The Banks Peninsula Track

See photos here.

The Track is 35km long in total. The first and fourth days have significant climbs of around 600m each. It explores the Banks Peninsula which is an ancient volcano. Akaroa Harbour is the eroded crater of the volcano. This track is a private track. The nice thing about that was that there was beer and food for sale at most of the "huts". I had a few more equipment difficulties. I have broken both my camera strap (I have not idea how) and my sunglasses (I stepped on them but have duck taped them together)

Night 1
I stayed in a stargazer hut in Onuku. This hut is made of plywood and plexiglass. There is plexiglass over your head so that you can see the stars at night. I loved it. It overlooks the bay and I saw a sweet sunset from it while drinking a beer (which I brought with me for the first night). It was a cloudy night night so no stars unfortunately. I met my fellow walkers. All eleven of the others are traveling together in a group from a university in the US. They are a nice enough bunch.

Day1 Onuku to Flea Bay
The day was a bit overcast to start but that was fine as I had a big climb to start the day. After reaching the summit I walked down to Flea Bay via three waterfalls. At the last one I was really startled by movement in the water. All of a sudden out of the water slithered a big eel. It scared me for a minute. I think it was after the insects flying about in the air. After that I climbed up behind the waterfall which was pretty cool.

I got to the cottage at Flea Bay pretty early. I was walking around checking things out when Shireen (the owner of the property) drove up with a bunch of people for kayaking. I joined the group and we had a good afternoon on the water. A funny thing happened as we were pulling the kayaks out. Shireen found a blue penguin in one of them. When we got out on the water I I saw penguins and seals on the rocks We also went into two caves where we saw seals. One kayak couldn't seem to back paddle or turnaround. It was kind of scary watching them go in the cave. At least they didn't capsize.

When we came back from kayaking, Shireen took us into the garden and showed us a couple of penguin chicks in a nest there. The parents had initially tried to make a nest in Shireen's boots so she kept moving them to a box in the garden. Finally they got the message.

Later that night we went on a penguin tour. Flea Bay has a very big white flippered penguin population. It also also has a few yellow eyed penguins. Shireen and Frances (the property owners) make boxes for the penguins to use as nests. We saw more chicks and some molting adults in boxes on the hill.

Day 2 Flea Bay to Stony Bay
The walk along the coast line was not to taxing but was so beautiful. I saw hector dolphins from the ridge. I also visited two seal colonies on the way to Stony Bay. At the first seal cave there were lots of young seal pups. It was great to see them playing around.

I did an additional walk around the valley at Stony Bay. Part of it was really new and I got into a bit of stinging nettle trying to navigate the track. There was a nice little waterfall on it.

Day 3 Stony Bay to Otanerito Bay
Again a short walk but incredible coastline. I saw blowholes and sea archs. It was a clear but very windy day. The "huts" here were so cute. I stayed in a little one all by myself. The shower house was built around a tree. There was an outdoor bath heated by a wood fire. I would love to visit here again.

Because the day was so short, I went for a hike in the Hinewai Reserve. I attempted to go up to the Stones. Unfortunately, the trail was really overgrown. I was walking in plant life up to my shoulders. The trail was very hard to determine. Just short of the summit I decided to abort. I walked down and then up to a waterfall at Murderer's Gully and then down to Fantail falls. I certainly got some exercise in this little adventure. At Fantail falls I found a jacket and water bottle. As it was a dead end I figured that one of the university kids had left it. It turns out that one of them decided to climb up the side of the falls and was a bit worried when he got back and his stuff wasn't there. He was pretty happy when I turned up with it back at the hut.

Day 4 Otanerito Bay to Akaroa
Last day - from sea level up and over the Purple Peak saddle (509m) and back to Akaroa. I did a side hike up to the top of Stony Bay Peak (806m). There were pretty good views up there. I just couldn't pass it up.