Walking the cape

The two entrances

The project area is a band across the harbour-facing slopes and the ridge top, and it is framed by two entrances. Both have a car park; the walk between them is the reason the planting went where it did.

Test Street car park — the bottom

At the foot of the walking track on the harbour side, off Test Street — the bottom car park, and the trail's lower gateway. This is where the first moa stands and where the track up through the reserve starts, and it is the easiest part of the project to reach on foot from the town.

Lookout Point Reserve — the top

A sealed loop road, a car park and the Oamaru Lookout Point viewpoint, with the harbour and the town below and the Kakanui hills beyond. Most visitors to the Cape get this far and no further — which is exactly why the 2026 planting went in directly below it, on the zigzag, where people already walk.

Tracks

There is roughly 3.0 km of walking track and 8.4 km of mountain-bike track inside the mapped area — nearly three times as much bike track as foot track. Both figures are measured off the map rather than surveyed on the ground, so treat them as accurate to about ±10%.

The main walk is the one the whole project is arranged around: from Lookout Point down through the reserve — the zigzag — to the car park at the bottom. Off the top of the ridge, a track runs out to the wartime gun emplacements. On the eastern side a track drops towards the beach. The mountain-bike network was built and is maintained by Oamaru's mountain bikers, and it was here long before this project.

Who a track is for is worth reading before you set off. One existing sign says it as briefly as it can be said:

Walking track · obstacles for dog exercise · not suitable for bikes · herbicide free area.

If you meet a working bee

You probably will, in April, May, August or September. You are welcome to stop and ask — plenty of people have, and several of them came back the next time with a spade. You may also find red dye on the ground beside the path, which means the spots have been spot-sprayed ready for planting. The notice beside them says:

The full notice also asks anyone who does come into contact with it to remove contaminated clothing and wash the skin with soap and water, and to seek medical attention if irritation persists. Keeping to the path is the short version. Planting dates go out on Facebook, and everyone is welcome.

Wildlife

The Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony is at the harbour edge directly below the cliff-top part of the project area, and it runs its own planting programme there. The Cape is also used daily by dog walkers, and the dog owners' group is one of the organisations the project works alongside.

Staying safe

• Cliff edges are unfenced in places, and the harbour side of the headland is loess rather than rock — stay back from the edge.
• Most of the project area is steep — the majority of it above 18°, and much of that above 30°.
• The weather off the sea changes fast. Take a windproof layer even on a fine day.
• There is very little shade on the open tops. Sun protection matters here.
• Keep to the path where you see red dye on the ground beside it.
• In an emergency call 111.

Ordinary coastal common sense, in other words. It is a working hillside as well as a public one.