Godley Head Banks Peninsula Canterbury New Zealand
Formed by two huge volcanoes, Banks Peninsula sits to the east of Christchurch city and is a distinctive feature of the east coast of New Zealand's South Island.
Once covered in tall native forest the peninsula has been burned and felled in the early history of human settlement in New Zealand to the extent that only tiny scraps of the original cover remain.
Nevertheless it is a dramatic landscape with spectacular volcanic cliffs, and steeply rolling hills covered in grasses, scrub and forest remnants and often topped by volcanic crags and outcrops.
Godley heads is a popular walking and mountainbiking area only minutes from Christchurch city on the northern bank of Lyttelton harbour, the harbour itself being a sea-drowned crater.
With protection, some of the orginal forest is regenerating and birds locally extinct on the peninsula (or nearly so) such as the korimako (bellbird) are coming back.
The harsh climate and unique landscape of the peninsula and the neighbouring Kaitorete Spit have produced a number of plant and insect species not found anywhere else in New Zealand.
Godley Head Banks Peninsula Canterbury New Zealand
Formed by two huge volcanoes, Banks Peninsula sits to the east of Christchurch city and is a distinctive feature of the east coast of New Zealand's South Island.
Once covered in tall native forest the peninsula has been burned and felled in the early history of human settlement in New Zealand to the extent that only tiny scraps of the original cover remain.
Nevertheless it is a dramatic landscape with spectacular volcanic cliffs, and steeply rolling hills covered in grasses, scrub and forest remnants and often topped by volcanic crags and outcrops.
Godley heads is a popular walking and mountainbiking area only minutes from Christchurch city on the northern bank of Lyttelton harbour, the harbour itself being a sea-drowned crater.
With protection, some of the orginal forest is regenerating and birds locally extinct on the peninsula (or nearly so) such as the korimako (bellbird) are coming back.
The harsh climate and unique landscape of the peninsula and the neighbouring Kaitorete Spit have produced a number of plant and insect species not found anywhere else in New Zealand.