Our Hagley Park & Riccarton House & Bush tour is one of our more laid back options as we make use of the Christchurch City cycle lanes and paved pathways in Hagley Park and spend some time taking in the beautiful surroundings of the City’s parks and public spaces.

We Start off with a quick coffee at our meeting point and quickly wind out way towards the central city stopping off at St Mary’s Church in Addington which has graced the tree filled space in the centre of Church Square since 1867.

We then head over to Hagley Park where will will spend some time exploring the park via the tree lined paths provided in the south park before crossing over to the north side where we will head toward Riccarton House & Bush where will visit the Victorian/Edwardian homestead built in 1856 for Canterbury’s pioneering Deans family.

Riccarton House has a cafe on site where you can take a break to enjoy a coffee or scone in the beautiful surroundings before walking through the famous Riccarton Bush. Riccarton Bush Pūtaringamotu is a 10 minute stroll through a tranquil grove of tall kahikatea trees at the heart of this ancient native forest.

As Canterbury’s sole remnant of kahikatea floodplain forest, Riccarton House Bush has national significance. For 300,000 years, the shifting gravels of the Waimakariri River triggered a changing mosaic of podocarp forests across the Canterbury Plains.

After visiting Riccarton House & Bush, we will then head back through Hagley Park and wind our way past the popular Victoria Lake towards the Canterbury Museum finishing up at the Peacock Fountain which is also the entrance to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens where you can spend hours walking through amazing gardens. This is where our tour ends but you are free to explore the gardens which is only a short 5 min walk into the centre city of Christchurch.