| Leader | Mentor | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Richard S | Glenys | Judy R |
| Alternates | Ali | Bev | Margaret E |
Distance and elevation: Standards 18km and 567m; Alternates 14km and 410m
New driver Gary greeted us in an old bus. The bus intended for us had been snaffled by an earlier driver. We all set off from Bishopdale. Jen C standing in for President Graham, did her best without a microphone to welcome returning visitor Marlene C, Lynn and Linda’s guest Debbie B and to congratulate John Hawkins on becoming a BTC member.
We were a small group of 25, with 17 Alternate walkers and 9 Standards.
The Standards were dropped off at the Sign of the Bellbird, the Alternates at the Sign of the Kiwi – not before an exchange of phone numbers and conversation with Gary about where we are to be picked up. Sighting the bus is a high point at the end of the day and we want to get this right for the club’s longest tramp.
It was a perfect day for walking on the Port Hills. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right. Bellbirds singing in the bush at the beginning, dark flax spires and swishy swashy grasses on the ridges and all around us the aquamarine sea. A Goldilocks day.
Looking back at Witch Hill, there is discussion about which way the witch is best seen. And are there three people visible at the top of the hill or is it two people and a trig station? No way were witches involved for Māori first settlers. The hill was Te Upoko o Kūri – the shape of a dog’s head easily seen from Lyttelton Harbour. Witch Hill may have been so named by Europeans because of a tapu associated with the area. https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/ti-kouka-whenua/te-upoko-o-kuri/
Later, the Alternates look for signage telling the story about Linda Woods Reserve and find none. Turns out she was a keen tramper whose husband Bill Woods QSM made significant bequests to the Summit Road Society.
The Alternates at lunch are overtaken by the Standards who go on to lunch at the top of the Bridle Path. The Alternates overtake and have the lead until later in the walk when despite one of the Alternates, Gandalf-like, brandishing his walking pole and booming You shall not pass (or something similar), they too are overtaken.
On his first drive-by Gary has not found a bus-sized parking space. Following an exchange of phone calls about arrival times at Evans Pass and while watching the Standards descending the ridge ahead, the Alternates happily see the bus curling down the road to the now waiting Standards.
Text by Jen C
