Last Sunday, Thomas and I decided to get outside and go on another tramp on the Mt. Herbert Walkway, which begins at Diamond Harbour, across from Littelton Thomas is from Littelton, so he knows the area well and has been up Mt. Herbert a few times and was able to show the way and point out different things that we could see.
We left in the morning and rode the bus to Littleton. There’s a tunnel through the Port Hills, which is where the Bridle Path, the trail that I hiked a few weeks ago, is. From Littelton we took the 10 minute ferry across to Diamond Harbour. From there, we started up the Mt. Herbert, one of the tallest mountains in the area.
Littelton from the ferry- I was at the top of those hills at the summit of Bridle Path
The walk was definitely much easier than that of Mt. Oxford. There were more flat parts and the track went back and forth to give you a break between the steep parts. As we were walking I was surprised that the track goes through private property, which is okay to walk through here as long as you stick to the track. There are steps built onto the fences so walkers can easily cross. But, this also means that a lot of the property is used as farmland for sheep and cows. So, as we were walking there were many sheep and cows that were grazing nearby the track and they would just look at us and run away as we got closer.
The whole way, there were amazing views of the harbor and the surrounding mountains and once we got high enough, we could actually see over the Port Hills back to Christchurch city. The last portion of the climb was the most difficult. It was really steep, and even though it was a short distance, my legs were tired by then so I was glad to sit down and eat a snack once we reached the summit. It ended up taking us a little under 3 hours to reach the summit, and the sign said the altitude was 919 meters.
Christchurch city and beaches are behind the Port Hills
After taking a break to rest and take some photos, we headed back down in the same direction we had come, back past all the sheep and cows. We reached the ferry dock in another 2 hours, so it didn’t take us as long as the signs had said. Overall, we walked a little over 15 miles. We waited for a little while and then took the ferry back to Littelton.
Hammond Adventures 