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11 December 2001 |
Retracing The Steps Of The City Founders
Cantabrians will have the opportunity to relive the pilgrimage of early settlers by walking the Bridle Path over the Port Hills on Sunday 16 December.
On that day in 1850 the first of nineteen vessels carrying immigrants from England arrived at the port of Lyttelton. The courageous founders of the Canterbury settlement gave up the certainty of life in their home country for the challenges of a new and untamed land.
The commemorative walk starts at 9.30am from the Bridle Park car park, Heathcote, and follows the Bridle Path over the summit down into Lyttleton. It should take around an hour and a half. Organisers, the Lyttleton Celebration Trust, advise that the walk is steep in parts and requires a reasonable level of fitness. If weather conditions are extreme, cancellation will be announced on Newstalk ZB or from Banks Peninsula District Council on 0800 800 169. The Canterbury Pilgrims Association will hold a memorial service at the Holy Trinity Church in Lyttelton at 10am, and lay a memorial wreath at the Pilgrims Rock Precinct at 11.45am, to coincide with the end of the walk.