Time: 1 hour
Distance: 2.6 km
Start: Ōtepatotu Reserve car park on Summit Road
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 26th May 2023
About 90 km from Christchurch, on the picturesque Summit Road between Hilltop and Akaroa is the Ōtepatotu Scenic Reserve Walk - a pleasant "stroll" through an enchanted forest, which takes you up to the summit of Lavericks Peak (755 m). According to the Department of Conservation/Te Papa Atawhai website, Ōtepatotu "loosely" translates to "Place of the fairies" in Te Reo Māori (I suspect "loose" is about right because I couldn't find any confirmation of this anywhere else).
We drove via the Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupo bays and had plenty of time to stop for a leisurely morning tea at the Little River Cafe where we checked out an interesting exhibition: "Happiness is..." by Lisa Grennell. Slightly plagiarised from the style of Banksy - but pretty cool all the same. Definitely worth a visit.
Back on track, we wound our way up to the Hilltop turn-off. Summit Road is always a stunning drive. Today we had the slightly apocalyptic feel of a wild wind and a Nor' western Arch. The Kāhu/Australasian harriers (a.k.a. the swap harrier, swamp hawk, Australasian marsh hawk) were out in force - no flapping needed - just hovering on a stiff breeze.
We parked and set off on the track into the bush. Firstly, we climbed up the hill to the lookout. This is a native forest remnant and now and again we stopped to admire the mighty totara's. I am not sure why these trees's escaped the fate of their lofty fellows because almost all of Bank's Peninsular was extensively deforested (>98%) by Europeans between 1860 and 1900. We were soon at the lookout and we could see out to the harbour and beyond. Fabulous.
From the lookout it was a wee bit of a back-track into the forest and thereby onto the loop track which we were traversing anticlockwise. We were now in the thick of it, walking amongst the totara, fuschia and ferns. The green of the chlorophyll somehow hits the eyeball and calms the mind (a.k.a Japanese forest bathing or shinrin-yoku). This particular forest has a wonderfully prolific adornment of hanging mosses - enhancing that feeling of enchantment.
It is only a 150 m climb from the car park to the summit. As we approached we could here the swish-swish of a windmill blade going like the clappers. The small windmill stands at the summit, and powers a weather station below. We didn't linger for too long - it wasn't super cold but chilly enough not to dilly dally. We continued on the loop, and all too soon we had descended back to the lookout and then on to the car park.
We returned to the Little River Cafe for a late lunch and then on the way back to Christchurch we pumped up the volume for a sing-a-long to some old favourite 70's guitar beats with a dash of drum and bass thrown in for good measure. Highly recommended for the soul.
