After enjoying being outside in the sunshine at the Antarctic Air Day the day before, we decided to make the most of the warm weather and go over to Goodley Head on the east side of Christchurch to walk along the cliffs again.
The track looked very different in the spring with the cliffs all covered in bright green grass, when we were there in the autumn everything was brown. Looking back towards Taylor’s Mistake we could see that the beach was full of people enjoying the warm weather. The conditions must have been good for surfing too as there were lots of people in the water.
We decided to head off of the main track into Boulder Bay for lunch. We sat on the beach watching people collect Paua (Abalone) whilst we ate our lunch. Looking out to sea we watched a few sailing boats out on the ocean enjoying the warm day, although it looked as through the weather offshore wasn’t quite as pleasant as we could see a fog bank in the distance. There were a few people at the Bachs (cottages) which made it feel like summer was just around the corner.
After lunch we continued on to Goodly Head and the fortifications. As we climbed up we passed through several fields of lambs. Although they were pretty skittish and didn’t want to pose for a photograph!
Looking back towards Governor’s Bay we watched a large container ship leaving Lyttleton Harbour. It was strange to see such a large commercial vessel amongst the quiet hills and sailing boats.
We watched the boat head out to sea, as it was actually going quite quickly. When we got home, we were able to look to boat up based on the time it left Lyttleton. It was the Trans Future 6 and was carrying cars, it had started it’s journey in Yokohama (Japan) and had stopped at Brisbane & Melbourne before Lyttleton; the boat made it all the way up to Wellington by the end of the night! Although it was great to learn so much about the boat, we were a little disappointed that we missed next boat to leave Lyttleton as it’s only declared cargo was bananas!
From the top of the track where we watched the Trans Future head out to sea, we were able to look back through a gap in the hills towards Governor’s Bay.
As we watched the boat head out to sea, we noticed that the fog bank we had noticed in the distance at lunchtime was starting to get closer. Luckily we knew we didn’t have much further to walk and were still able to enjoy the views back towards Taylor’s Mistake and New Brighton as we descended the track back to the car park.
On the way home we stopped in the seaside town of Sumner and came out of the supermarket to find the sea fog we had been watching coming rolling into the town. It was amazing how quickly the temperature dropped as the thick damp air seemed to almost pour into the town. Luckily, as we climbed the small hill to our house we found ourselves above the clouds and were able to enjoy a beautiful sunny evening in the garden.