Walk Details
NZ Walking Routes > Canterbury > Christchurch > Halswell Quarry Rim Track
Halswell Quarry Rim Track
- Location
- 10 km from the square, via either Halswell Road, Sparks Road or Cashmere Road, then 1 km along Kennedy’s Bush Road.
- Description
Halswell Quarry is a unique 60.4 hectare park, with an unusual combination of recreational walks, historic sites and botanical collections. Important historic buildings from the quarrymen’s days are being preserved and the once noisy rock face is now a quiet amphitheatre facing onto a parkland of short walks and wetland ponds.
Halswell Quarry also features six sister city gardens and a Canterbury botanical collection. Tracks, viewing points and three car parking areas have made the park increasingly popular for walking and other recreational activities over the last decade.
The Rim Track begins behind the quarry buildings, leading in a gentle loop, anticlockwise around the quarry. As the track climbs above the back of the quarry, a series of platforms provide views of the space and the rock structures, while plaques tell the story of the quarry. A mountain finder at the back of the quarry provides a key to the distant ranges of the Southern Alps as well as the nearer landscape of the Port Hills. Descending from here, the track winds through native plantings alongside hillside housing before the Kennedys Bush Track to the Sign of the Bellbird leads off to the right.
Passing under a row of pines, the track descends into the old orchard at the eastern side of the quarry.
- Level
- Easy
- Amenities
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- Birds
- Carpark
- Dogs Allowed
- Historical
- Lookouts
- Picnics
- Plant Life
- Toilets
- Source
- www.ccc.govt.nz; www.tramper.co.nz
- Discussion
- Start a discussion on this walk