Bushwhacking through Cow Pies in a Cloud

This past weekend Daniel and I decided we wanted to visit the town of Akaroa, a French Bay colony about an hour and a half drive from Christchurch. Wanting to make it more of an adventure, we decided to hike there. 

Friday afternoon we took the city bus to Ltylleton and then the ferry across to Diamond Harbor. From the harbor, we hiked for about 4 hours up to Mt. Herbert. We were mostly hiking on farmland through the Canterbury plains, scaring off sheep as we tramped. We had great views of harbor behind us and could see farm land for miles ahead of us. After climbing 900m uphill, we finally reached our shelter for the night. We decided to set up our tent inside the shelter just to stay warmer. We arrived at the shelter just in time to see a beautiful sunset.

I thought we were finally out of the farm lands, but boy, was I wrong. After falling asleep for a few hours, both Daniel and I woke up suddenly to noises outside. All of the sudden we heard feet shuffling around. The conversation went as followed: 

Erin: I think there’s a sheep on the roof

Daniel:There’s no way there’s a sheep on the roof

(something runs across our porch and jumps onto the roof) 

Erin: There’s definitely a sheep on the roof. 

Then, the unfortunate happened. I had to go to the bathroom. Of course, I forced Daniel to go outside with me because if I’m going to get attacked by an animal, I don’t want to be alone. We went outside, and while we could not tell if it was a sheep on our roof, we did see some kind animal but thankfully we scared it away. 

When we woke up Saturday morning, we were completely above the cloud line. 

Above the clouds

We took off on our hike Saturday, hoping the clouds would rise. This, unfortunately never happened. For the first two hours of our hike, we were walking through cow and sheep farms. There were several instances where cows were on our trail. Most of the time, they would move. Other times, I was convinced that they were going to charge at us if we walked any closer. Walking through these farms also meant walking through tons and tons of cow pies. My shoes are currently sitting out on my porch so they don’t stink up my room. 

Daniel, the cow herder 

After avoiding all the cows and and finding the correct trail, Daniel and I found ourselves  literally walking through a cloud the rest of the day. The fog did not help us, as we were just piecing together several trails by following a map. Thankfully, Daniel is a skilled map reader and we were able to get on the right trail. 

Towards the end of the trail, we walked through an area that was just like a rainforest. While we did not get the beautiful views we were expecting because of the clouds, I loved all the different settings we were able to hike through. 

After 8 hours of hiking on Saturday, we finally reached our destination, The Hilltop Tavern. We ate a declicious pizza, and decided we needed to continue on our way to Akaroa. The Hilltop Tavern was 18 km from Akaroa, and neither Daniel or I wanted to hike that much further. So we hitched a ride with a family from Germany down 15 km and then hiked the last 3 km to Akaroa. 

We spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning exploring the town of Akaroa. It was a cute town with lots of little shops, but the weather was iffy on Sunday so we decided to catch an early shuttle back to Christchurch. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. I was glad we decided to hike through the Banks Penninsula, as we were able to see the Canterbury Plains and I think it’s a huge accomplishment to say that we hiked our way to Akaroa. 

Sorry for such a long post. Happy St. Patricks Day in the States, everyone! 

Erin