Ohinetahi Reserve

High above Governors Bay, off the Summit Road, is Ohinetahi Reserve - 150 hectares of mature and regenerating bush, open grassland and rocky outcrops owned and maintained by the Summit Road Society. Today Claire, Stormy and I went for a walk along the high edge of the Reserve. The views down into the harbour and out to the Heads, even on a grey day with the hills still summer-brown, were magnificent. So too was the bank of cloud that spilled over Mt Bradley and Gebbies Pass.

We turned around just past this little patch of bush...

...when we saw the cloud lowering rapidly ahead of us - a reminder that the Port Hills, although so close to the city, can be treacherous. I thought of our ill-chosen turn-off on the North York Moors and also of the two young boys who died in a snowstorm off the Rapaki Track in 1883.