Banks Peninsula

Governors Bay on the Lyttleton Harbour

Malcolm finds some strange geological features

start of the rail trail

Lake Forsyth

between Lake Forsyth and Birdlings  Flat

Malcolm and sheep

 

Birdlings Flat - once a railway station

on the trail

Lake Ellesmere

 

We are presently camped behind the pub at Little River on the Banks Peninsula.  Today we rode some of the Little River - Christchurch rail trail.  We started at Little River and the trail goes first beside Lake Forsyth.  There were lots of wildflowers along the edges of the trail and in the lake lots of black swans and cygnets, ducks (including presumably blue ducks as it's famous for them) and grebes etc.  Then across farmland at the bottom of Kaitorete Spit and on to the Kaituna Lagoon at the edge of Lake Ellesmere where there were millions of Canada Geese.  Then we cycled back, it took 2 and 1/2 hours and  we felt it the last half an hour.  The weather was great, nice and sunny - a change from the last few days!

We were staying in a motor-home park on the outskirts of Christchurch.  One day we drove to Lyttleton and saw the damage the earthquake had done there.  We were trying to drive round to Godley Head to do a walk but the roads were blocked off whichever one we tried.  So we drove around the harbour instead to Govenors Bay and did a walk on an old carriageway (built by prisoners in the 19th century).