I was also completely covered in spiders webs. Occasionally I was trying to avoid them - they are so beautifully constructed - but mostly they prolifically crossed the path and we just crashed on through (and btw yes - spiders do have brains).
We finally intersected with the somewhat wider Chalmers Hill Track (they were short of names) and started squelching down the hill towards the Lyttelton Town Center. I apologised for the wetting - but everyone was up for the adventure. Bless you all. We passed the old stone wall and through a copse of deciduous trees awash with their beautiful yellow and orange leaves - signs of the end of summer and perhaps the new beginnings of autumn.
We came to Brenchley Road and then descended the steep and quaint and quirky streets to the Lyttelton Coffee Company. Lyttelton is full of alternative types (you know what I mean - carnies etc) and so no-one batted an eyelid at five wet chicks. We squelched in and were lucky to get a seat. Also lucky to drink their fabulous coffees and hot chocolates and eat their delectable avocado smash sammies and almond croissants. Yum.
After victuals we made our way back to Norwich Quay and the fog lifted. Ffs.
