Banks Peninsular Track
First stop Auckland, for about 4 hours before catching a plane down to Christchurch. The following day a bus to Akaroa – a beautiful French village on the Banks Peninsular about 80kms from Christchurch. This was where we were picked up in the afternoon to start the Banks Peninsular Track (BPT).
The first day was really hard, a 5 minute walk to the hut we were to spend the night in! The hut was great, it had ‘star gazers’, i.e. chicken huts with glass roofs and a couple of matresses so you could sleep under the stars – only it was cloudy, so we decided to stay with the electric heater!
We decided to do the track in 2 walking days rather than four. The first day we walked over Trig GG at 699m down to sea level at Flea Bay for lunch. It was a steep climb to the top from the hut, and it was quite blowy once we got there – too cloudy to see Mount Cook 230km away, but apparently you can on clear days. Coming down, was along a stream, in amongst the trees and ferns – quite jungle like.
The people doing the 4 day walk spend the night at Flea Bay – we just had lunch on the beach. We headed on to Stony Bay. Past lots of penguin houses – they have sliver tipped penguins and yellow eyed penguins at Flea Bay. We were quite disappointed when we realised that we wouldn’t see them come in from the sea at around 6-8pm, but we didn’t want to do 8kms in the dark…
We were luckly though, most of the penguin homes are man made, but I noticed a penguin made home and bent down to look in – and there was one at home. Not sure what type it was (Nick thinks yellow eyed, but I’m not so sure) or if it was fully grown or a chick waiting for its parents to come back and feed it. It was quite fun to walk along the cliffs listening to Nick trying to talk penguin!!
The track to Stony Bay was up and down around a couple of bays along the cliffs. It was blowing quite hard – but luckily not as bad as the day we got to Akaroa when we went out along a pier – about 20m or so into the sea and nearly got blown away.
The hut collection at Stony Bay is brilliant – a hot shower for a start – which is a very rare occurance. But the shower unit is built around a tree and is just an amazing contraption – with the combi boiler attached half way up suppling the hot water.
It also had a badmington court, swing, pool table and shop – champagne anyone? All on a trust basis. Write your name on a piece of paper and leave your money.
The best thing (apart from finding penguins, but more of that later) were the outside Kiwi baths. These are old victorian baths with a fire underneath. You fill the bath with cold water, light your fire, wait about an hour for the water to get hot and get in (you sit on a wooden plank so you don’t burn your bum) – you then boil alive (well you can add more cold water if it gets too hot!!) A wonderful way to soak away the aches and pains from a 19km walk! With a bottle of cold white wine…very luxurious.
We also found penguins by our house…two sliver tipped ones just in the box by the entrance to the hut. When we arrived we heard this grumbling sound and thought it was the drains – little did we know. One of the four day huts also had penguins – a coulple of chicks – which were accompanied by a parent the following morning.
The next day we headed back to Akaroa – 16kms. The first part to Otanerito Bay followed the coast. Once we got there we headed inland over a saddle to Akaroa. Inland we were in a forest again, with tree ferns and the like – it felt very tropical. We were also pleased to be in the shade as the sun was hot – when you were out of the breeze.
It was hard work doing it in two days – the bottom of our feet were sore on the second day – but the ice cream in Akaroa at the end was worth it!
Tags: New Zealand, Travel, Trek
Jenni
Mum and I have just had bacon and eggs for breakie (with the boys who are now playing on the Xbox) and had a look at your photos… Wow. Sunset’s in Fiji, outside bath and shower and golden temples. Mum just mentioned that she quite fancies a trip to Japan – watch this space!!
I’m very jealous…. sat here at home now! I read about the Banks Pensinsula Track – its one of the private tracks, isn’t it? Loved the bath…. hardy people these kiwis!!! interesting to hear the wind is still blowing – wathc out for the jetty at Ship’s Cove at the start of the Queen Charlotte Track when you get there…Mum and I had a near-swim experience there due to the wind!