Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

After experiencing days of rain we have finally had a brilliant sunny day, so we thought it would be a nice day to go for a walk in the hills. So we headed to the gondola and hitched a ride up the hill (we walked to the gondola building). Once up the hill we had to decide what to do next. We could have gone to Lyttelton and back (or caught the bus home from Lyttelton), gone back down the gondola and walked home, or walk across the summit road to Mt Pleasant hill. We choose the latter… and so these photos show our journey across the hills and down Mt Pleasant.

A view of the city – it’s shrunk rather a lot in recent years.

Looking East to Southshore and New Brighton.

Looking down into Lyttelton.

The Summit Road.

A view down into Heathcote and Morgans valley. A lot of this land is now ‘red zoned’ which means people will have to leave their homes (to be bought by the government). The hazard for this part of Christchurch is rock-fall – as the rocks have been destabilised due to all of our earthquakes.

Looking back towards to the Gondola building from the Summit Road. The Summit Road is closed just below the Gondola.

Starting the descent down to Mt Pleasant from John Britten Reserve (just off the Summit Road).

A tree in the Old School Reserve (we are quite the way down the hill now).