Banks Peninsula

Sunday 17th March

We set off for our 2 day trek around the Peninsula which is about an hour's drive from Christchurch. You can do the walk either in 2 or 4 days so we opted for 2 otherwise you'd be hanging around all day and not walking much on the 4 day option. For some strange reason you spend the first night in a hut even though you don't go there till the evening. I thought it would be because you were in the middle of nowhere, but it was only 10 mins drive from the town. I am still puzzled...

Anyway, the promised rain happened. It blew a gale all Sunday night and the next morning we set off in the rain. It rained all day. It did not stop. No views from the summit, as you can see

Things looked up in the afternoon when we hit the coastal path; some really lovely headlands, a very quirky shelter

and a seal colony (complete with lashing rain)

You walk on land belonging to private landowners and they're responsible for the accommodation. The quirky shelter was the creation of those who owned the hut for our overnight stay. It turned out that the 'accommodation' was the result of some drug-addled escapee from the 60s whose imagination led them to create a sort of glade with lots of little huts. The glade was dark, dripping and dank. Here's the shower

 

Yes it's very pretty, but one of the walls is a tree trunk and bits of it are open to the elements. We spent about 15 mins stumbling around trying to locate the 2 day walkers' hut. Finally we discovered a sign, opened the door, to discover a hut about half the size of the average garden shed, with 2 child-sized bunks and some sort of weird calor gas thing. Our lawn mower has more space. Bear in mind I was cold, soaked to the skin and had been thinking of a hot shower for the past 5 miles. And here's some idiot telling me to sleep in a cupboard. With nowhere to dry anything, and a suggestion/instruction that as the 'hut' is so small, to leave rucksacks outside. My Mountain Hut Circle of Hell just got a whole lot bigger.

It's worth mentioning that by this stage The Editor was in an exercise-induced 'tired and emotional state' exacerbated by entirely unrealistic expectations about what our accommodation would comprise: nothing less than a rural Ritz would have sufficed ... Fortunately she didn't locate the owners as she roamed the encampment in search of satisfaction. A woman in search of a hot shower and fine accommodation is indeed a sight to behold... (I'll get my coat now ...)




We rebelled, ignoring this sign

and took up residence in a hut which we think 'they' didn't want us to use as it was for 6 and we are only 2. Sterling work from Steve who lit the wood stove and cooked the dinner whilst folk in a neighbouring hut took pity on me and let me sit by their fire so I could get over the hysterics in a warm place. And I never did get a shower...

Our forbidden hut starting to look cosy

Here's the route.

 

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