O'Neill's Reserve to Cave River Walk
Cave · Canterbury · Point to Point
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Timaru District Council, Timaru District Dog Control Policy 2018, section 31.0 Dog On Leash Areas, read 31 August 2026: “The owner of a dog (other than working dogs) shall not allow the dog on any public place (not being a prohibited public place or a dog exercise area) unless the dog is kept under control on a leash.” The section then lists as leash areas “all parks, reserves and walkways within the District except those within prohibited areas or Dog Exercise Areas”. We read both of the council’s lists: O’Neill’s Reserve, the trail and Cave appear on neither the prohibited public places in section 29 nor the Dog Exercise Areas in section 30, so the leash rule is what applies. The river beds the council does name as off-lead exercise areas are the ones at Pleasant Point, Temuka and Geraldine, and that does not reach the Te Ana Wai up here”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About O'Neill's Reserve to Cave River Walk
This moderate-length track follows 2.5 km as a point-to-point, near Cave in Canterbury.
A flat gravel walk along the Te Ana Wai River between O’Neill’s Reserve and the village of Cave, on the Pleasant Point to Cave leg of the Central South Trail. We make it 2.5 km one way, so about 5 km if you walk back to the car, and it is easy going the whole way: fine gravel on an old formation, no climbing worth the name, and the river beside you for most of it. Inge and Pip put it in, walking it from the camping end. Timaru District Council sets the rule here and it is on a leash. Its Dog Control Policy 2018 says an owner may not have a dog in a public place that is neither a prohibited place nor a dog exercise area unless it is kept under control on a leash, and it lists all parks, reserves and walkways in the district as leash areas. We read both council lists and this reserve, this trail and Cave are on neither, so the default is what you get. Worth knowing either way: the corridor runs between a pine plantation and farm paddocks, and the off-lead river beds the council does name are at Pleasant Point, Temuka and Geraldine, not up here. Parking at the eastern end is through the gate on State Highway 8 about 2 km east of Cave, which is where Inge dropped her pin. From the gate it is a few hundred metres down to the reserve, where the council has non flushing toilets, picnic tables and a three night limit for campers, and a total fire ban. There is parking at Cave at the other end too, so start from whichever end suits, or leave a car at each and walk it one way. The river is the Te Ana Wai. The council’s own page for the reserve notes it was mis-recorded as Tengawai and Te Ngawai by European settlers, and that is still the name on most maps, including the one under this line. Cave takes its name from the limestone caves in the foothills behind it, some of them holding Māori rock art five hundred years old. The village end brings you out near St David’s Memorial Church, built in 1930 from uncut local boulders with pegged rafters and no nails in it.
Graded easy, it climbs about 17 m overall, and takes about 32 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
