Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes
Distance: 17 km - 18 km
Start: Corner of Raven Quay and Bowler Ave.
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 24th February 2023
The Kaiapoi Island Trail is a long thin loop, with a shape similar to a running track or a paper clip. One side of it is a gravelly trail following the Kaiapoi and Waimakariri Rivers from Raven Quay in Kaiapoi township to Smiths Stream where you can then return on a parallel stop-bank track. Or perhaps you can just keep going and going because on the topo map it looks like there is track following the Waimakariri River inland for miles.
I had trouble finding a decent map. Probably the best one is from Environment Canterbury (ECan) (map pdf). But actually the trail has a couple of well placed signs and the rest of the time you can mostly follow your nose. Having said that, I suspect that we cut it short at the Smiths Stream Loop. Oh nevermind. The Ecan website also has an interesting history of Kaiapoi Island. Yes, there was once an island - where the Waimakariri River split in two. The Māori name for Kaiapoi Island was "Te Rakai a Hiwa" - "The adornment of the deluded one". Unfortunately the website doesn't give the back story.
Today MetService was forecasting "the odd shower " and it was looking threatening but we decided to go for it anyway. We pfaffed around with the bikes and drove to the corner of Raven Quay and Bowler Street in Kaiapoi to unload. 10 degrees. Ffs brrrr. We set off along the Kaiapoi River stop-bank to the Lookout (a 2 minute detour) at Burkes Point where you can see the Waimakariri River confluence. Today either the tide was high or the river was in flood, and the milky blue water was lapping the tree trunks. Raupō bullrushes (Thypha orientalis) with their velvety seed heads were popping out all over the place. There is an urban legend (or is it true?) that children used to smoke them in the Netherlands.
Back on the main trail and a bit further along there was signage directing us off the stop-bank down to Railway Reserve - a wide grassy area where the narrow trail runs through the grass and eventually passes the Wrights Road entrance (where there are loos and an information board) and then under the Main North Road Bridge and the State Highway 1 Bridge. We checked out a couple of possible swimming spots at the river and it looked semi-inviting. For some weird reason I had not thought to bring my swimming togs today though.
We were on the River Route (apparently) until the trail suddenly swerved inland, crossed the road and we were in a patch of swampyish willows. There was no signage and we weren't sure which way to go. We ducked under a couple of fallen trees to a trail of sorts which forked west and east. In hindsight (now that I have belatedly found the Ecan map), we were near the bend in Taylors Road and at the beginning of the Smith Stream Loop and we probably could have headed west but instead we turned East towards home.
We were now on the Forest Route (apparently) which was pretty adventurous as far as I was concerned. It was narrow and quite overgrown with high grass and woody shrubs. Plants pinged the spokes of the bike wheels in a semi-musical fashion as we rode through. There is something so nice about cycling in the green green hues of the forest (shinrin-yoku). A ray of sun shone momentarily through a gap in the canopy.
Various tracks crisscrossed in confusion but eventually we were on the stop-bank again and heading towards the big bridges. Once under them, we continued on the stop-bank all the way back to Raven Quay. The last 5 minutes we finally got that "odd shower" that MetService had promised and so we were slightly sodden and mud-splattered by the time we arrived at the Five Peaks Brew Company. The waitress looked at us dubiously but we got flat whites and eggs bene and enjoyed looking out at the yachts on the river.
