Bottle Lake Blue Tracks

Bottle Lake Forest Park is an exotic pine forest of approximately 800 hectares. It is a lovely place for a walk on a hot or windy day as the tracks are almost all entirely in the shade.

  Blue Track Blue Coastal Track Blue Hill Track
Start Bottle Lake Forest car park, Waitikiri Drive, Parklands. 200m from Bottle Lake Forest car park. Blue Track.
Finish Same as the starting point. Blue Track. Blue Track.
Distance 11.4km 4.7km 3 km
Time 1.5 to 2 hours return 50 minutes 20 - 30 minutes
Toilets Located at the car park Located at the car park Located at car park
Dogs Can be exercised off the leash throughout Bottle Lake Forest but must be under effective control e.g. not running at other people or mountain bikers. Take extra care at track junctions that are shared with MTB and logging trucks. Can be exercised off the leash throughout Bottle Lake Forest but must be under effective control e.g. not running at other people or mountain bikers. Take extra care at track junctions that are shared with MTB and logging trucks. Can be exercised off the leash throughout Bottle Lake Forest but must be under effective control e.g. not running at other people or mountain bikers. Take extra care at track junctions that are shared with MTB and logging trucks.
Description

A map can be obtained from the Bottle Lake Forest Information Centre or any council service centre. It is recommended that walkers carry one as it is easy to get disorientated in this forest.

The roads are organised alphabetically with Apple Road being the closest to the Bottle Lake headquarters and Zulu Road being the furthest away.

This track diverges from the Blue Track almost immediately after leaving the car park. Walk out towards the coast and around the landfill site before rejoining the Blue Track after 4.7 km. 

These tracks wind up through the old landfill site and offer stunning views out to the ocean, Kaikouras and Maukatere-Mt Grey. Over 100,000 trees were planted in this area as part of the landfill's remediation. (external link)

Look out for the methane capture points around the hills. These convert the carbon dioxide and methane gas produced by the landfill waste into enough energy to power the entire Christchurch City Council Civic Offices.