Our rivers are:
- Avon River
- Halswell River
- Heathcote River
- Styx River.
Listed below are popular walks around these rivers and their surrounding areas with maps for you to download and print.
Corsers Stream and Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park
Corsers Stream has been one of the most successful examples of restoring a stormwater channel into a natural creek and integrating this with a new housing development. A pathway winds along a streambank restored with native plants and provides a natural walking link between the lower Avon River and the Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park.
Curletts Reserve and Wigram Pond
The upper Heathcote River winds through the suburb of Hillmorton alongside the graceful Curletts Reserve. This has become a showpiece of native plant restoration with head-high ribbonwood and kanuka enhancing this quiet waterway.
The Wigram Pond is elegantly fringed with toetoe and sedges, and it is hard to believe that the lake is completely man-made. It is a stunning example of combining the utility of a stormwater holding pond, with the attractiveness of an outdoor recreational area for walkers and picnickers.
Estuary Walk and Naughty Boys Island
An easy stroll alongside the saltmarsh of the Avon River and estuary, featuring a subtle and complex riverside area, rich with birdlife and popular with fisherfolk for over four centuries.
Heathcote River Towpath and Steam Wharf Stream
The lower Heathcote River is rich in both natural and human history, inextricably bound together by the daily push and pull of the tides. It was in the enriched mudflats that the Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu peoples found shellfish and set traps for whitebait, flounder and eels, and here in the 1850s that the European settlers first negotiated small coastal scows and steamers up to Steam Wharf Stream.
Heathcote River Walks brochure [PDF 225KB]
Farnley Reserve and Beckenham Ponds
Beckenham loop has many surprises, including the attractive Farnley Reserve (with its surprising sculpture) and the unique Beckenham Ponds – a tiny remnant of the original raupo swamp that was once extensive in this area.
Styx Mill Conservation Reserve
The Styx Mill Reserve is being developed as an important new wetland for the city and provides a vital link in the network of private and public wetlands on the northern edge of the city. Peacock Springs, Isaacs Wildlife Refuge, Roto Kohatu, The Groynes, Styx Mill Conservation Reserve, Otukaikino and Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park all provide important resting and passage points for wildlife. Already, the man-made ponds at Styx Mill have attracted considerable birdlife.
The circular Hussey View Walkway has been specifically designed for wheelchair users, and is made of firm gravel as it meanders through the reserve and alongside the placid Styx River. This walk enjoys quiet river views with some native bush birds for company, such as pukeko and fantails. The main picnic area is a pretty spot, and there are picnic tables, seats, wheelchair toilets and ample car parking.
The Panako Walkway leaves the main car park and crosses a farm-bridge, then follows the riverside to an elegant footbridge to the ponds area. A side-track goes to a seat at Contemplation Point, but the main track follows a four-wheel drive track alongside the ponds to the Cavendish Road exit. About 30 minutes walk one way.
University Waterways
The University of Canterbury in Ilam straddles the headwaters of the Avon River, as well as two of its important feeder streams – Okeover and Ilam. These three waterways are now seen as a natural environmental asset, important for providing a corridor for the passage of native insects, fishes and birds, and important also as special places for the university's students and staff to find peace and solitude.
Woolston Loop
Most people would probably not dream of going for a nature walk in Woolston. Established in the 1850's at the end of the navigable Heathcote River, Woolston became Christchurch's first industrial suburb. Tanneries, brickworks, fish processors and many other industries severely polluted the lower river. Industries remain but waste is now disposed of safely and extensive native planting along the banks of the Heathcote have given the loop a healthier character. It is one of the few places in the city where you can find shags roosting and have a sense of how the river might have looked before European settlement.
