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After our good rest, we broke camp and headed to the picnic tables for coffee. Then followed a big debate about what to do next. I wanted to stay closer to Christchurch and Dana wanted more challenging hikes. That was fine, but our first challenge was to get out of Taylor’s Mistake and back into Sumner where it was flat. There were restaurants, and my compromise request for all the upcoming climbing was getting breakfast and charging our phones.
We both hiked our bikes the mile out of Taylor’s and Rito’s Mistake on the sometimes 12-13% grade. In Sumner, Brigittes Cafe fit the bill and we got our phones charged (tho, the manager had to take them and plug them in for us), and had a good, cooked breakfast of salmon avocado omelet and a salmon bagel. After that, it was climbing time again, this time it was 1.3 miles and an average of 8.6% grade with 14.7% sections. I hiked much of that while Dana waited at the top at Evan’s Pass. The descent into Lyttelton was windy, but fun payback. We stopped at the grocery in Lyttelton for dinner and breakfast as there weren’t any provisos on the Diamond Beach side of the harbor. We took the short ferry ride climbed up out of the wharf and headed for Orton Bradley Park which was recommended by Glen who we talked to on our hike-a-bike out of Taylor’s. He said the campground was great, with flush toilets, cold shower, a kitchen and very good hiking.
We scoped out the park and the wind that we had at Evan’s Pass kicked up even more. Rain was forecast for the evening, so rather than set up camp, we asked a nice couple with two kids if we could stash our bikes by their camper. A hearty, “Yeah, Mate! No worries!” and we were off on our hike. My breakfast request and our waffling on where to go made the hike up to Mt. Herbert too much of a stretch to finish before dark (and/or rain), so we did the waterfalls hike and added the Magnificent Lookout as a bonus. It was so windy though, that sometimes we were almost pushed off the trail, but another 10K hike was under our belts.
Back at the campground set up camp at the far reaches of the park and then rethought that as we wanted to be closer to the toilets and kitchen in case the promised rain came. A very nice guy brought us beers and his and his wife’s unfinished paella from the cafe. We huddled in the kitchen which was well protected against the wind, made rice & veggies and reheated the paella. As there weren’t many campers, and all had self-contained campers and RVs, we locked the bikes in the kitchen.
The rain did come and we climbed in the tent for what was to be a windy and wet night. ‘
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