Bell Rock

Morning view of Lake Tutira from bus

After an hour uphill through the bush we emerged into fern, then grassy hills

good views from here

...but better ones from here!

King of the castle

Not feeling too bad considering the 5 hours of walking yesterday - this is another 3 hours

me at bell rock

Bell Rock

tried to find the loop part of the track by this trig but gave up and went back the way we came

Day off after all that - not us :-)  We did a walk to Bell Rock which would have to be one of the most interesting walks I've done in NZ.  Again inland - into the mountains to Boundary Stream, an area of bush where pests have been/are heavily trapped and it is a bird sanctuary.  We saw kaka, tui, kereru and heard bellbirds.  About 1 hour going mainly up through deep bush (nice and shady) then out onto some high grassed hills.  About 1/2 hour of uphill brought us to a steep drop into a valley and along the edge were weathered rock outcrops - one of which was Bell Rock.  We could again see for miles, mountains inland and along the coast in the other direction.  Had lunch there and then retraced our steps.  That should have been a 3 hr loop but there were no signs indicating where the loop track junction was, and we were too tired to risk getting lost and retracing our steps, so we played it safe.