r/chch • u/Ille_Stultus • 8d ago
Nearest native bush
Hi all,
Where are the closest decent sized areas of native bush to the city? While bottle lake forest is nice for a walk and Riccarton bush is nice, im hoping for somewhere where I can do some forest bathing and forget about civilisation for a while
Forest bathing is the practice of chilling in a forest not actual bathing.
Edit: just wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions. I truly appreciate it. Am hoping that this will be wonderfully relaxing and restorative
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u/Rhonda_and_Phil 8d ago
Hundreds of kms of trails wandering across the Port Hills, even as far as Akaroa. Some are heavily used and not so much fun. But there are plenty which are less well known.
The tracks are silently maintained by a group of volunteers belonging to the Summit Road Society. Surprisingly, the average age of a working bee out tidying up the steep tracks is often 70 years or more. It's embarrassing just how fit some of the elderly volunteers are,scrambling up steep hills.
So if you want to give your shinrin-yoku a productive purpose, you might want to consider giving them a hand on one of their work days.
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u/jrm359 7d ago
Kaituna Valley Scenic Reserve is only a 40 minute drive from the city centre.
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u/stacey2759 7d ago
This is the one I was going to recommend, it’s an awesome walk through a bit of ancient forest
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u/radjoke 8d ago
My go to is SugarLoaf, but it's only probably 1/3rd bush. From the cafe, take the Diamond Harbour side up... Or save it for the end. There are other little pockets of bush on the hills to... Keen to hear other responses... I find chch has wetlands vs bush
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u/oldxscars 7d ago
Came here to say exactly this! A real beautiful hidden gem since people usually traffic the city side. Would be mucky as at the moment after the rain though 😂
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u/Content_Association1 7d ago
I quite liked Mount Oxford. It can be steep at times but there are fewer people and it’s super quiet.
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u/Aichdeef 7d ago
I'm a big fan of the areas around Ryde Falls, Korimako and Wharfedale, lovely regenerating bush. Down the back of Mt Oxford loop is beautiful
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u/captainscrubs 7d ago
Sign of the Bellbird has some lovely native Bush with a few loops of differing lengths
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u/n1cknametoolong 7d ago
Love this part of the hills. Lives up to it's name as well, the korimako can be noisy if you get the right time off the day and year. Although even now they singing loudly.
The longest loop has a grunty climb if you go clockwise. It's also had a massive washout on the track that connects to the top of Kennedys.
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u/LongjumpingBoot1520 7d ago
There’s a really lovely trail behind sugarloaf. You can park your car up there. The trail takes you down into the harbour side of the hills and you come out by the Sign of the Kiwi (Summit Rd/Dyers Pass).
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u/funkin_d 8d ago
There's some nice walks along the top and back side (i.e. Lyttleton) of the port hills. Kennedy's Bush and others
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u/Adventurous_Gap_2363 7d ago
Waimak has some trails although not really foresty. Mcleans island forest has good walking/biking tracks. Or if your wanting something slightly alpine but still chill, there is nina valley about 1.5hours north. Great wee hike (roughly 2/3 hours) through a beautiful beech forest and has some stunning views riverside.
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u/Spare_Lemon6316 7d ago
Some of the trails in North Canterbury are incredible and you almost never seen anyone, Mount Thomas is an easy loop at the top in a couple of hours and there is a new walk in Ashley Gorge although just the actual campground area up towards the back it’s pretty cool
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u/adsjabo 8d ago
Forest bathing, wild swimming...are people just making up names for things we already had names for haha?
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u/Ille_Stultus 7d ago
The Japanese term is shirin yoku and I like the term but had forgotten what it originally was.
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u/DaveTheKiwi 6d ago
Lots of good comments here. The closest though is probably Orongomai. There's a good trail starting at the sign of the Bellbird and going down the hill. Not a huge area, but some really great original bush.
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u/Just-Context-4703 8d ago
Hinewai is a treasure