Distance: 13.38km     Time Walking: 4h 17min

Elevation: Max Alt 445m      Min Alt 26m     Vert Ascent: 546m

Today 47 trampers were looking forward to a closer-to-home setting for their foray into the outdoors.  Without the benefit of bus mic’, President Peter had gathered everyone together in the PMH carpark and welcomed visitors: Deirdre, Sun, Soo, Tessa, Eunju, Jan, Margaret, Glenys and Jocelyn; introduced leaders etc. and acknowledged driver Allan.

It was a long string that began the walk through the back of the Princess Margaret Hospital grounds and wended its way upwards through the right-of-way that would emerge amongst the houses of Lady Polson Lane on to Dyer’s Pass Road.   Leader Bruce paused the group outside the innocuous-looking entrance to what locally are known as the “Cashmere” or “Cracroft” caves to tell us briefly about how important they are for the siting of geotechnical equipment.  When you delve deeper however there is quite a story to tell.

The caves are located 30m beneath Banks Peninsular and this means inside an extinct volcano, basically separated from the South Island and Southern Alps in geological terms.  This was an ideal site to house three University of Canterbury [in collaboration with Oklahoma State University and the Munich Technical University] ring lasers forming a “U’ shape in two parallel 40m long caverns used in geotechnical experiments.   Going back in time to 1942 and the threat of Japanese invasion during WWıı, the caves were to be the top-secret location of the underground nerve centre for the military defence of the South Island.  The secrecy was so good that although nearby residents were aware of the blasting they never knew the intention of the project.  Even world-famous mystery writer and a local resident, Dame Ngaio Marsh mentioned it in letters but did not know what all the blasting was for.  Over the years the Cracroft Caverns have also been the site of romance when army men met and married WAAFs.  In later years, it was rumoured that the empty but not sealed caverns were a favourite spot for romantic trysts involving staff from the nearby Princess Margaret Hospital!  After many disturbances by the public, the landowner had sealed the entrances to the Caverns over 40 years ago.

City view on a cloudy day

Further up Dyer’s Pass we cut up through Cracroft reserve to the lookout for a short water break and to take in the city scape.  After more than two years, almost $3 million and a series of delays, work on the historic Sign of the Takahe is now complete and the distinctive masonry looks pristine.  Continuing onwards our leader set course for a magical mystery tour of the streets and byways via members’ homes in Longhurst Tce and Victoria Park Road into Longhurst Reserve and subsequently to Latter’s Spur Track which took us up to the morning tea rest at the play area.  Another historical tidbit was shared as we negotiated the stone steps: it was here on 22 June 1954 that 16 yr old Pauline Parker and 15 yr old Juliet Hulme, murdered Mrs. Parker with a brick in a sock.  Gruesome!  Morning tea was a much more welcome respite.  Time to move on.

A sorry sight greeted us as we neared Scott’s Reserve: the aftermath evidence of blackened trees and bush destroyed by the devastating February 13, 2017 Port Hills fire.  Sad to see knowing the tremendous efforts that had gone into planting new seedlings and nurturing over a long period of time.  However, it was not long before we were back into lush growth that had been spared the flames before heading down the Summit Road to the Sign of the Kiwi for lunch.

Sugarloaf left behind

To complete the rest of the journey after lunch, we crossed the busy Dyer’s Pass and made our way up Gilpin’s Track to sidle Sugarloaf on its Lyttelton Harbour side and coming up to the lower carpark and on to the Crater Rim track.  Continuing along this section we traversed through the lovely little bush areas of Scott’s Reserve before making our way down into Bowenvale and the bus home.  Today’s tramp was a “new” walk and one which everybody agreed was good to try.