Wind-blown Birdlings Flat is satisfyingly bleak

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 11

Wind-blown Birdlings Flat is satisfyingly bleak

Birdlings Flat is a community of baches at the base of the Kaitorere Spit, the huge tongue of land that separates Lake Ellesmere from the heavy swell of the Pacific Ocean The entire landscape has a satisfying bleakness and openness of spirit, and despite the huddle of baches and the farm fences, is truly a wild place. Fisherfolk come here for the surf-casting, and rock hounds for the gemstones in the beach gravel, but the casual visitor will find enough pleasure in the stimulating fresh air of the place — and get enough of it blown into

them to last a week or more. Birdlings Flat roads The turn-off can catch you unawares as you are cruising along the Christ-church-Akaroa highway. From either direction it is a sharp turn, twice, once off the highway and then round a corner.

This is also the junction of Bayleys Road, the main road down the Spit, although the junction isn’t signposted and, with its narrow cattle stop, looks like a farmer’s side-road. It is a short drive to the flat to an open gravel carpark, which has a good outlook over the uncom-

promising shoreline. You can take walks north along the beach past the Lake Forsyth outlet (which passes underground through the beach gravels) to the magnificent red-rock cliff. On the way you can

.Off the fa beaten y track with Mark Pickering

rummage for semi-preci-ous stones amongst the gravel. Currents push the waters of the Rakaia and Rangitata Rivers, with all their river debris, up along the coast and deposit it by Birdlings Flat. There are lots of interest-

ing shapes and colours in the wet gravels, though they tend to look rather dull by the time you get them back home. Lake Forsyth Outlet road It is sometimes possible to drive from Birdlings Flat over the outlet of Lake Forsyth and on to the Bossu Road, but the road may not exist or be so soft in beach gravel that a car would get stuck. You should check it out by foot first, and make sure the track is compacted. See if any other cars have crossed and ask around locally if you are still not sure. Getting

stuck is both exasperating and expensive. This part of the Bossu Road gives a great overview of Birdling’s Flat and the spit, a view you could obtain more safely by driving via Little River. Kaitorere Spit roads This long spit is a plea-

sure to visit, assuming that is you like large amounts of nothing very much.. The main entrance road is Bayleys, which is straight and wide most of the way. It is unsealed after about 6km. There are two side-roads which take you closer to the beach. One (a rough, unsealed road) goes past

the network of wires and aerials of the research station (and past the local rubbish dump) to the sand-dunes. Here you can walk a short distance to the sea.

The second side-road is further along the spit, and also finishes among the sand-dunes. The yellowgreen grasses are pingao,

the native dune grass, while the pale green grasses are maram, a very vigorous and successful import. A programme of maram grass removal is trying to keep the pingao from being choked out by the maram. Jones Road offers an alternative entrance to the spit. Again the turn-off

from the main highway is a sharp one, and, once past the golf course, the road degenerates into a superior farm-track. It is still gravelled, however (with a bit of a hump in the middle) and if you keep following it, it eventually does a right-hand turn back on to Bayley’s Road. This junction is obscure, and quite easy to miss if you were coming from Bayleys Road. There are no signposts. Prices Valley road This small side-road goes inland (sealed about half the distance) up a rural valley with not a lot of interest except Prices Valley Reserve. This must be one of the very few places on the peninsula where you can actually drive under something like a true forest canopy. There are no signs that formally indicate the reserve but it is fairly obvious, and the scale of the big kahikateas and matais on the valley floor give an idea of what a lot of Banks Peninsula must once have looked like. Reminder It should be assumed that permission is always required to cross farm land on Banks Peninsula (with the exception of signposted walkways). The map is stylised and is not a substitute for a good topographical map.