Recreation

Walks

Waterway walks

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.

Walk — Estuary and Saltmarsh

From the carpark besided the river stopbank on Owles Terrace, the narrow track soon leaves the road behind and follows paths alongside the river. Where it meets Evans Avenue there is a wooden fishing platform jutting out into the river, often occupied by preening and roosting shags. Soon the path swings around the old river bend and winds through an area of mature pine trees with views over the saltmarsh to Naughty Boys Island.

This river bend is gradually silting up and may become entirely saltmarsh. The track meets Kibblewhite Street and there is a small bay and old jetty piles at what was known as Herring Bay.

It was near here that the fisherman William Walker settled with his family, the first known European settlers. Herring Bay may have been his old 'port', for it is an obvious boat-launching place (see overleaf).

In 1906 Professor Bickerton built a seaside house with a gazebo on Kibblewhite Street, and the red-tiled house can still be seen today. Bickerton was a colourful and influential character, a professor at the Canterbury College, who taught the young Ernest Rutherford. Bickerton had an amusement park and zoo at Wainoni and he was a keen power-boat racer as well. It is possible that the old piles in the river opposite his house were part of a jetty that he built.

The track continues along to the Kibblewhite Reserve, where short boardwalks and trails make a small circuit.

A variety of river wildlife is often visible from the track, particularly at low tide. Paradise ducks, white-faced heron, Mallard ducks, shags and occasional pukeko. There are nesting birds here at certain times of the year so stay on the track to minimise your impact on this sensitive environment.

Walk Extension

This Waterway Walk returns by the same route, but by crossing Bridge Street, walkers can connect with tracks onto Pleasant Point and Ebbtide street. See Walk Christchurch published by the Christchurch City Council for more information on these walks.