New Zealand Walk: Gebbies Pass to Packhorse Hut
Asmall group of the Sunday Trampers walked to the Packhorse Hut, part of Te Ara Pataka/Summit Walkway 30 minutes from Christchurch. . It is approximately 5.8 km one way taking about two hours and then of course you have to make the return trip.
You can walk further to Mt Herbert and beyond and over to Kaituna Valley and Orton Bradley Park.
It was a very nice sunny day again and we parked safely out of the way of the logging trucks which were active in the area. The views were again absolutely spectacular. The track has changed quite a lot as a lot of the trees have been cut down. It is still a great walk to do.
As we started we could see the Packhorse Hut roof, unbelievable really that we were going to walk that far, sometimes you think it is impossible but off we went. We were soon climbing but we were in no hurry as we had all day.
We had our morning tea at a nice view point and then carried on up amongst where all the trees had been cut down. We also had to climb over some trees that had been blown down in one of the storms, this was quite safe and rather fun, something different on a walk!
Further on we came to our usual group of rocks where we always have a little fun taking photos. A little further on there are the volcanic dyke rock formations in lines coming down the hill.
We enjoyed a very nice lunch inside
the Packhorse, it is very tidy and clean and has a very big log burner with plenty of wood as it can still get very cold at night. The hut has nine bunks and you need to book for the hut. It is definitely well used by trampers and cyclists.
After lunch we headed back, normally we do go further but thought we would have a reasonably easy day so we headed off the way we came up and it is always a little different going back as you can still see things that you never saw on the way up.
We had a very good time and felt we had a good work out for sure. We returned to Christchurch after a fantastic day out.