THE OUTSKIRTS OF DUNEDIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 22

THE OUTSKIRTS OF DUNEDIN.

A TRAMPER’S PARADISE. Written for the Otago Daily Times

By E. V. B,

typical Dunedinite is content to Saturday in the garden or to sit huddled up watching a cricket match in Bummer or a football match in winter. It he owns a car, as like as not he delights to drive to Brighton, Portobello (by the low road), Karitane, or some such place, simultaneously watching the route and admiring the. scenery. At one ot these places he descends to have afternoon tea and sit chatting with his friends -then again he enters his car and. arrives home after spending a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon. Is this the energetic lue for the sedentary worker to lead after hours. . True, some office workers play cricket or but what a few compared with the spectators! In this series ot articles an attempt is made to show ~0 walks that can be done by cj i j Un6( iiu Hamper. Some require a Saturday afternoon to complete them, more require a whole day, and a few will occupy several days. BLACK HEAD.

The trip to Black Head, which can be Gone in an afternoon, is well known to most who taste of “the joys of the open road. We leave St. 1 * Clair and follow the coast line round to Tunnel Beach. InBtead of stopping there, as is done by Baost beflannelled walkers, we continue happy and comfortable in our old clothes and stout boots, on to Black Head (418 leet above the sea), which stands out in contrast to the neighbouring sandstone cliffs. The cliff line along to the head is composed of fossil-bearing sandstone, in which the sea has excavated some fairly large caves. The headland itself, composed of hexagonal basaltic pillars, a fine example of Nature’s exact 1 art, is the first volcanic rock met. with along this strip of coast line. On the northern side of the head we scramble down to the beach—a fairly easy, descent. This beach, which is usually,lined with boulders like those of Bqattie s.Beach, of the Otago Peninsula, is quite -good for bathing provided the swimmer does not go out beyond his depth. We follow along it, the sandstone cliffs towering above us. until we come to a mass of breecia. The next part of the programme depends on the tide. It is nearly, dead low and still falling. Good! We clamber round'the. mass of sandstone fallen from the cliff above, only to find our way barred by the vgater. Whether the tide is low or not, water always bars progress here to those who will not don bathing apparel. Round the corner we come to a small beach which is totally covered by water at high tide. At the end of this our way is again barred by water which, however, is not deep enough to hinder our progress to the cave just found the cornet. For many years this A not be approached because of the drifting sand, and it is probable that even now few people have visited it. It is about half the size of the Drill Hall, and has several side passages, which, however, do not penetrate far into the rock. In some of them water impregnated with lime drips from the roof to the sandy floor, thus forming stalactites under its surface. We dig in the sand with the zest of Klondike prospectors, and vie with each other in unearthing the weird-shaped figures of cemented sand and lime. These yapages are sometimes the retreat of pen.(puns, and even, as one party once discovered, sea lions. We clamber up to the headland again. Prom there we watch the sea_ pounding the rocks below. A good, climber can descend to a natural bathing pool below the extreme end of the headland. It is surrounded by wonderful basaltic pillars, the best example of such anywhere near Dunedin, but, as the descent to it involves work with loose rock, the novice is not advised to try it. .From the pool we could climb round the foot of the head to Green Island Beach, but only if the tide were low, This beach on the south side of Black Head is rather unsafe for bathing if the swimmer persists in going out beyond his depth. The stream which flows on to the beach supplies water for our afternoon 'tea. It is not over clean, however, and the visitor may, therefore, think it worth while to get water from a farmyard tap not far up the grass road running on to the beach. In the stream, by the way, there is a blue clay, which is said to he quite satisfactory for modelling. The grass road, to the beach takes us on to the ..Dunedin-Black Head road, which we follow into Dunedin. S.WAMPY HILL. - We have only a Saturday afternoon at our disposal. That is. unfortunate, but let us make the most of it. We set out from Duke street and. proceed up the Leith Valley road, which soon begins to rise, and about half a mile above the Valley School we £ome to-a tarred footbridge, which crosses Leith Stream and follows up Morrison’s Burn to a dam and a pipe line. [This was written prior to the recent flood in the Leith. As a consequence of that flood, very little of the pipe line remains,, and the dam, which acted as the intake to the pipes, is practically non-existent, having been destroyed , by the huge volume of water that poured down Morrison’s Creek.] “ Good luck to those fashionably dressed unfortunates patrolling St. Clair esplanade,” we say, and forthwith, keeping to the main stream, up the creek we go, jumping from boulder to boulder, and vaulting ovjer or swinging under obtruding tree trunks. Two miles of this .energetic travelling, in which lye work off some of the energy accumulated by . a week of work in confinement, brings ?, n to Swampy, somewhat to the south of the Spur, 2188 feet above sea level. Of course, many Hampers say to us, Wbat a foolish route to take to Swampy Effl! „We always take such and such a route. . We can only reply that it is our pet desire to leave the'beaten track. Swampy Hill is a large expanse of more or less flat ground covered by manuka, tussock .grass, and ■ swamp. The trig station is about, a mile north-west from the Spur. We .are still determined to return home by . other than the route taken by all and sundry. In the vallev on the north- side of the Spur is Ferguses Creek, which we follow down to the pipe line track, leading on to the Leith Valley road, which takes us down to Dunedin.

Now suppose we have a day at our disposal and wish to visit Swampy again. We start out from Duke street and tramr the six miles up to the turnstile, and thence along the old pipe line track. This pretty route is well kept until it leaves the pipes, when it becomes narrow and very muddy. After tramping along tjiis for a time we come to open ground, which shows, us that we are on the north end of Swampy. This is the route taken by moat ■walkers, and it is well to follow it once, twice, or even more often, but to take it every time on§ visits Swampy Hill is foolish. .

Jt is impossible to give any routes over Swampy, for there is none that is well marked. That is why it is dangerous to be trapped there by the fog. There is one track resembling the bed of a stream more than a track, called the Old Waikouaiti Trail, which leads down to the township of that name. But we wish to arrive home, and not over the route by ■which we came. Well, from whence we are we wander (that is the best term to use for tramping in Swampy) in a couth-westerly direction, soon reaching the Swampy Hill trig station and the" old Waikouaiti Trail. We follow this along to Flagstaff, 2187 feet above sea level, where it takes a bend to the south, ultimately reaching the Wakari road, w;hicli wefbllow to Kaikorai.

OKIA FLAT AND THE PYRAMIDS. We take the bus or even walk over the nigh road to Portobello. Thence wo tramp for about two miles along to Lower Portobello, when we come to the ,Wicklifie ■ Bay • road, - branching off near Gill’s corner.. This takes us over the hill into -Papan'ui Inlet, ■ along its edge, and then; for about two miles over Okia Flat, when ;it stops at a gate labelled “ Trespassers- will be prosecuted.” : Before we come to .that gate we break across the flai towards . the Pyramids. Okia Flat is a dreary place, one of the most forlorn anywhere near Dunedin. It is its unique dreariness that makes it worth visiting When wet weather dogs the tramper lie will have thrills in plenty while wend'ng his way round deep drains and swollen marshes over to the Pyramids, and he must look on a sudden watery immersion vrn the boot tops as a mere bagatelle, for he has escaped a Wetting up. to the waist, which can easily come his way. But when, the sunshines brightly, and has done so for several; days, Okia" can be traversed with impunity, and one can

tramp through the marshes dry shod, though the channels which drain the flat stdl remain traps to the unwary. The Pyramids are easily recognisable from as far away as the lime kilns at Hooper’s Inlet, for they both bear a striking resemblance to many-sided pyramids—one especially, the smaller of the two, which is separated from the main body ol the hill. In the smaller pyramid is a cave, which has two openings -one on the ground level and one.near the summit, thus resembling the one in which Tom' Sawyer was trapped. Between the Pyramids is a slimy bog, which is moist at all times of the year. When I first explored this place it was early spring, and the sky was black, while a b'tterly cold rain fell; all the swamps of which the flat can boast being well filled, and thus I arrived at the Pyramids wet below and wet above. From here, too, a cliff runs along above the flat and on to the beach. I was contemplating the best method of crossing the marsh between the Pyramids when a hawk flew up from it. This place, I thought, would be a fitting scene for the Lost World (by A. Conan Hoyle), the hawk being the pterodactyl seen by Professor Challenger. It is suggested that all Hampers should visit Okia Fiat and the Pyramids both to receive from the former an impression of how forlorn Nature can be and to view from the latter the strange freak of volcanic act'on. The visitor to Okia Flat will certainly be impressed by the targe amount of water it contains, but none of it is drinkable. Unless, therefore, he chooses to scoop up a little from a muddy trickle at the bpse of the nearby cliffs, he will have to forfeit h's cherished cup of tea. From the Pyramids we' make our way over to Wickliife Bay. there being no definite route, and tramp along the bench. At the south end we see a piece of iron 'framework, resembling a half-buried wheel —all that remains of the steamship Victory, wlrch was wrecked here’ in July, 1861. The Victory was bound from Lyttelton to Port -Chalmers, and ran ashore, through the chief officer mistaking Papanui Inlet for Otago Harbour. She was refloated, but the heavy winter seas brought her even on shore and broke her to pieces. No lives were lost, and her cargo reached Dunedin safely. It is for tliis reason that _ the shore of Wickliffe Bay is sometimes spoken of as Victory Beach, We return home round the edge of the inlet, over the Wickliffe Bay road to Lower Portobello. and thence to Dunedin.