Port Hills

After an attempt at a weekend trip to Dunedin failed (once again due to high tourism season), the gang regrouped and planned an outing for Saturday: an excursion to the Port Hills. These hills are visible from most of Christchurch (unless its foggy), sort of like the Northshore Mountains in Vancouver - just smaller. We had to take two buses to get out there, which meant that the trip took about 1.5 hours. However, when we were waiting for the second bus in the city centre, we got to see a performance by a young Maori group.

Maori Performance from Ally Stocks on Vimeo.

We were all fascinated - its too bad I didn't get a video of them doing the Haka. Though not quite an All Blacks rendition, it was still awesome to watch.

We made friends with a pair of Canadian couples while we waited for the second bus, who were also heading to the Port Hills. The ride was only about 20 minutes to the base of the Christchurch gondola, where our new friends would get a ride up, and where we would begin our ascent. The hike was hot and dry but it was well worth it - the views were unbelievable. Not to mention we kept pointing out rocks that we thought Frodo might be hiding behind, or where Pipin and Merry would be running away from orcs. Naturally, I began a boisterous rendition of the Lord of the Rings theme song that had other hikers giving us odd looks.

What's that, Frodo? Your shoulder hurts?

View down to Christchurch (left in the distance)

One of my favourites from the excursion

When we reached the summit after about an hour of walking up, there were spectacular views. We'd been looking back at Christchurch as we walked, but over the other side there was now a breathtaking view of the Banks Peninsula.

Banks Peninsula

Lee and I at the top

We attempted to sneakily take the gondola back down (not having purchased tickets) since normally the operators don't check on the way down. Unfortunately, the grumpy old gondola man decided to come check to see if the group of sweaty twenty-somethings actually had tickets ... so we got kicked out. Frustrated, we first tried to hitch-hike back down, but then in a spur-of-the-moment decision opted to run down. What took us nearly an hour to hike up took us SEVEN minutes to run down. Needless to say, our legs / backs have been sore for days since.


Til the next adventure!
Ally