Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

I’ve known about this walkway for quite a while, but I didn’t know what it was like, where it went or the conditions of the walkway. I drive past the entrance to it a lot (it’s on Port Hills Road) and think “I must do that walk sometime…” and then never do. Partly because the walk looked a bit woody and perhaps something I didn’t want to do on my own for the first time.

Well, today, I finally went for the walk, as we’ve had an absolutely stunning Autumn day with temperatures in the 20’s. So Bruce and I ventured up the pathway and both discovered this stunning walk for ourselves.

Very early into the walk, a little dog appeared from one of the paddocks and as we are animal fans we made a bit of a fuss of him. He was such a cutie and it was like he realised we’d never done the walk before because before we knew it, he was on the walk with us and kept running ahead showing us the way and then waiting up for us. He was an adorable little dog and his name tag said ‘Maz’. I suspect this is how he gets his daily walks! Clever little dog. He was totally unfazed at following us and once we got to the equestrian centre at the end of the walk he was off through the paddocks back home.

The walk goes between two valleys – Horotane valley and Avoca. According to Map My Run the walk is 4.77 km long and has a total ascent of 389.46 metres. And as you can see from the photos it’s a beautiful walk. I highly recommend it.