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ContactLittle River is a dot on the Akaroa highway where the Canterbury Plains finally give up and the hills of Banks Peninsula begin. There is a station building, a gallery or two, and not much else — which is the point. The rail trail runs through it, the road over the pass is one of the better drives out of Christchurch, and on a misty morning the whole valley looks like it was painted rather than photographed.
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Little River is a small settlement at the western edge of Banks Peninsula, where the Canterbury Plains meet the peninsula's hills, on the old railway line to Akaroa.
The settlement grew up around the Little River railway station, on the line that once ran from Christchurch over the peninsula to Akaroa. The trains stopped in the 1960s, and the formation has since become the Little River Rail Trail — a gravel path that runs from Hornby on the outskirts of Christchurch through to Little River itself, crossing farmland and following the shore of Lake Ellesmere for part of the way. Cycling it in one direction and arranging a pickup is the usual approach, and it is flat enough to be a genuinely easy ride rather than an endurance test. The old station building at the Little River end is the natural finish line, and there is a cafe there for exactly that reason.
Misty hills above the Little River valley, seen as a panorama
Beyond Little River, State Highway 75 climbs over the shoulder of the peninsula toward Akaroa, and the drive is the other reason to come this way. The road rises through pasture and patches of native bush, with viewpoints looking back across the plains to the Southern Alps on a clear day, before dropping into Akaroa Harbour. We stayed three nights in Little River in mid-March as a base for the peninsula rather than as a destination in itself, and the mornings were the memorable part — fog sitting in the valley, the hills emerging above it in layers, and almost no traffic on the road until the Akaroa day-trippers started coming through around nine.
March to April, when the summer crowds have thinned, the mornings fog up beautifully, and the peninsula is still dry underfoot.
In Little River itself or a little further along the highway toward Akaroa, which puts the peninsula's bays within easy reach.
Order fish and chips or a flat white at the cafe by the old station; this is a small settlement and the options are few, but they are good.
Do the rail trail one way with a pickup arranged rather than out and back — the Christchurch end is unremarkable, and the peninsula end is where the scenery is.
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