Christchurch, New Zealand: Te Ara Ōtākaro Avon River Trail

This shared walking and biking track along the Avon/Ōtākaro River has an eerie feel that gives a unique view of a recovering post-earthquake city.

The trail traverses part of the 'Red Zone', an area of Christchurch where all the houses have been demolished and rebuilding prohibited due to the susceptibility to liquifaction by earthquake. It is something of a 'twilight zone' in that although 8 years have passed since the 2011 earthquake, final decisions about eventual use of the land have apparently not been taken. This is therefore called a 'transitional' trail pending those final decisions and parts have a makeshift feel as it mainly follows closed roads full of potholes.

I rented an e-bike for the trip and began by taking a slight detour around Hagley Park to pay my silent respects outside the Al Noor Mosque where there had been a tragic shooting three weeks earlier. The flowers piled by mourners around trees in the park were a very poignant reminder.

Details of the trail which can be walked or cycled are available at the City Council website. This includes an interactive map of all the cycleways.

The trail has interest for its riverside route and the seaside destination (a bit beyond the end of the trail) but as the day I was there was bitterly cold with heavy (though intermittent) rain I did not linger for the views and instead found the most fascinating aspect to be the closed roads and 'ghost town' nature of the area.

Although much of the trail was great riding as one had the entire road there were places I had to cycle carefully to avoid riding into deep potholes.

It was terribly sad cycling through areas that appeared at first glance to be parkland or farmland but there were many telltale signs to suggest that in the relatively recent past these had been the sites of the family homes of thousands of people. The houses, outbuildings, driveways and and gardens had al been meticulously removed without trace but the roads, footpaths and streetlights remained.

The other highlight was, of course, the river itself which the trail followed.

Summary: 11 km

Cycled: April 2019