Follow the pastry this July as North Canterbury turns the humble pie into a winter road trip.
The MADE North Canterbury Pie Trail is back for its second year, running throughout 1–31 July 2026.
The idea is deliberately simple: visit participating local businesses, try a pie and discover a few more corners of North Canterbury along the way.
It is part food trail, part winter road trip and part celebration of the bakeries and producers working across the region.
Local pies, local businesses
North Canterbury has no shortage of good bakers.
The trail gives participating businesses a collective platform while giving visitors a reason to turn lunch into an itinerary.
Some people will stay loyal to mince and cheese.
Others will inevitably look for whatever unusual filling appears on the menu.
There is no wrong approach.
Build your own route
There is no need to complete everything in one day.
Choose a few stops, connect them with another Hurunui activity and make the drive part of the experience.
A pie in Amberley could lead into Waipara wine country. A northern stop could become part of a Hanmer Springs weekend.
That flexibility is what makes the trail work.
Visitors are also encouraged to share and review their pie stops, with the campaign combining local food, social participation and a healthy amount of pie-related wordplay.
Most importantly, every stop supports an independent local business.
Which means the only particularly difficult part of the Pie Trail is deciding when one pie becomes enough pies.