Signal Hill to Cleghorn Street

While the track is not marked all the way through on the map, it is there. The track follows farmland so we were lucky enough to walk through sheep and cows! Because the track does go through private property it is important to respect the land and the farming operations. Note that this track is closed during lambing season (september to november approx).

To get there head out of town through Opoho up Signal Hill road. About 2.5 -3km from the Botanic Gardens or the New World supermarket as you have come into farmland there are some stone walls to the left, turn left here and it's only another 200m up the road to the start of the track, you can park here.

The steepest part of the track is up to the top of Signal Hill, which, obviously, is covered with all sorts of transmitters and there is no view due to the scrub getting up too high. But continue along the track, following the orange track markers (it looks like you can go right or left as you leave the hill, go left - the right track will quickly disappear so you will know if you aren't on the correct track) and you will soon get lovely views of Mt Cargill and the Harbour.

The track is open and not difficult. It's about 4km and took our two families about an hour of meandering to walk one way. Once you walk up Signal Hill, which only takes about 10 or 15mins with little legs the rest of it is mostly down hill with a small climb up to Macgregor Hill but there is nothing too strenuous about this walk at all. Even so, the lolly bunny, who is friends with the family we walked with, paid us a few visits during the walk!

The fellas ran back to get the car to pick the rest of us up while we had a lunch picnic on the grass verge. If you have older children in your family I'm sure they could walk both ways but it's nice to have the option of a pick up at the other end for the little legs in our family. Please note that on the map above it looks like you can get across to Cleghorn St via Mt Mera, this is not the case!! You will need to drive back through North East Valley and up Main North Road to meet up with Cleghorn St.

This was a nice wander and with such fantastic views most of the way it is well worth it.

Moores Bush

Moores Bush was a "not too long, not too short, just right" kind of a walk for us last weekend. Sometimes the little legs in our family just aren't up for hills so we found a neat little walk that was flat.

The Specs:

• About a 7km drive from town to the start of the walk
• About a 2km walk
• About 1.5hours for our family

To get there: Head up Malvern Street to Leith Valley and keep going for about five or six km's until you get to Thompsons Road which is a No Exit road on the left. Head up there about 100m till you see an old wooden farm gate on your right and you're at the start of the walk. There's not alot of parking space but you'll figure something out.



The start of the track



The first part of the walk is well maintained. It's a nice little meander through regenerating bush. My girls love racing along tracks like this. Lots to look at and I think they feel like they are on a bit of an adventure (despite, in this case, hearing the cars on the road pretty close to where we were walking!!). We went around the loop which was well worth it or it would be quite a short walk otherwise. There are some big old Rimu and Miro trees and we made learning about Rimu our aim for the walk. By the end of it the kids could spot one and remember what it was called!

The track is really easy to follow in this part and there are track markers which turned into a game for our little legs too - "spot the track marker", they loved it.

 



The second part of the walk is a little more overgrown and you need to be more observant about keeping to the track. There is a worn path but you do need to look for it. There is lots of long grass, a few boggy bits and the stream to cross right near the end of the walk. The track is marked with some yellow and orange tape at various points. We managed to keep most of our feet dry with a few cunning foot placements and some lifts over things.





The girls enjoyed finding some flora and fauna to put on this.



The track finishes on the road, north of where you started. It's about a 10 minute walk along the road back to the car from here. Make sure you are going the right way! It is quite a well used road so do be aware of the traffic if you've got your little legs with you.

It took us about 1.5 hours (I think, I didn't check the time we left so it's a rough estimate!) to wander our way through, with the obligatory picnic stop half way! It's an easily do-able walk but remember it's not a clear track all the way. It is also on private land and access is through the generosity of the land owner so do stick to the track.

For more information see "Dunedin Tracks and Trails" by Antony Hamel.

Enjoy it out there,

Rose

Harrington Point

The Specs:

• On the pennisular road about a kilometere from Taiaroa Head
• Old tunnels and bunkers used in the war
• About a half hour drive from town
• Take a torch
• Ship watching and albatross spotting can also happen here

This sunday we did a mini-mission to Harrington Point. We were actually going  to walk up Habour Cone but didn't realise the track was closed due to lambing - a trick for new players on the Dunedin scene! We'll save that one for another time.

Instead we headed to Harrington Point to check out some old tunnels used as far back as 1890 until WW2. To get there you head out the Otago Penninsula road pretty much all the way to the end. Harrington Point is a small community made up mostly of batches and up the hill after the houses is where you find the tunnels (see map below). The site is not marked. You basically park your car just before the bend in the road and you'll see worn tracks heading down the hill to the tunnels and other various paraphenalia left over from the days we were worried about invasion! When I say tunnels, they are actually more like underground bunkers but you do need a torch when you are inside






The tunnel to the sea!

 




Entering the bunker, torches on!



Tunnels!



There is lots of gorse so that adds to the challenge for the little legs (and the big legs too!) but it is mostly off the tracks. It's only a short walk (like really short, two minutes) to the first tunnels and then you can muck about from there. The one we thought was the best was down to the left from the first tunnel. This one has steps at the entrance (see photo) and goes down, down, down, pretty much all the way to the sea. It goes for about 100m so it was pretty exciting. But at the end there was a big surprise, heaps of MUD!!!! The little legs all got a lift over this so only mum and dad got very muddy shoes and feet (it was up to my ankles!). Luckily the sea was pretty close so we washed our feet off there. On that though, it was a little bit of a scramble down to the sea, so bear that in mind if you decide it's worth your kids walking through the mud! You can walk back up the tracks without going back through the tunnel.








Just hanging about





Big Ship!



We were out there on a beautiful, still, sunny morning so we spent most of two and a half hours just mooching about checking out the tunnels, watching big ships come in and out, spotting for albatross, and having a morning tea picnic (food is always good when doing missions with little legs!). There were quite a few folk out there fishing too. It was a nice spot to spend some time. However, if it was blowing a noreaster I imagine it wouldn't be quite so nice. 








A sample of the graffiti art - pretty detailed.





One of the unexpected highlights was some of the incredible graffiti art inside the bunkers. Most of them were covered in the usual kind of graffiti but there was some pretty amazing stuff too. Whoever did it is pretty talented.  I always think it's a nice gift to find something unexpected in a place and the graffiti did that for me this time.



After the Harrington Point tunnels we headed to Taiaroa Head for a picnic lunch and some penguin spotting on Pilots Beach before going back to the beach at Harrington Point for a play with sand and water (another favourite activity for the little legs in our family).

More information about the tunnels and bunkers and a map of how to get to each of them, if you don't want to just follow your nose, can be found in "Dunedin Tracks and Trails" by Antony Hamel.

Enjoy it out there, Rose