Christchurch 360 Trail - Godley Cliffs Section

The full 360 Trail is a 135km loop around ChCh on a mix of urban trails and tracks. If you are nuts you could try the whole lot in one go, but you'll need the best part of 24 hours for that. Instead the 360 Trail concept is an Urban "Great Walk" designed to be ticked off in several discrete stages. Godley Cliffs is the second section of the 360 Trail and if you want a longer full traverse of the Port Hills hook it together with the Sugarloaf Hills section which starts over in Halswell, or the Crater Rim Trail.

If you've come up via the Gondola drop down the zig zag track down to the saddle. From here kick off into the gradual climb up the shared use MTB/walking trail as it sidles and zigzags up to the top of Mt Pleasant. Alternately for a more direct route head straight up the hill cross country where you'll pick up sections of the pre-EQ Crater Rim route.

From Mt Pleasant it's more shared use track down and round to the historic bunkers, which are always a great spot for a photo or two. Hop onto the Crater Rim Trail here and get rid of those MTB's for a more direct descent down and round to Evans Pass. Cross the road and cattlestop and then follow the Crater Rim all the way out to the Godley Head Carpark.

There are some truly gobsmacking views of the Lyttleton Harbour entrance through here. From Godley Head the 360 Trail actually follows the old track down to Boulder Bay, bypassing the Gun Emplaceements on Godley Head. You may wish to take the new trail that tours these historic buildings instead. You can also camp at Godley head these days too, a great place for night sky and sunrise viewing. Nice easy undulations take you round the bays to Taylors Mistake where you need to zip across the sandy beach and pick up the trail up to Scarborough head as it ducks, dives and zigzags around some baches and then some truly palatial homes. Up over the daunting cliffs of Whitewash Head, then down through Nicholson park and you'll hit the end of this section of the 360 Trail at Sumner Beach.