Happy holiday! It’s a nice feeling to have the day off while the rest of the country is still working… Some of you might have gone to the Canterbury A&P Show this week – some of you might have even tried to bike there. Ten years ago, the organisers provided some limited guidance on pedalling to the Show, so I tried to help, as summarised in this blog post originally from Nov 2012. Now there are a few more cycleways around to help get you there and their website advice reflects those improvements too…
Canterbury Anniversary is this week and of course that means the Canterbury A&P Show is on this Wednesday to Friday. Anyone who has driven to The Show in previous years knows that it can be real hassle crawling along there and finding a park. So what about biking there?
When providing information about transport to events, biking is often left out of the reckoning. So it is to the credit of the agencies concerned that some information about biking to the show has been provided by SCIRT, Transport for Christchurch, and the Show organisers themselves. However, while it is good to know that bike parking will be available near the Lake (west) and River (east) turnstile entrances, how do you actually get there?
Fortunately GoogleMaps’ new bike route feature can help, or you can try a very good alternative – OpenStreetMap. Both of these provide information about bike routes in the vicinity, although they are only as good as the information that has been supplied by users.
To help you out, here are a couple of maps indicating the main ways in from various directions. Firstly, if you’re coming from the north side of town (click on the map to see a larger version):
In most cases your best bet is probably to get over to Annex Rd and then Lunns Rd, from where you can cross over to the pathway that leads around to Wigram Rd. At the new entrance to the A&P Showgrounds (opposite Hayton Rd) there is a separate underpass path for pedestrians and cyclists to make their way through; then follow the newly sealed pathway back around to the Lake turnstile.
If you’re heading from the south, there are a few other options for you (again, click for a larger view):
(The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that you can now ride alongside the motorway all the way from the Aidanfield overbridge near Broken Run)
Coming from the southeast, you will probably want to get to the pathway along Curletts Rd and then go in the main access to the River turnstiles:
Alternatively, for those from the southwest, you might like to make your way through Aidanfield and access the gate at the end of McMahon Drive…
…or in coming from Hoon Hay, you can enter via the bridge at the end of Templetons Rd (note that the path from here is unsealed and a bit rough in places)
Alternatively you could consider riding your bike to one of the bus services going to the Show, e.g. the number 7 route. Whether you park your bike at the stop or take your bike on the bus might depend on which buses are provided (not all of them have bike racks).
I hope that you’re able to find a suitable route from this information. Enjoy the Show!