Lyttelton - pink trapline track

Time 2 hours and 40 minutes
Distance: 6.7 km
Start: We parked the car on Canterbury Street, just up the hill a bit from London Street
Finish: Same place - it's loopish
Date: Friday 11th September 2026
Warning: It's a bit off-piste and steep

About a year ago, me and my hoa rangatira stumbled upon this track whilst mooching around the hills behind Lyttelton. It's an easy-to-miss, albeit reasonably well-used, trapline track that runs from near the old Lyttelton quarry up through a steep valley to the Mount Pleasant Bluffs Track. It can be accessed from the Major Hornbrook Track.

Today's walk was plan D, because plans A, B and C had all fallen by the wayside. Nevermind! Kim picked me up at 8ish and we parked on Canterbury Street just up the hill a bit from the London Street intersection. From there it was a good 15 minute calf-stretch up to the start of the Major Hornbrook Track. Major Alfred Hornbrook (1814 - 1898), was local publican and run holder who formed much of the track as a handy link between his home in Mount Pleasant and Lyttleton township.

The Major Hornbrook Track climbs continuously up to Cavendish Saddle and the Crater Rim Walkway, firstly through grass and scrub and then into more rockier terrain. At the start, a fabulous kowhai tree, in full bloom, littered the grassy path with tiny tubular yellow flowers. About three quarters of the way to the top, we took a right turn on an easy-to-miss unmarked trail. It dropped down to a fork not far from the old quarry site. Here I erroneously chose the right branch. Five minutes later the track peetered out under three large macrocarpa pines riddled with traps.  I checked the gpx that I happened to have with me (very handy) and we back-tracked. 

We were now following a fairly obvious trail marked by the tiny pink-ribbons of a trapline. It was an enchanted mahoe forest and the ground was dotted with skeleton leaves. A good place to gather creative inspiration. The trapline is one of  940 installed by so called "WOPPers" - Conservation Volunteers working on the Whaka-Ora Pest Project (WOPP). The aim being to restore biodiversity across Whakaraupō / Lyttelton Harbour. To date 7,645 predators and 1,800 kg of rubbish have been removed, and 51,000 native trees planted. How wonderful!

The valley got narrower and narrower and steeper and steeper until we had rocky walls on both sides. Entangled supplejack vines looped above us. A chasm of sorts. A length of knotted rope helped us climb through one steep bit, and there were a couple of small scrambles with no ropes. My Lombok squatty practise was useful.

It was more that the expected 20 minutes to the top but eventually we popped out onto the "closed" Mount Pleasant Bluffs Track - pretty much at one of the climbing walls. A tiny patch of rare and endangered Pygmy Button Daisy (Leptinella nana) lay insignificantly at our feet. No flowers. We would have missed it if not for the signage.

The track ran under bluffs covered in orange lichen. We stopped to inspect. According to Wikipedia, "a lichen is a hybrid colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among filiments of multiple fungus." How wonderful! We chewed on peppery horopito, and meandered along to the "Track closed" sign where someone had cheekily scrubbed out the word "closed", and tallied the "number of rockfalls" ("NIL").  At Cavendish Saddle we got good views of the stadium and the snowy foothills.

It was a quick decent on the Major Hornbrook Track again. The last bit was through the Lyttleton Memorial Orchard where we read about the two locals who were killed in the earthquakes. Heart wrenching stuff. 

I could feel my knees on the steep streets of Lyttelton. It was lunchtime and we decided to check out the fabulous Cup of Rest Cafe where we sat amidst Delorus Umbridge style pink decor and sampled Persian delights with Rose.