19 Feb 2025

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More than four million cycling trips were made in Christchurch last year, can we beat that in 2025? Why not go for a ride on the Puari ki Rapanui Shag Rock cycleway.

The Puari ki Rapanui Shag Rock cycleway is the perfect start if you want to head from town to Te Ara Ihutai Christchurch Coastal Pathway. 

Try out the Rapanui Shag Rock cycleway this weekend!  

Our Travel Demand team will be at Linwood Park on Saturday 22 February from 1-3pm giving out bike-related freebies, as well as providing education, the brand new bike map, and quick bike tune-ups. There will also be a kids smoothie bike perfect for tamariki to come and pedal their own smoothie! 

But it’s also a wonderful route in its own right, with plenty to see and do.

It spans 7.4km between the Central City, the leafy canopy in the middle of Linwood Avenue right out to Ferrymead.  

Along the way there are schools and pre-schools, eight parks and reserves, a pool, and a shopping centre, making it an important link both for recreation and commuting. 

If you’re heading from town, the route starts at the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue, then heads  down the quiet neighbourhood greenway of Worcester Street towards Linwood Village.

The traffic calming measures and tree lined streets keep speeds low as you ramble through the lights at Stanmore Road and onto England Street, past Hereford and Cashel Streets.

You weave through Buccleugh Street, briefly pop onto Olliviers Road, then Wellington Street, Clive Street and Marlborough Street.

It sounds like a lot, but don’t worry, once you’re on your bike it’s easy to navigate and all clearly signposted.

Traffic lights help you cross busy Aldwins Road and the cycleway cuts through Linwood Park, popping out across from the entrance to Eastgate Mall, opposite Chelsea Street beside Linwood Avenue School.

Here’s where you start on the tree-lined central median down Linwood Avenue.

Though you’ve got two lanes of traffic on either side of you, you wouldn’t know it. This section of cycleway is a quiet ride, you’re totally encased in the canopy.

It’s at its best in spring with daffodils lining either side of the path. Be sure to stop and take a photo.

You can jump off here and head to Te Pou Toetoe Linwood Pool for a swim, or keep going down Linwood Avenue to the intersection with Hargood Street.

Lights take you diagonally to a shared path on the south side, which stretches the rest of the length of Linwood Avenue.

After heading over Dyers Road, you come to a crossroads as you reach Charlesworth Reserve.

Here you can take the short cut and continue along towards Humphreys Drive to the Ferrymead Bridge.

But the more scenic route takes you through Charlesworth Reserve, a saltmarsh coastal wetland that regularly floods and drains by saltwater tides.

The reserve has more than 100,000 coastal shrubs and bushes and a salt meadow, which provides habitat for birds, fish, other marine life, lizards and invertebrates.

It’s the perfect place to stop with viewing points that overlook the pools - a hotspot for wetland and wading birds, like the migratory bar-tailed godwit/kuaka.

Once you’re through Charlesworth Reserve, you pop back out onto a short stretch of shared path along Humphreys Drive before crossing onto the waterfront section of Tidal View at the head of the Ihutai Avon Heathcote Estuary.

New picnic tables, cycle parking, drinking fountain and outdoor shower make it a great spot for a picnic, for windsurfers and foilers accessing the estuary.

Or as the beginning of the Coastal Pathway - Read more about that trip here!