Monday 9/03/2026 Hereweka Harbour Cone Track – Bacon Track – Smiths Creek – Hereweka / Harbour Cone (315m) – Coffee Rock – Highcliff Road
Hereweka / Harbour Cone – Bacon Track – Smiths Creek Circuit
Hereweka / Harbour Cone Reserve, Otago Peninsula
Otago Region, NEW ZEALAND (Aotearoa)
Ōtākou (Kāi Tahu / Kāi Tahu ki Ōtākou people)
Participants: Beth Davies, Lauren Davies, Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report), Pablo Ureña Vega
We drove to the end of Bacon Street in Broad Bay, where the Bacon Track starts from a quiet residential road and heads up through farm paddocks towards the 315-metre summit of Hereweka / Harbour Cone. The weather was perfect — clear skies, a light breeze off Otago Harbour, and warm enough for short sleeves.
Max elevation: 322 m
Total climbing: 340 m
Total descent: -348 m
Average speed: 3.08 km/h
Total time: 02:09:01
The track began as a clear, firm path through farmland, skirting stone fences before entering patches of mixed forest. Pine, macrocarpa and stands of kanuka lined the route, and we spotted Shaggy Parasol mushrooms (Chlorophyllum brunneum) growing amongst the leaf litter. The climb was steady and steep at times, with no flat respite to speak of — this is definitely a hill walk, not a stroll. Smiths Creek offered a brief reprieve as the track dropped into the gully near some old farm ruins before turning uphill again.
Lauren and Sue atop Harbour Cone
Above the treeline the landscape opened to grass and scattered shrubs, with a stop at Coffee Rock revealing sweeping views back over Otago Harbour, Taiaroa Head and out to the Pacific. The final push to the summit was short and sharp, rewarded with a full 360-degree panorama across the peninsula. The loop back down allowed us to appreciate the views we’d missed on the way up. An excellent half-day walk with genuinely big scenery.
Amongst other photographically recorded observations during this walk, we were able to confirm sightings of each of the following species: Shaggy Parasol (Chlorophyllum brunneum), Rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum)
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FOREST TO FARM
Moas, and then Maori, roamed the forests and wetlands that make up the 328 hectares of the Hereweka/Harbour Cone Block before it was purchased for European settlement in the 1860’s. Stewarts Farmstead is the only original farmhouse remaining intact without modification.
Split up into mostly 5 acre blocks suitable for single family farms, the settlers cleared the forest and created paddocks with boundaries of stone walls or post and rail fences.
With the original trees cut, macrocarpa or Monterey cypresses (now Hesperocyparis macrocarpa) were planted around the farmsteads as windbreaks, and mark where they once stood.
Initially the animals were housed overnight in byres, as they had been in the northern hemisphere, and these doubled as milking sheds. Still standing are the Larnach and the Rogers’ Byres.
A thriving rural community grew up, with dairy co-operatives, schools, and post offices. They supplied Dunedin city with its milk, cheese and butter. Lacking road access, these were transported by horse and sledge to the harbour and transported by terry to town.
Without the forest to replenish the soil, the land eventually became unable to sustain dairy farming and was replaced by larger sheep farms like the Akapatiki Block. When this came up for sale in 2008 the Dunedin City Council (DCC) was persuaded to purchase it to protect its myriad values, and, with Harbour Cone as its central attraction has become an important recreational resource.
In 2014 the DCC created the Hereweka/Harbour Cone Management Trust to manage the property.
This is the starting point for tracks to both Hereweka Harbour Cone summit and the Future Forest.
The Future Forest
Save The Otago Peninsula (STOP) Inc Soc has undertaken the fencing and revegetation of the Smiths Creek Catchment area under a Memorandum of Understanding from the Hereweka Harbour Cone Management Trust. It started in 2012 and volunteers are currently planting about 1,000 native trees a year to create a forest in the future.
Smiths Creek is special in that it is one of the few freshwater creeks flowing into the Otago Harbour that still contains native fish such as galaxids and eels that need to spend part of their lifecycle in saltwater. Eels go to sea as adults where they give birth to young elvers who return to this stream. Native fish found here, such as banded kokopu (Galaxius fasciatus ), Inanga (Galaxius maculatus) and redfin bullies (Gobiomorphus huttoni) are washed out to sea as eggs or young fish, returning as whitebait.
The main purpose of the planting therefore is to enhance the freshwater habitat.
• Riparian fences reduce the pollution from neighbouring livestock reaching the creek • Trees offer the wildlife in the creek more shade and cooler temperatures • Planting slows the amount of sediment from the erosion on the steep hill sides – polluting the water and preventing the fish from breathing and it prevents the sediment from being washed out to sea.
Smiths Creek
Catchment care & restoration
Smiths Creek is one of two major freshwater catchments on the Hereweka property and the Otago Peninsula. The rapid 19th century forest clearance century saw the quality and abundance of productive freshwater creeks on the Otago Peninsula seriously decline.
Smiths Creek has at least three native galaxid fish present, including, the Banded Kokopu, Inanga and the Red Finned Bully. Both the Long and Short Finned Eels have baen recorded, along with the native Koura or freshwater crayfish. Smiths Creek’s connection to the Otago Harbour at Turnbulls Bay is particularly important, because the native fish that return as whitebait and the eels need to spend part of their life in freshwater and part in salt water.
Smiths Creek restoration has been achieved by the local group STOP (Save the Otago Peninsula) undertaking an ambitious riparian planting and weed control programme. The work has been done by volunteers, including Broad Bay School pupils. The planting will improve the water quality of the creek and provide shade, increase areas suitable for fish egg laying and reduce sediment from erosion.
The local landscape features, geology, scenic highlights, flora, fauna, Indigenous history, white history and other nearby walks in the area (Perplexity AI Model)
Landscape features
The Hereweka / Harbour Cone – Bacon Track – Smiths Creek circuit traverses a compact but topographically varied landscape on the central Otago Peninsula ridge. From the harbour‑side road‑end at Broad Bay the route climbs through open pasture on the lower slopes of the cone, crossing gentle spurs and shallow gullies that drain towards Smiths Creek. Mid‑slope, the terrain tightens into steeper paddocks, regenerating scrub and forest patches, with occasional stone boundary walls articulating past land divisions. The upper section occupies the rounded summit dome of Hereweka / Harbour Cone at 315 metres, from which there are extensive views over Otago Harbour, Hoopers Inlet, surrounding hills and the Pacific coast, emphasising the cone’s central position within the peninsula’s ridge system.
Geology
Hereweka / Harbour Cone is a prominent remnant of the Dunedin volcanic complex that formed Otago Harbour and much of the surrounding high ground. Rather than a discrete volcano in its own right, the cone represents a resistant cap of hard basaltic rock derived from the wider Dunedin Volcanic Group, emplaced during eruptive phases around 16 million years ago. Columnar basalt and associated pyroclastic materials are exposed near the summit, while the flanks comprise weathered volcanic deposits and derived soils that have been modified by prolonged erosion and human land use. The striking conical form results from differential erosion, where the hard summit rock has protected underlying softer volcaniclastic strata, leaving the cone as an erosional remnant standing above surrounding lower ridges and valleys.
Scenic highlights
Scenic values on this circuit are high, arising from the combination of elevation, central position and relatively open slopes. Early in the climb, intermittent openings in the pasture and forest reveal oblique views across Broad Bay and along the inner harbour. Approaching Coffee Rock, vantage points expand to encompass both sides of the peninsula: Otago Harbour and Dunedin city to one aspect, Hoopers Inlet and ocean beaches to the other. From the summit of Hereweka / Harbour Cone, the outlook becomes panoramic, taking in Taiaroa Head, the full sweep of the harbour, the chain of peninsula hills and, on clear days, distant ranges inland. These layered perspectives allow walkers to read the relationship between volcanic landforms, harbour, inlets and settlement patterns within a single, compact field of view.
Local flora
The Hereweka / Harbour Cone Reserve supports a mosaic of vegetation reflecting both volcanic substrates and a long history of pastoral land use followed by conservation initiatives. Lower and mid‑slope sections along the Bacon Track pass through pasture and regenerating grassland, interspersed with exotic shelterbelts and stands of macrocarpa and pine established during the farming era. Patches of indigenous forest and shrubland, including kanuka‑dominated areas and broader‑leaved assemblages, occur in gullies, on steeper faces and within the Smiths Creek catchment, where grazing pressure has been reduced. Survey work on the Hereweka / Harbour Cone property has recorded more than one hundred indigenous vascular plant species, highlighting the ecological significance of these remnants within a peninsula landscape otherwise heavily transformed by agriculture.
Local fauna
Faunal values around Hereweka / Harbour Cone reflect the interface between harbour, farmland and regenerating indigenous habitats. Open pasture and mixed forest along the Bacon Track support a range of birds associated with rural and peri‑urban environments, while patches of native forest and shrubland provide important habitat for indigenous species reliant on more complex vegetation structure. Smiths Creek and associated damp gullies offer additional microhabitats for invertebrates, amphibians and birds, benefiting from cooler, moister conditions and greater structural diversity. As restoration efforts continue and grazing is progressively reduced in parts of the reserve, the expectation is for gradual increases in indigenous fauna, supported by expanding native vegetation and improved habitat connectivity along the peninsula.
Indigenous history
Hereweka / Harbour Cone and the wider Otago Peninsula fall within Ōtākou, part of the rohe of Kāi Tahu, with Kāi Tahu ki Ōtākou exercising mana whenua in the area. Māori narratives link the creation of the South Island and the formation of Otago Harbour to ancestral figures and voyages, embedding the peninsula’s landforms in a wider network of cosmological and historical stories. The original name Hereweka, referring to the once‑abundant weka, signals long‑standing relationships between people, birds and the productive volcanic slopes overlooking the harbour. Contemporary arrangements recognise these connections through formal iwi involvement in planning and reserve management, the use of dual names such as Hereweka / Harbour Cone, and ongoing efforts to acknowledge cultural values in conservation and recreation initiatives on the peninsula.
White history
The Hereweka / Harbour Cone landscape preserves a rare, relatively intact record of nineteenth‑ and early twentieth‑century small‑scale farming on the Otago Peninsula. Following European settlement, much of the peninsula’s original forest was cleared for pasture, leaving scattered trees and small patches of bush amid an open grassland matrix used for sheep and cattle. Stone boundary walls, house sites, farmstead ruins and track lines around Smiths Creek and the Bacon Track corridor document these early cadastral divisions and farming practices. Concern over the loss of both historic fabric and indigenous biodiversity led to public acquisition of the 328‑hectare Hereweka / Harbour Cone block in 2008, followed by the establishment of the Hereweka Harbour Cone Trust to guide restoration, visitor access and heritage protection. The current walking network, including the Bacon Track and associated circuits, sits within this evolving conservation framework, enabling visitors to experience a palimpsest of volcanic, agricultural and cultural histories in a single, compact reserve.
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