Back before the break, Helen Law led an excellent pre-Christmas trip to Te Kopahou Reserve near the south coast. We gathered at the WTMC club rooms on Saturday morning to begin our walk to the reserve. Our ultimate goal was some World War II bunkers and an observation post high above the Red Rocks and Sinclair Head on the south coast. We took our cars up to the car park at the Brooklyn wind turbine and began our walk down the sealed road towards the radar dome at Hawkins Hill.
One of the first things that happened to us was that we were greeted by a very friendly ostrich at the side of the road that seemed keen to join us on our walk. Alas it wasn’t to be as the ostrich was stopped by a fence while we continued along the sealed road.
We followed the road across the hills past a large mysterious castle-like building surrounded by fences and on up Hawkins Hill past the massive radar dome (which actually looks more like a cracked eggshell from close up). All along the way we admired the stunning views across the harbour and hills. We eventually came to the end of the sealed road and scrambled down a hill to find a 4WD Drive track out to the coast, gorgeous views all the way there.
We descended to the bottom of a hill where we stopped and took a break. We now had a choice to make. Did we continue on to the observation posts, go down the hill and make a loop back up and around or turn around? After a brief discussion we decided to try for the observation post. So it was back up another hill where we were greeted by a stunning view of Cook Strait and far below were some concrete shelters that were what remained of the observation post. We wandered down the hill and were treated to more breath-taking views of the South Coast, Cook Strait, and the Kaikouras. This we decided was a great spot to sit and have lunch and enjoy the ocean view.
On our way back we decided to take the same route we’d come in on and found the hill that we sauntered down on the way in seemed to be much bigger and much steeper going up! We wondered back along the ridgeline and noted the dark clouds gathering to the north over the Hutt Valley on the other side of the harbour as we headed back to the cars. We made it back without getting rained on and decided to top the great walk with a coffee at the Paramount Cinema café.
All in all a great way to spend a Saturday before Christmas.