Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

The track up to Major Hornbrook (just to the left)

Tonight my friend Emma and I went on a 3.5 hour walk in the Port Hills (one of our favourite routes). As you can tell from this photo it was a lovely evening for it (well it started off that way!). We struck wind at the John Britten Reserve, a Southerly and it was bitter and strong (we both thought at one stage we were going to be knocked off our feet). We start our walk from Scotts Track which you can find at the beginning of the Bridle Path (it’s the track that goes off to the left about 50 metres from the car park). Scotts track is a lovely walk and it goes through to the Heathcote Quarry. You can then you can take the rather steep Kenton Track up to Major Hornbrook Road.

The view from Major Hornbrook

We go past Major Hornbrook and continue up the hill to the Summit Road. We then go along the Summit Road to the Gondola, and then along to meet the top of the Bridle Path which we go down to get back to the car park. We were both pretty relieved to be in the car – the winds sapped our energy and we both just wanted to get home and have a cuppa tea (have just had mine!).

Left: John Britten Reserve, Right: looking over to the Gondola

The image on the left is taken in the John Britten reserve while we had a snack and some water (during dusk) and the image on the right shows the Gondola on the very top of the Port Hills – we walked around the back of it and then back down. My feet are a bit sore! I plan to be doing a lot more walks in the next few months, so you can expect to see a few more of them!