What downhill mountain bike trails will you find at Christchurch Adventure Park?
Currently Christchurch Adventure Park (CAP) has 26 trails on offer – all but one being downhill tracks, from beginner friendly green trails to intermediate blue flow and tech trails, through to advanced black and double black diamond tracks for expert riders.
List of Trails
Track Reviews and Videos!
Alright so lets take a look through all the mountain biking tracks at Christchurch Adventure Park, and see what sort of riding you can expect!
Duncans Donuts
A friendly introduction to downhill mountain biking, this Green trail is wide in most places with a gentle gradient perfect for beginner riders. It is 4.5km (2.8 miles) long.
Over time several optional features off to the side of the trail have appeared, like natural bank wall rides and small jumps, but these are all totally optional – the basic trail is suitable for almost all levels of mountain bikers young and old.
Active Rest
Continuing on down the hill following Duncans Donuts, more beginner friendly downhill trail awaits in Active Rest, this time with very few turns. 1.7km (1.0 miles) long this then runs into the next segment of the main green run down to the village, with an optional green tech route taking you instead along narrower singletrack style trail, with a few fun little optional features on the side of the trail to get creative with as your confidence on the bike grows.
Non-Compliant
The third and final section of the main green run down to the village, this trail gets a little bit steeper, particular around some of the large sweeping berms which are good fun! This trail ends right across from the pump track at the village amongst the trees.
Snakeobs
When beginner riders want something a little more challenging and varied, more downhill singletrack in style, Snakeobs is a great next step. This is an alternate Green route branching off the main Green run which is made up of trails 1, 2, and 3.
Snakeobs also has a bunch of optional features on it which allow the trail to stay fun once bike handling skills and speed keep improving.
Lord of the Possums
Once riders have mastered the Green trails, they’ll usually be keen to check out the next trail to progress on – and the blue flow trail Lord of the Possums is always a good choice.
With big bermed corners helping riders keep their speed, Lord of the Possums is quite a wide trail, and has a few little features on it that can easily be rolled, but which can be turned into a bit of airtime if you’re a rider interested in such things! This includes a few tabletop jumps towards the bottom of the trail – but riders just wanting to stay on the ground have no trouble riding over them more slowly. A few laps in and maybe some of those same riders will be getting their first real jumping progression underway!
Yeah Yeah Gnar
This is a nice progression trail choice for many riders mastering Lord of the Possums, introducing a quick 0.5km (0.3 miles) of hand built blue tech featuring berms, and also more rocks – particular around two main rockgardens, funnily enough!
Yeah Yeah Gnar only being a short trail from the top of the park, it then drops riders back onto Lord of the Possums to ride down to the halfway point to choose their next trail to ride on down to the village.
Summit Connection
This is the trail to take if you’re wanting to get around to the forested side of the park.
A mix of playful and more difficult options, bermed corners, and rocks, the Summit Connection trail takes you from the top of the chairlift around to Flying Nun. Here you can either turn into the regular Flying Nun trail, another blue tech – or take the more adventurous Gnarly Nun variation a bit futher along – complete with much chunkier rockgarden – or alternatively skip these to head down the road to the start of Choir Boy which takes you right around the valley to drop into a multitude of awesome trails.
Some riders choose from the start of Choir Boy to insead head up the next hill across Dyers Pass Road, to ride some DH trails in Victoria Park, which is outside the Christchurch Adventure Park. They can then drop back into the Park a bit further down Dyers Pass Road, and be at the top of a cluster of awesome trails like Shredzilla, Kama Sutra and Loess Rider.
Flying Nun
A classic blue mountain biking trail here in the Port Hills above Christchurch, which actually pre-dates the Adventure Park, the lower 2km (1.24 miles) section of Flying Nun now forms part of the trail network leading from the top of the chairlift around to the forested side of the park, and is plenty of fun in itself!
Several more gnarly options are available along Flying Nun for the shredders to jump off, all the way through to an alternate trail called Gnarly Nun that intersects across a rocky part of Flying Nun, giving that trail some much chunkier rockgardens.
With its rock armored berms and combination of flow and rocky features Flying Nun trail comes alive when ridden aggressively!
With a reputation for pinch flats it has actually been smoothed out recently, so doesn’t have nearly as many square edged rocks along it.
Choir Boy
Traversing 2.4km (1.49 miles) around the valley from the end of the Flying Nun trail, Choir Boy takes riders right around the valley through the forested side of the Christchurch Adventure Park, following along under Dyers Pass Road.
Choir Boy is used as a feeder trail, giving riders the option top drop into numerous other trails along the way. These include great blue tech and flow trails, through to some super fun black diamond and double black diamond trails.
Loess Rider
One of the most popular blue flow trails in Christchurch Adventure Park, Loess Rider takes riders through 2.2km (1.36 miles) of flow down to the village at the bottom.
It’s a widely accessible trail for most levels of mountain bikers, but still quite enjoyable for faster riders – with many alternate side features and berm to berm gap lines on offer for those who are looking for them!
Captain Torpedo
A new blue tech trail through the forested side of the valley opening shortly!
Gung Ho
A super fun blue trail down through the forest, accessed via Choir Boy trail.
Gung Ho bobs and weaves down the valley with some sections in particular having just an awesome flow to them, despite keeping you on your toes with close packed trees around the narrow hand built trail. Many optional routes and features on the sides of the trail give plenty of variation, and it has turned out a fantastic addition to the Christchurch Adventure Park.
Drainpipe
Another new blue tech trail opening soon down through the forested side of the valley!!
Handle the Jandal
This is a fast and flowy blue flow trail, with many bermed corners, rollers and tabletop jumps to get your jumping skills honed in over 2.2km (1.36 miles).
Following the fires and subsequent clearing of trees this trail was built crisscrossing down the valley around the chairlift line.
A very popular trail down from the midway point it has struggled with the exposure to the elements and the full force combination of clay based soil, extreme drying in the sun, drainage issues in the wetter months and a battering of constant traffic . This has meant a lot of maintenance has been required to keep the trail running well, and despite this it is still usually corrugated with braking bumps and water runoff.
Despite all of the above, it remains a popular trail in the part, for many levels of riders from kids and parents on their first visits to the park rolling their way through the lengthy trail – right through to party trains of absolute shredders sending every jump and styling them up with tricks as they make their way down to the village past the bottom chairlift station.
“Name This Trail”
Aptly titled currently, the name of this trail will be decided by an upcoming competition run for visitors to the Christchurch Adventure Park.
This is a really enjoyable blue jump trail through the forest, reached via Choir Boy trail. Full of tabletop jumps and hips and aggressive berms, this trail clearly will step up many intermediate level riders pumping and jumping skills, and rewards really focusing on maintaining all your momentum with many tightly packed features and bermed switch backs.
Definitely a fun trail to get familiar with over a bunch of laps with your friends – despite requiring a ride around the less interesting Choir Boy feeder trail to get to it.
Double Overhead Cam
One of the oldest trails in the park, Double Overhead Cam (DOHC) is starting to show its age, and it would be fair to say the trail has fallen out of favor over recent times – in part due to the growing number of black and double black diamond trails available in the park.
Despite that, riders wanting to try out a rutted and gutted black DH trail with a few steeps and a bunch of other little features and alternate lines, even a couple of small jumps thrown in, perhaps as a first black diamond trail being tried, still often head down DOHC to the village from the midway point on the deforested side of the valley.
And of course, let’s not forget the DH riders who are into charging down rough DH tracks with plenty of chunk at speed – or those wanting to get to the double black diamond Black Pearl trail – as they take a lap or two down DOHC from time to time.
Captain Cook
From the end of the Choir Boy trail just under Dyers Pass Road, there are two main options to get to the start of several awesome trails – either down a short 4wd track, or down Captain Cook trail – which is definitely my own preferred option.
The short 0.2 km (0.12 miles) Captain Cook trail takes you down through a few rocks, an optional rock drop, and around a few more corners into the forest – and gets very slippy in the wet!
This trail takes you to the entrance of some great trails including Shredzilla, Kama Sutra, and Loess Rider.
Shredzilla
One of my absolute favs at the Adventure Park, Shredzilla combines all sorts of mountain biking gnar goodness into one punchy 0.9km (0.56 miles) trail.
Some off-camber parts, gnarly rockgardens, exposed roots, and optional drops and jumps to keep the stoke high, and a bunch of fast flow possible as well for more advanced riders, it’s just an awesome trail and one I keep coming back to time and again.
It’s one of those downhill tracks that just puts a smile on your face every run.
It also often gets combined with the next trail over, the double black diamond Kama Sutra, with riders heading down Captain Cook, onto the first section of Kama, and then down Shredzilla from the rockgarden at the Crux.
Swinger Party
Mountain bike trail names, you’ve got to love them.
A popular trail, Swinger has two main sections – the quick top section which defined by a bunch of bermed corners swooping back and forth, and a few optional features to jump off and over – and the longer bottom section following a park access road crossing, where suddenly the rider is met with gnarlier steeper more technical trail, with several optional drops and alternate lines into deep thrashed bermed corners.
I actually think it’s a great trail to help with skill progression on riding steeper gnarly tracks – providing plenty of challenge through the overall aggressive trail style, and drops and other rocky features that keep the blood pumping. The faster you go, the more you have to attack the trail to ride the 1.2kms (0.74 miles) out clean.
3rd Base
Arguably one of the best double black diamond tracks in the Christchurch Adventure Park, 3rd Base has plenty of challenges crammed into a full on track – and it is right to start with a mandatory drop as a squirrel catcher, just to let people know what they’re in for.
The initial drop and numerous other gnarly features are well built on this hand built trail, and there are also plenty of optional lines of varying intensity to choose from!
Steep sections, off camber, drops, gaps, and a lily pad feature all combine to keep the stoke high, and it’s pretty awesome to see shredders make the trail their own.
Kama Sutra
Another park fav for double black diamond trail riders, this trail has evolved over time, for example differing from the video below it now has a drop filter at the start of the trail from the Pioneer Hub (where Shredzilla and Loess Rider also start).
The trail is very steep and full of off camber, roots, rock features which can be rolled or dropped, gaps and steep loose chutes.
Good fun for advanced riders who like a hearty helping of gnar with their downhill mountain biking.
Throw the Goat / Yoda
Plenty of rocks and tech to be found on Throw the Goat, with some small gaps and drops spicing up the trail even more.
As the trail continues we get into more berms and gaps all over the place, before it drops down over a steep section and into Yoda it gets even gnarlier, with steeper sections, very rocky terrain and some chunky rock rolls.
There are some alternate lines through here, and also some small wooden bridges to help some of the rocky lines roll, so it’s common to see several riders walking this section of track along the ridge, scoping their line of choice before committing!
Black Pearl
Take the DOHC trail down from the midpoint, and you’ll soon find the entrance off to the right that drops you onto Black Pearl, a steep off camber trail that takes you through a bunch of loose rough and rocky features.
There are several solid features along the trail including an off camber drop or two and a few optional routes along the sides of the trail – and finishing with a chunky road gap right under the chairlift and near the bottom chairlift station, which is above my pay grade but plenty of the parks shredders can be seen hitting!
The GC
This is a steep downhill track filled with gnar, and in addition to being one of the more challenging trails in the park is also used for a range of downhill races like the Nationals downhill series here in New Zealand.
It is full of off camber, steep chutes, rock gardens, gaps, drops and even some sizeable jumps down at the bottom.
Definitely a downhill track that gets the adrenaline pumping when ridden at speed.
Airtearoa – Upper
One of the headline trails when the park first opened, the epic black diamond jump trail Airtearoa and its non stop jump line all the way down the hill quickly became a go-to trail for fans of airtime and party laps.
Unfortunately the fires a few years ago and resulting logging destroyed the trail, and it was quite some time after the park reopened following the logging and subsequent rebuild that this upper section of Airtearoa was recreated.
Really well worth a look for riders into bigger jumps and plenty of airtime.