We started the day with a good chat with our neighbours, dairy farmers of about 800 cows from the Christchurch area and got more ideas of things to do and see, in the area in on the South Island in general. They are hikers and mountain bikers and have taken their two boys - 13 and 14 years old; in private boarding school so not at the campground - on many trails and tracks.
Mid-morning we set out to walk the Bridle Path, a path to Christchurch from Lyttelton, the next town and harbour over the hill that was the main route from Lyttelton to Christchurch in the 1850s when organized European settlement of Christchurch started. We parked on the Christchurch side from where the path steeply goes up for about 1.4 kilometers to a high point from which you have a choice of various trails. We continued on the Bridle Path down into Lyttelton. The path offered really nice views over Christchurch and Lyttelton. Lyttelton is a small port town with a small older centre with various eating places and a bit of a hippy feel to it. We strolled around and ended up sharing an authentic Italian pizza in a very small cafe style place. After that we caught the bus back to our car. There is a gondola that goes up the same hill the Bridle Path climbs, and many people take it and then walk down.
The afternoon we spent doing more walking near Christchurch. We started at Taylors Mistake (possibly named after a captain who mistook the bay for the Christchurch harbour) from where a trail follows the coast - mostly on top of the cliffs - to Godley Head. Godley Head had a defence battery in WWII of which there are some remains. You are usually able to walk a loop on Godley Head and see more of the remains than we saw, but there is an ongoing restoration project and a large part of the area was closed off by a fence. We ended up creating an alternative loop by walking the mountain bike trail back to where we started. Most of the way we had a little bit of rain, gradually increasing to a steady light rain which was fine for a long time as it was in the high twenties so quite refreshing. We did put on our rain jackets at one point but by the time we got back to our car it was dry again. The car park is at a surf beach and there were nice waves and quite a few people surfing.
Back at the campground we cooked and ate our supper in the communal kitchen/ eating area. There was a Dutch family with four small kids at the table right beside us and another Dutch couple with two small kids outside. Our neighbours are Dutch as well and are travelling with their four-year-old daughter. I have heard quite a bit of Dutch spoken in the campgrounds on our trip and most Dutch people seem to be travelling in New Zealand for eight weeks or more. Wise decision; New Zealand is phenomenal!
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