Christchurch to the Beach
DURATION: 3 hours DISTANCE: 30km return START / END: From directly behind the Christchurch Cathedral, follow Worcester Street away from Cathedral Square to join the signposted cycleway through quiet leafy suburbs, initially following signs for Ferrymead.
1 You’ll start the ride excitedly armed with your free Christchurch bike map, available from any library or council office. Take care negotiating obstacles – the tram rails that run around the Cathedral Square perimeter love to eat your front wheel and buck you off your bike!
2 The first section takes you behind the iconic cathedral, that has been the hub of the city since its completion in 1904 after 40 years of construction. After its destruction in the earthquake of 2011, much debate ensued about what was to be done.
3 Your route on Worcester Street will soon take you across Latimer Square, where to your right the temporary stand-in city cathedral, known as the Cardboard Cathedral, is easily seen and well worth a quick stop for its innovative cardboard tubing, timber and steel design by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban.
4 The cycle path continues along Worcester Street, now a quiet backstreet of weatherboard villas with traffic-calming speed bumps aplenty.
5 Following cycle signs for Ferrymead taking you onto England Street, you’ll emerge onto the major thoroughfare of Aldwins Road. At the road crossings, make sure to cycle over the arrow to trip the cycle-priority sensor lights.
6 The path takes you through Linwood Park, past the playground and onto Linwood Avenue.
7 This road gives way to a narrower path alongside Linwood Avenue and then through the recently replanted Charlesworth Reserve. This is an area of marshland, with recreated tidal pools and native wetland habitat that now attract native and migratory birds to nest, roost and feed. Look out for the bar-tailed godwits and other wading birds. They spend their summers here and other tidal areas on the estuary after their epic journeys south from Siberia each spring. The best time to spot them is around high tide when they’re all squeezed up onto the few remaining bits of dry ground.
8 Crossing Humphreys Drive takes you onto the seawall. The cycle/pedestrian path is now on the water’s edge as it skirts the southern edge of the Avon Heathcote Estuary and with the tidal bay at your side, it’s pure waterfront cycling.
9 The path sidles around the cafés and shops of Redcliffs – you will see why this coastal suburb was given this name. Here you are at the narrowest part of the estuary, with the tip of the northern sandbar at Southshore seemingly within a stone’s throw.
10 Probably the best beach in Christchurch is at Sumner and the western end is marked by the prominent natural rock stack of Rapanui Shag Rock. A home for cormorants, called shags, it was once an important navigational aid for seafarers entering the estuary.
11 From here it’s all ice creams and surfing vibes, or coffees and beers. One beach suburb blends into the next with the eastern terminus of the cycle path along the Esplanade at the cliffs of Scarborough, with its own beachside café and clocktower.
12 Turn around and head back the same way or take a rest and use one of the frequent city buses equipped with bike racks to get you back to the Bus Exchange near Cathedral Square, where you started.