Hinewai Reserve - Long Beach

Saturday 22 November

An enthusiastic group of four left the meeting place (Princess Margaret Hospital) at 8.00am, bound for Hinewai native reserve. Although the distance was only 81km, the winding road spins the travel time out to 80 mins.

At Hinewai we met up with Hugh Wilson, the Hinewai Manager, who managed to persuade us to go to plan B, i.e., walk down the middle track to the bridge, then take the new track out to the beach. About two years ago the Hinewai Trust purchased about 120 ha, giving easy access to the beach. We are privileged to have Hinewai close to Christchurch (and privileged to have Hugh looking after the tracks and keeping the new track in such lovely condition – ed.)

At Long Beach, we had a leisurely lunch, then returned by walking up the Kereru Track back to the cars. Overall height gain was 626 metres with 14kms walked. Summer is here, looking forward to more people tramping with PTC. We were Murray Hight (Leader) with Darcy Mawson, Karen Fincham and Joy Schroeder.MH