Walking and biking tracks around Halswell

Underpass from Aidanfield through to the cycleway

Halswell is a great place for walking and biking, and has some interesting places to explore.  This short article points you to some good places to go walking or biking away from the roads. You might also enjoy exploring some of the places in Halswell away from where you live - Aidanfield, Halswell on the park and Country Palms offer some nice walking and parks.  

Southern Motorway cycleway

From Aidanfield you can access the new cycleway along the motorway which is also a good place to walk.  You can see some pics and find out a wee bit more about this cycleway here,  and you may also be interested in seeing the route of the cycleway through to Barrington 

Local parks                                                                                                    

Part of Halswell Quarry Rim Track

Check out the local parks page on our Website  to find out a little more about great places to walk.  Westlake park, Canterbury Park, the Halswell Domain and Halswell Quarry Park all provide great places to go for short walks away from the road. 

Kennedys Bush Track

The Kennedys Bush Track runs from the top of Kennedy’s Bush Road.  It is around about an hour to an hour and a half’s walk for most from there to the Summit Road which offers great views and tracks to take you along to the Sign of the Bellbird which is about 20 mins to half an hour along on the tracks across the road and to your right.   

View of Lyttelton Harbour from Sign of the Bellbird

While you are heading that way, you may like to continue on and do a bit of Aoraki spotting as per this blog post written in the Halswell Community Blog in 2012 

  

Turn left instead of right and you can walk to the Sign of the Kiwi and beyond.  A favourite walk for me is to walk all the way along the summit Road to Lyttelton via the Bridle Path.  The earthquakes have made this more interesting but you can also choose to drop down Bowenvale, or Rapaki and catch a bus to get you back to Halswell if you don't like walking on closed roads.

Little River Rail Trail

Of course another great, relatively close trail is the Little River Rail Trail, which can be walked or biked.  

You can bike from Halswell, to Lincoln:  A good route is to use Quaifes, Longstaffs and trices roads to get you to the trail on Birches Rd in Prebbleton.  

From Lincoln you need to take to the roads for a while but after a few km the trail is once again off road (look at the rail trail website to see the route between Lincoln and Motukarara).  

Many people drive to Motukarara to do the section between there and Little River.  The trail here is a great way to see Te Waihora/ Lake Ellesmere, and the cafes both at Motukarara and Little River are very very good, particularly after a good bikeride.  Check out the Little River Rail Trail website for more info.

For those who would prefer to walk or run, these trails can also be used for these activities.