Time: 5 hours and 44 minutes (includes lunch at the beach and some pfaffing)
Distance: 11.98 km
Start: Stony Bay Road saddle information board
Finish: Same place - it's there and back
Date: Friday 13th 2026
Walking time details: Saddle to Stony Bay 2 hours; Stony Bay to saddle: 3 hours
The first Friday Walkies of 2026! Yay! The plan: a looong drive and an even loooonger walk. Making the most of a short spell of fine weather after a wettish January.
The 1.5 hour drive from Christchurch to Akaroa is pretty, and today it flew by in a flash because we were catching up on a summer's worth of goss. Just before Waiwera/Little River, on the far shores of Lake Forsyth, we spotted billowing smoke and leaping flames. We craned our necks to see above the lakeside reeds - an out-of-control scrub fire. It wasn't long before a couple of fire engines shot past. Dramatic. I hate fires.
There was nothing for it but to continue on to Akaroa township. We chatted about 38th wedding anniversaries (tourmaline) and first interactions. Stony Bay Road was narrow, steep, windy, gravelly and pot-holey. I slowed to a snails pace to negotiate those hair-pin bends. Eventually we got to the tinsy car park at the saddle. We gathered around the information board admiring Hugh Wilson's wonderful hand drawn Hinewai map and printed information sheet. This is the southern end of Hinewai Reserve, a 1250 ha ecological restoration project started in 1987.
With a click-clacking of poles, we headed north for a few minutes on the Tara Track to the Ōpātuti Track junction. The junction is well sign-posted because sign-posts and information boards are a specialty of Hugh Wilson and therefore a pretty regular occurrence throughout all of Hinewai.
Ōpātuti Track descends continuously to Stony Bay through the most wonderful forest. The first bit is predominantly fuchsia trees whose pinky bark peels from the trunks like filo pastry. The fuchsia soon morphs into tawhai raunui forest (Red Beech). Lofty trunks with light green foliage. The forest floor is a mass of intertwining supplejack vines and ferns. The whole effect is ancient and primeval.
This track is also the last day on the 2-3 day Banks Peninsular Track, and we stopped to chat to people who were puffing up the hill - a fit young couple, seven septuagenarians and a couple of ozzies. Everyone marvelled at the forest. "Like stepping back in time" - a few million years or so.
About halfway down to the bay, the canopy opened up a bit and a cacophony of singing cicadas filled our ears. Kihikihi-wawā. A wonderful racket. They were flying frantically and haphazardly around us. First 1 or 2 - but then suddenly gazillions. One flew directly into my jugular notch. Another hit Nicole's forehead and a couple landed on Kim's earrings. A veritable bombardment and squawks all around (from us). New Zealand cicadas (we have about 40 native species) spend anything from 1 - 5 years underground feeding on plant roots during their nymph stage. Then when the conditions are right, they crawl out at night, up a branch and shed their skin, emerging as winged adults. The above-ground stage is all over in a matter of weeks. It's the males who sing to attract the females bless them. The females lay their eggs in trees, the wingless cream-coloured nymphs hatch and crawl to the ground, and the cicada life-cycle continues.
The track follows an unnamed river most of the way to the edge of Stony Bay farm where there is a turn-off for day walkers. We were soon in the thick of Mokimoki Bush. If felt like we were a few minutes from the bay until we came across a sign saying 30 minutes to the beach. Thirty minutes!! The nice thing was that the bush was dense, flowering and fabulous - ginormous cicadas crashing about with their long wings. It reminded me of Avatar cgi. We came through a grove of kawakawa trees. We paused to hunt for kawakawa loop caterpillars while Kim crushed some kawakawa leaves to put on her ongaonga sting. This did the trick apparently - so I am filing that knowledge away as "good to know".
We got to Stony Bay just on lunch time. Seals were lolling and rolling in the water scratching their tummies. We settled down on the rocks and ate sammies and watched them play. Baby seagulls hassled their mums. Cute. Some of us had their togs but yeah nah.
After checking out the loo (quirky), it was time for the return. From the beach we followed a path over a makeshift bridge and up the river to the huts. The owners kindly let us through the front gate and we crossed the farm. We were soon back in the Hinewai Reserve and climbing to the altitude where all the cicadas were still in bombardment mode. A cicada skimmed my nose and another got caught in my hair. We stopped to take photos of the nymph cases still hanging in the trees.
The track got steeper and steeper and we slowed to a steady plod - intermingled with copious rest stops. When you slow down in forest like that, you notice the wonder of it all. The lichens, fungi and ferns. At the Zigzag Track junction, a pest control dude carrying a gun (gulp) caught us up and stopped to chat. He told us that the area is pretty much possum free these days - which is nothing short of a miracle. He also told us that the if you split the stem of the ongaonga, the juice is a good antidote against the sting. "Good to know".
At last we were at the top. In the Wish I dropped to a low a gear and drove slooowly down the narrow gravelly Stony Bay Road to Akaroa. The fire was still smoldering at Lake Forsyth, but under control now and a couple of fire engines trundled past us on their way home.
