Bridle Path towards Heathcote Valley, 2025.

The Bridle Path across the Port Hills between Lyttelton and Heathcote Valley is one of Canterbury’s most recognised heritage routes.

The track is more than just a path. It’s a landscape that holds different meanings for many people. The area carries long-held connections for tangata whenua, marks early settler journeys in the region and continues to be walked and used today.

Constructed in 1850, the route is now lined by fourteen historic structures, including the 1864 Wayside Cross. These markers commemorate moments in time, and reflect how people have shaped, and been shaped by this landscape over generations.

But like many heritage landscapes, the Bridle Path is under pressure.

Heavy rain events overwhelm drainage, erode banks, and deposit silt across the path. If left unmanaged, the damage risks not only making the track impassable, but affecting the character and values that make it significant.

Rather than focusing on one issue at a time, we took a broader view.

Working alongside conservation architects Chessa Stevens and Alex Vakrousheva, we began by identifying the heritage values of the Bridle Path and the structures along it, looking closely at what gives this place its significance.

We then assessed the condition of those elements to understand what’s at risk and where care is most needed.

From there, we developed a set of conservation policies to guide future protection … not just as individual repairs, but as part of a bigger picture.

To carry that thinking into everyday care, we worked with the Christchurch City Council Port Hills Rangers to shape a practical, long-term maintenance plan that reflects those priorities. One that supports the ongoing use of the path, while looking after the wider landscape.

Systems thinking is critical in heritage landscapes - it means looking at how all the parts of a place work together over time, rather than focusing on individual features in isolation.

The Bridle Path is not just a series of features. It’s an interconnected landscape where natural processes, everyday use and the meaning people hold for this place all come together.

Taking this broad, systems view to conservation is helping protect more than just the Bridle Path’s physical features.

It supports resilient, long-term outcomes that protect the stories, memories and relationships that give this heritage landscape meaning, for everyone connected to it.