After wending our way from the secondary pick-up spot at Humphrey’s Drive and up Soleares Ave to Mt Pleasant Road to the drop-off above Barnett Park, driver Viktor deposited 40 eager tree planters to be greeted by CCC Port Hills Ranger Fiona and her two assistants.
The site was a gully-head just below the top of Mt Pleasant [Tauhino Korokio], once the site of an early Maori Pā of the 1840s.
Being seasoned to the council’s planting methods, we were soon heads-down and planting a variety of recommended fire-retardant shrubs and grasses such as: mingimingi, karamu, mahoe, makaka (nz native broom) and some flaxes. The hole-digging was certainly easier than up in our former site at Thompson Reserve where the trees will have a good start.
With 40 experienced planters in action the 400 seedlings were in the ground by morning tea-time, very much impressing our supervisors. Morning tea was taken on the roadside overlooking the Ōpāwaho/Ōtākaro Estuary with a grand vista from alps to ocean.
After this pleasant break from toil, everyone made tracks back the bus parked at the top of Clifton Hill for stowing gear and readying for the start of the second part of our tramping day.
Leader Alan had us begin with the walk to the gun emplacements overlooking Te Whakaraupō and proceeded downhill from there to branch off down onto the Urumau Reserve track. Lunch was tucked out of the breeze amongst the rocks just before the descent into Lyttelton.
This is involved a tricky scramble down a narrow ridgeline to a gentler saddle with a view over the container terminal. The usual way down to Reserve Tce was closed due to tree maintenance so we continued down a mountain bike track which took us to Randolph Tce and on course to view the renovated Timeball Tower. This is a reminder of the earlier Timeball Station destroyed in the Christchurch earthquakes.
But why was the Timeball built in the first place? In pre-GPS days, longitudinal position at sea was calculated by comparing local time against Greenwich mean time, as measured by the ship’s chronometer. An error in the timepiece of four seconds translated to 1800 metres of distance at the equator, so precision was vital. By sighting a timeball dropped at known Greenwich time, a navigator could ensure the accuracy of their chronometer to the second. For more detailed information use the following website. [ref: https://visitheritage.co.nz/visit/upper-south-island/lyttelton-timeball/stories/an-introduction-to-lyttelton-timeball/]
After a meander around the historic site, we all made our way back along the main thoroughfare of Lyttelton to the marina where Viktor had the coach ready for our journey back to Bishopdale.
All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a Wednesday.
