Richmond Avon River Bridge Loop
Christchurch · Canterbury · Loop
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. Christchurch City Council’s own wording: “Dog Control Policy and Bylaw 2025, Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor: "Dogs must be leashed on paths." This loop keeps to formed riverside pathways and street footpaths, where the bylaw's leash rules apply throughout”. Evidence: the council’s own mapped rule zone. 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 Richmond Avon River Bridge Loop
Near Christchurch in Canterbury, Richmond Avon River Bridge Loop runs 1.9 km as a loop.
An easy riverside loop between two Avon River bridges in Richmond, on the city edge of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. Megan, who sent this one in with Albie, parks near the Swanns Road bridge and walks up one side of the river to the Medway footbridge, crosses, and comes back down the other bank; you can just as easily start from the Medway Street end. It takes 30 to 40 minutes at a dog's pace. From the Swanns Road bridge the eastern bank follows Te Ara Ōtākaro Avon River Trail through the start of the red zone, where the houses are gone and the river berm is open grass and young plantings. The Medway footbridge at the halfway mark is the memorial rebuilt from the earthquake-buckled original, and the western bank brings you back on the City to Sea Pathway and quiet street footpaths past the Richmond Community Garden to the Swanns Road bridge. It is on lead the whole way: the riverside pathways are formed paths, where the council's corridor rules require a leash, and the street sections carry the citywide leash rule for roads and footpaths. The mown berms beside the trail are part of the corridor where effective control off lead is allowed, but with the river on one side, plantings full of waterfowl on the other and cyclists sharing the pathway, the lead is the practical answer here anyway.
Expect easy going, with around 5 m of climb, and takes about 23 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Megan & Albie suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
