Walk Christchurch and clear the map

Christchurch is flat, gridded and rebuilt. It is one of the few cities where walking the whole central area is a genuinely achievable project.

Four avenues and a river

The centre of Christchurch is defined by four streets: Bealey, Fitzgerald, Moorhouse and Deans. Everything inside that box is the central city, and it is a plain colonial grid with the Avon River wandering diagonally through it, ignoring the street plan entirely. Cathedral Square sits in the middle. Colombo Street runs north-south through it, Worcester and Hereford and Cashel run east-west.

Walking the whole box is a real afternoon, not a fantasy. It is roughly two kilometres by two, entirely flat, and the streets are wide with generous footpaths. On the FOG map this is the rare case where you can watch a defined area go from fully fogged to almost solid in a couple of sessions, which most cities never let you do.

Hagley Park and the Avon

Hagley Park is enormous, about 165 hectares sitting immediately west of the centre, and the Avon loops through it. The path network in there is dense and looping rather than gridded, which makes it a good place to fill in genuine area rather than lines. The Botanic Gardens sit inside the northern loop of the river and add another tangle of paths.

A good route: start at the Bridge of Remembrance on Cashel, walk west along the river past the Antigua Boat Sheds, into Hagley Park, north through the Botanic Gardens, out at the Armagh Street bridge, then back east through the rebuilt blocks around New Regent Street and the Terrace. Six or seven kilometres, flat the whole way, and it fills in a chunky green blob with a tail.

Further out, the Avon River trail continues northeast towards New Brighton through the residential red zone, land cleared after the 2011 earthquake and now largely open ground with the old street layout still visible. Walking it is strange and quiet, and the map fills in a wide corridor of streets that no longer have houses on them.

Out to the coast and up the hills

Christchurch is flat until it suddenly is not. The Port Hills rise along the southern edge, and the Bridle Path from Heathcote up to the Lyttelton side climbs hard and fast. The Crater Rim Walkway runs along the top. That is the only real elevation the city offers, and it is worth the climb for what it does to your map: a thin line of cleared ground along a ridge with fog on both sides.

To the east, New Brighton has a long beach and a pier, and the sand runs for kilometres. Sumner sits at the southeast corner under the cliffs. Both are easy walking, both produce long coastal stripes rather than filled area.

Practical notes

Christchurch weather is changeable rather than harsh. Winters are cold but dry-ish and rarely stop you walking. The nor'wester can be unpleasant. Summer is mild. There is no season here where the map has to sit idle for months, unlike the northern cities.

The city is low-rise almost everywhere, which means GPS behaves. There is nothing tall enough to bounce a signal. FOG keeps revealing with the app closed and the screen off, so a walk to work clears the same as a deliberate expedition. Every street you cover is cleared permanently, and the city percentage will tell you how much of Christchurch you have actually lit.

Questions people actually ask

Start with a dark map.

FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.

free to explore · one purchase unlocks everything · never a subscription