Southshore Spit Reserve runs along the narrow sandspit between the Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai and the open sea at 216 Rocking Horse Rd, Southshore, Christchurch, and holds a 4.7 rating from 163 Google reviews. Good coastal reserves do quiet, constant work: holding dunes together with native grasses, giving ground-nesting birds somewhere undisturbed, and sheltering the mudflats that migrating waders feed on. Visitors do best to check the tide before setting out, since the birdlife shifts with the water, and to keep to marked tracks through the dunes. Most reserves of this kind restrict dogs or require leads, especially in spring and summer when species such as oystercatchers nest on bare sand, and the regulars move slowly, carry binoculars and give roosting flocks a wide berth. A short drive from central Christchurch, this spit offers wild shoreline and estuary flats without leaving the city.