Sumner, Godley Head & oceanside caves Adventure

Sumner Beach (from a fabulous city playground & garden)

foggy Sumner beach (person strolling with dog)

beach flowers @ Sumner

curve of the beach

winter surfers in the fog

a bit of the town viewed through the clock tower

the Godley Head Hills

Near Lyttleton Harbor

Taylor's Mistake beach (black sand)

cave @ Taylor's Mistake

trail to Godley Head

drop off the trail to sea

boys climb down to explore another cave & sea rocks

Another day of sunny weather motivated us to explore the Port Hills hikes around the seaside neighborhood of Sumner.

The beach at Sumner is a treasure.  The waves are slightly less aggressive (no rip tides but still decent boogie boarding & surfing) while the beach is enormous at low & high tide. 

When Robin explored Sumner on a foggy day, people were out strolling their babies, cycling with toddlers and walking dogs.  It was lovely watching people and animals appear & disappear in the mist.

Here are some views from a playground above Sumner.  The boys enjoyed the playground & the adults enjoyed the gardens & view.Then we drove on to a black sand beach cove called Taylor’s Mistake.  There we began the Godley Head trail & hiked by a second cove.  There we saw baches which are NZ weekend/vacation cabins in remote areas that one needs to hike in to.  Hardy folk in the early 1900s built many of them to get a breather from the city.  Some of the baches even had grand pianos in them.  Nowadays the baches have electricity(heat, etc) & water from cisterns.

Baches hidden in the cove

find the sheep

Lamb, moon & Eric

There were plenty of caves to explore along the water.  During WW2 the NZ army had several lookout posts in the caves & secret tunnels for supplies.  We were hoping to get to the tunnels but wound up getting foiled by the short winter daylight.

We hung out in a pasture with some sheep, enjoyed the day time moon and watched a front roll in.  The sun also began to set & the cold southerly winds (from the South Pole) swept in. 

We were near a remote car park & a family in an SUV noticed how tired the boys were and offered us a ride back to Taylor’s Mistake.  We happily stuffed into their car because we would have wound up hiking about two hours in the dark.  We are so grateful for our rescue. Now we have learned to plan for weather fronts & not hike too close to the end of the day!