Despite it almost being almost the shortest day, we had another warm weekend in the forecast. We had originally planned to do some skiing, but when the forecast was for a warm, sunny day we decided to dust off our mountain bikes and explore the Little River Rail Trail just outside Christchurch.
The trail started in the town of Motukarara and ran along the side of Lake Ellesmere. The lake is actually the fifth largest in New Zealand, although it is more of a shallow coastal lagoon than a lake. We rode over a series of bridges through the mashes with great views back across the lake towards the Southern Alps.
On both sides of the trail were lots of birds, including several groups of black swans. At the end of Lake Ellesmere, the trail took a sharp turn and headed inland towards the centre of the Banks Peninsula.
Along this section of the trail there were still some remains of the old railway line that ran through here. The first part of the railway line was built in 1875, and remained in operation until 1967. The railway was mostly a passenger line, although some historical reports note that it wasn’t a very quick service with cyclists being able to ride the route faster than a train which only went at 12 miles per hour.
We arrived in the town of Little River just in time for afternoon tea at the local cafe. We actually enjoyed a nice warm coffee and even Eric was able to find a dairy free treat to enjoy. We reluctantly dragged ourselves away from the cafe and climbed back onto our bikes for the return ride.
As we got back towards Lake Ellesmere we were able to enjoy the low winter sun setting over the Southern Alps in the distance.
After a long, but thankfully flat 40 kilometers (almost 25 miles) we arrived back at the Motukarara station where we started our ride.