Lyttelton Harbour panorama
Date: 26 Jan 2002, The Press, Christchurch, page WE11
Captions: Left: The DOC-restored 1867 Signal Station on Adderley Head Reserve above Lyttelton Harbour. Below: Walker strolling above Little Port Cooper, Lyttelton Harbour, from Adderley Head.

A long, steep climb it might be, writes PAT BARRETT, but the view from Adderley Head is well worth it.

FACT FILE Mount Evans and Adderley Head Reserve can be reached via Port Levy Saddle Road through Diamond Harbour, one hour's drive from Christchurch. Permission is required to cross farmland to the peak and headland. Contact Philip Helps, Port Levy. An easier and lower route is available through Camp Bay beyond Purau. Contacts: Mr and Mrs Stapylton-Smith, Camp Bay. A donation of $1 per person is requested, which is given to the Red Cross. Note: both routes are closed during the spring lambing period. Access to the reserve is open all year via boat through Little Port Cooper. Grading: Moderate. Time: Mount Evans from Port Levy Saddle 1-2hrs. Headland from Mount Evans 2-3hrs. Return trip: 3-4hrs. Headland via Camp Bay 2-3hrs. Headland via Little Port Cooper 1hr. Map: Banks Peninsula.

Adderley Head is one of the two headlands guarding the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour. It lies on the southern approach opposite the more well-known Godley Head. As it juts out into the Pacific almost 2km beyond Godley Head, it commands a much wider perspective of Pegasus Bay and has a real "ocean feel" to it when standing atop the headland gazing northwards.

It is also isolated. Though readily accessed by boat, through Little Port Cooper, site of the old whaling station on the western flanks of the headland, it is a long and sometimes hot march for those coming overland. We chose the longest, though most spectacular, access route -- via Mount Evans, 703 metres high.

This entails a steep, rough climb along the ridge top, with some sidling necessary to avoid thick scrub and bluffs, until the ridge crest broadens and can be followed directly to Mount Evans' tussock summit from where you get a grand panorama of harbour, plains, ocean, and mountains.

This view is perhaps better than that gained from Mount Herbert, at 920m the Peninsula's highest summit. Beyond Mount Evans you follow a broad, curving spur all the way, dropping gradually to the final plateau just before the headland. Though this is long it is easy going.

At Adderley Head there is a surprise awaiting first-time visitors: the restored 1860s signal station which stands on the head summit at 184m above the sea.

Built in 1867 and restored by DOC from 1995 to 2000, it is complete with benches and some interesting cabinet work inside. There is even a "hut book" which DOC has installed. The station was used for navigation purposes for ships entering and leaving Port Lyttelton, with the Stationmaster, who lived at Little Port Cooper, signaling the inner harbour when vessels were passing, and keeping a log. It was manned 24 hours a day until its closure in 1949.

The setting is magnificent, especially if a large vessel is plying the waves beneath the headland out into the expansive South Pacific. Gazing inland there is an unusual view of the port, the Port Hills, and the broad sweep of Pegasus Bay all the way to the Seaward Kaikouras. Eastwards lies Port Levy and Baleine Point.

Here there is a pervading sense of space, which together with the surge and swell of the ocean, the call of the gulls, and foam rimming the beaches, lures you to stay and contemplate the scene.

This sense of leisure was heightened by the realisation of the long, hot, steady climb back to Mount Evans awaiting us on the spurs above. Reluctantly we left to begin the ascent, still revelling in the view and a brief encounter with the past.