Facilities available and important information:
- Toilets at car park & at Spencer Park Approx 5.8km walk depending on track taken
- Visitor centre in the main car park
- Dogs are welcome but must be kept under control at all times
- Bottle Lake is used by bikes and horses also.
- Small bike track with jumps and hills by carpark
- Walkers should always give way to horses
- Picnic area available
- Following the February 22 Earthquake part of the forest is being used for the Burwood Resource Recovery Park operation which allows for rubble and silt to be recycled. A number of tracks have been re-routed and there is now an exclusion zone.
- Bottle Lake is a working forest and tracks are closed from time to time.
One of the Lakes in the Forest
Bottle Lake Forest Christchurch an outdoor playground that covers 800 hectares for all to enjoy
Another wonderful asset for the East side of Christchurch, well worth visiting for some outdoor exercise.
In this reserve there are numerous tracks for walking or riding a mountain bike.
Two of the most popular walking tracks are marked by green & blue markers. "please note there are a number of markers missing".
Both green & blue tracks start from the car park where there is a map "map can be out of date however".
The green track is a short loop track that winds around the 1000-hectare pine forest.
The blue track is a larger loop that takes you around the forest and onto Spencer Park if desired.
Other tracks will link to the Southern Pegasus Bay track and the coastline.
The forest is crisscrossed with shingle roads used when Rangers or when forestry operations are happening.
All these roads are sign posted and can be found on the maps you can walk these as an alternative to the tracks.
There is also a dump within the forest that was used for dumping materials from the earthquakes. This is serviced by a sealed road and the dump itself is fenced off.
Signage and maps are due for an update so keep track of landmarks as it is easy to get a little disorientated.
Watch out when crossing mountain bike tracks when walking.
