Time: 1.5 hrs
Distance: 7 km
Start: End of Darroch Street (outside number 40), Belfast.
Finish: Same place.
Date: Friday 30th September 2022
With rain forecasted, it seemed like the perfect day for the Waimairi Walkway: a shortish 5 km track, which runs partially along and then under noisy State Highway 1 to The Groynes. From there you can eventually loop back to the start via the Ōtūkaikino Track.
On Google Maps, the end of Darroch Street is a bit ambiguous, so we rendezvoused outside number 40 near the council signage. The southerly had arrived in the night and it was fairly chilly, so we were all pretty rugged up. At the top of the stop-bank more signage: right for the Ōtūkaikino Track; left (our path) for the Waimairi Walkway. This area is typical terrain for western Christchurch: semi-swamp/semi-farmland/semi-industrial. At the first junction we were unsure of the direction (no signage) but we turned left after a quick phone extraction and consultation with the Christchurch City Council map.
Within a short time the path turned south to run alongside State Highway 1 with cars streaming past. Not exactly ideal - in fact pretty awful - but we were chatting so it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things (although it was a bit of a shame it wasn't pissing down as forecast). We crossed SH1 at the next underpass and once through the roundabout and over the bridge (more map consultation) we arrived at The Groynes recreational park.
Here the walkway finally enters the bush, still heading south, parallel to SH1. After about 10 minutes we crossed The Groynes Swing Bridge which spans the crystal clear waters of the Ōtūkaikino Creek. An Australian coot was bobbing about below.
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| Australian coot |
On the other side we turned north onto the Ōtūkaikino Track (biking blog post here). This track section is lovely because it follows the meandering creek most of the way before eventually heading under a shelterbelt to another underpass of SH1 which loops back to Darroch Street and the cars.
We consulted Google Maps and pfaffed around searching for a local cafe but ended up driving back towards town to the Tātou Tātou Cafe - a fabulous gem in the heart of Northcote. He reka kawhe me kai tēnei!
