#40 of 100 trips for 100 years - Harbour Cone 19 March 2023

 

It couldn't have been a nicer day to climb Hereweka/Harbour Cone with blue skies and a calm, mirror like harbour we started our walk at sea level, parking by the harbour at Broad Bay and following Camp Road, firstly as a steep sealed road then onto a steeper gravel road before finally onto a narrow track with long grass.  The steady climb gave us outstanding views of the harbour including Quarantine and Goat Island nestled in the middle of the harbour. 

 

As we climbed higher, we passed into more rural land with paddocks of curious horses and timid sheep on either side before emerging on Camp Road 200m higher than when we had started.  There are a couple of handily placed seats on the way up the hill giving the opportunity to sit and take in the views while catching your breath. 

Once onto the upper section of Camp Road we followed the gravel road for a short distance before going through a gate and into the paddocks that were once part of  William Larnoch's farm which he purchased in the 1870's.  In 2008 the Dunedin City Council bought the land and the Hereweka Harbour Cone Trust have developed a series of walking tracks through the land to allow public access to heritage sites on the property.  We entered the paddocks through a gate near one of these historic sites which is the cow byre which was built in 1880's and is the only remaining farm building left on Larnachs farm (as seen in the photo below)

After dropping 100m down through the paddock and scaring the sheep to the other end, we climbed over a style and crossed Highcliff Road before approaching Hereweka/Harbour Cone which at 315m is the second highest point on the peninsula, with Mt Charles trip #35 being higher.  The walk up Hereweka/Harbour Cone is straightforward with a constant gradient to the top taking around 30 minutes after crossing the road. 

The top of Hereweka/Harbour Cone has columnar basalt rocks scattered amongst the grass, making the last 5 minutes of climbing a scramble to reach the trig at the top.  From the top we were rewarded with fantastic 360 degree views in all directions. 

The wonderful views, warm temperatures and no wind made the top of Hereweka/Harbour Cone an ideal place for lunch with most of us finding it difficult to decide which direction we wanted to sit for the views.  In the end, there were a number of us that would get up every few minutes and turn slightly to get a different view.  The views are truly spectacular from Hereweka/Harbour Cone.

Being such a prominent peak that is open to the public on the Peninsula, Hereweka/Harbour Cone is a popular destination and we met a number of families making the climb to the top.  Of course the top is also the perfect place for a team photo and we had a hard time deciding which direction to take the photo.

Eventually it was time to head down and we took a slight detour, taking a different route down, following a trapping line down through the scrub before scouting around the side and back down the Highcliff Road and then down the Bacon Street track onto Bacon Street which lead us back to the harbour.  The round trip of 8.4km taking us four and a half hours with a lot of that time spent looking at the great views.