Walk Details

NZ Walking Routes > Hawkes Bay > Napier > Sturms Gully and Bluff Hill

Sturms Gully and Bluff Hill

Location

For pedestrians there is access from Hornsey Road and Lighthouse Road. Car parking is available at the Hornsey Road entrance and there is car access and parking at the lookout area on Bluff Hill via Lighthouse Road. A public toilet is located adjacent to the car park.

Description

This is the gully which flanks the southern side of the Bluff Hill Domain and was purchased by the Napier City Council in 1967. In so doing, an area covered with a dense stand of mature trees was acquired for the City. The Reserve is named after an Austrian botanist and nurseryman Frederick William Christian Sturm, who established a plant nursery here in about 1865. Walking tracks lead from entrances on Lighthouse and Hornsey Roads to link up with the Bluff Hill lookout point. In 1997, all the Elm trees in the Gully had to be removed to contain an outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease.

On the early plans of Napier this area was shown as a 'Signal and lighthouse reserve'. During the last war the army occupied this hilltop. In 1957, the Napier City Council was given control of the reserve and the concrete gun emplacements were made to serve as a lookout. From this vantage point, most of the Hawke's Bay can be seen from Mahia Peninsula to Cape Kidnappers. Captain Cook, on 15 October 1769, sailed along the coast and noted this "Bluff Head" and named many of the geographical features along the coast such as Hawke Bay, Cape Kidnapper, Portland Island and others.

Entry to the Bluff Hill lookout is not open to vehicles between the hours of darkness.

Amenities

• Carpark
• Historical
• Lookouts
• Toilets

Source

www.napier.govt.nz

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