Short hikes in Central Canterbury, NZ
Canterbury is the largest region of South Island, New Zealand. In Central Canterbury, I took three short, scenic hikes, from northeast to southwest: Ryton Track as far as Lake Ida, Lake Hill beside Lake Heron, and Mt Sunday (Edoras in The Lord of the Rings movies). It would be easy to do Lake Hill and Mt Sunday in the same day.
Ryton Track to Lake Ida, near Lake Coleridge
Ryton Track starts beside Little Mt Ida, in a small rudimentary parking lot on the right (north) side of the gravel Harper Road. I took it along the south and east sides of Little Mt Ida, as far as Lake Ida. Including my rest at Lake Ida, this took 1 hour 50 minutes. The track gained a small amount of elevation, and was sometimes narrow due to dense vegetation. AllTrails reports 200m elevation gain over 5.8km, out and back. Lake Ida was a pleasant place to rest, but the afternoon light made Lake Evelyn near the trailhead much more appealing.
The track continues along a small portion of the southeastern edge of Mt Ida, which is much larger than Little Mt Ida, to Lake Catherine.
Other pages about this hike
to Lake Ida
to Lake Catherine
all walks in the Lake Coleridge area: https://www.lakecoleridge.co.nz/uploads/9/0/4/8/90486139/walking_brochure__2016.pdf
Lake Hill, beside Lake Heron
There are several Lake Hills in Canterbury, and one of them is near the previous hike on this page, so don’t get confused.
This Lake Hill, at 762m, is beside Lake Heron. To get there, I drove along Ashburton Gorge Rd and Hakatere Heron Rd, then turned right on a short nameless road to reach the medium-sized Double Hut Track trailhead parking lot. After several minutes’ walk along the track, there is a fork. I turned right to ascend the small hill; the left track continues along the lakefront before going inland to Double Hut. It took me 22 minutes to reach the summit, and less than 20 minutes to return. AllTrails reports a 73m elevation gain, out and back, over 2.7km.
Other pages about this hike
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/new-zealand/canterbury/lake-hill-track-lake-heron
all walks in the Lake Heron area: https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/canterbury/places/hakatere-conservation-park/things-to-do/tracks/lake-heron-tracks/
Mt Sunday
Mt Sunday (611m) is by far the best-known hike on this page, because it was featured in The Lord of the Rings movies. There is a large parking lot, reached after driving along Ashburton Gorge Rd and then Hakatere Potts Rd. The parking lot has a restroom. Most of the walk is nearly flat, before a somewhat steep hillclimb on a dirt and grass track. Elevation gain is 99m over 3.5km out and back, according to AllTrails. Including my break on the summit, where I watched a falcon for a while, the hike took me around 55 minutes.
Panorama from the summit.
Falcon (kārearea) takes flight.
