Warning: Walking can seriously improve your health!

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the team who look after Christchurch’s parks and reserves want to give you some stunning spring walking options to boost your health.

Studies show that even a 10 minute walk immediately boosts brain chemistry to increase happiness.

With the last of the blossom on the trees and warmth in the air, Newsline has some top tips for Christchurch walks.

1. Christchurch is one of the most beautiful cities in New Zealand for spring-time flowers and if blossoms and flowering bulbs are your favourite thing, try North Hagley Park for cherry blossoms and the Little Hagley bluebell groves.  The Botanic Gardens has a seasonal map at the visitor centre, with a guide to what is flowering when. 

2. The Daffodil Woodland is a must-see in spring for river banks covered in the cheerful, golden flowers. It’s a 20 to 30 minute walk from Hospital Corner, through the Daffodil Woodland and past the band rotunda, beside the river to Harmans Grove. 

Daffodils in the Botanic Gardens

3. For more cherry blossoms, check out the Halswell Quarry Park Sister Cities Gardens walks. 

4. Don’t forget native flowers and forests can put on a great show for spring. At Styx Mill Reserve the lemonwood or tarata has masses of creamy-yellow flowers held in clusters and with a sweet scent. You can also spot cygnets (black swans) and native scaup ducklings in spring.

5. Kennedys Bush has native forest and fantastic birdlife, including bellbirds (korimako) and fantails (piwakawaka).

6. Travis Wetland has loads of baby wetland birds (ducks, scaup/pāpango, pukeko, cygnets) that can be easily seen from viewing platforms. The flowering of the cabbage tree or ti-kouka (Cordyline australis) is a spectacle. These palm-like trees produce massive creamy flower heads that will last well into summer.

Ducklings are often seen in parks during spring

7. The Christchurch Coastal Pathway and Southshore Spit are good walks to view the annual spring arrival of godwits/kuaka  from Alaska.  Their arrival in the northern part of the Avon-Heathcote Estuary at the end of their annual 11,000 km, non-stop journey from the Arctic Circle is another sign that Spring has arrived.