Victoria Park

Perched on the Port Hills above Cashmere, Victoria Park pairs a genuine playground with panoramic views across Christchurch, the Canterbury Plains, Pegasus Bay and the Southern Alps. The reserve at the end of Dyers Pass Road is also the main gateway to one of New Zealand's best mountain bike trail networks.

Equipment

The play area sits close to the main car park, and its standout feature is a long metal speed slide built into the natural rock of the hillside, reached by scrambling up exposed boulders rather than a ladder; children loop it repeatedly. Junior and senior multi-play structures, monkey bars, a timber fort, a standalone slide and swing bays with infant bucket seats complete the set on a woodchip surface. Most equipment suits children under eight, while older kids head for the mountain bike tracks branching from the same car park.

Access and Inclusion

Victoria Park holds 71 mountain bike trails graded intermediate to expert, widely regarded as Christchurch's original home of downhill riding, with named routes including Sesame Street and the Nationals Downhill Track. Nine walking tracks also leave the car park, including the Harry Ell Track, a 2.4 kilometre ridge route to the Sign of the Kiwi taking about 45 minutes each way. Dogs are welcome on lead on all walking tracks, and a designated off leash area sits near the main entrance.

History and Cultural

The park was formally opened on 22 June 1897 by former Canterbury Superintendent William Rolleston to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, having first been set aside as a reserve in 1870. The neo-Gothic Sign of the Takahe at the entrance, a stone roadhouse begun in 1918 and completed in 1948, is listed with Heritage New Zealand. The wooded path near the old tea kiosk was the site of the 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case, later dramatised in Peter Jackson's Oscar-nominated film Heavenly Creatures.

Practical Info

Shade gazebos and picnic tables sit by the car park, with toilets and a drinking fountain on site and off street parking available. Gates open from 7.30am, extending to 9pm during daylight saving, and a smokefree and vapefree policy applies across the site.