After warming up in the sunshine after our caving adventure, we made our way a short distance back down the main road to Castle Hill. Castle Hill is a named for the limestone boulders that are scattered around the hillside, said to be reminiscent of an old, rundown stone castle. From the car park it is just a short distance across the pasture to where the rock outcrop starts.
The limestone pillars are huge and seem to cling to the hillside in places. The massive slabs of limestone seem quite out of place amongst the green pastures that fill the valley bottoms in this area.
As you arrive at the base of the rocks you start to see trails running between the huge pieces of limestone. With no formal trails, you can just pick a path make your way through the gaps between the rocks towards the ridge line.
Climbing carefully over the large rocks you can look out along the formation which follows a break in the hills. Despite being quite smooth, the rocks themselves aren’t slippery despite being well worn.
Nevertheless, once you get to the top you want to feel pretty steady on your feet as it certainly feels a long way down! After peeking out over the edge, we decided to make our way back through some of the winding paths between the rocks.
As well as being a well-known climbing area, the battle scene in the film the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was also filmed here. It is easy to imagine why they chose this place to be part of the film, wherever you turn, there is always something different to see and the rocks give a strange sense of perspective.
We continued exploring, enjoying wandering through the pathways in the warm sunshine. Like many places in New Zealand, there are no formal trails or suggested routes, you are just able to discover the place by yourself.
Eventually we made our way out of the maze of rocks and headed back towards the car to make our way back to Christchurch.