Christchurch
Christchurch is the South Island's gateway and the largest city on it, rebuilt after the earthquake of 2011 with new architecture beside the surviving Gothic and the largest urban park in the country in the middle. One night or two, the free museum, a punt down the Avon, and the rental car that starts the road south.
Christchurch in a nutshell
Christchurch: what to expect
We read 185,000+ planned stops in New Zealand on Stippl to see how Christchurch really gets planned.
One night in Christchurch for most and two for the centre, and the rebuild itself is what you look at. Punting on the Avon is a flat-bottomed boat poled through the Botanic Gardens for half an hour, the gardens of 1863 hold ten thousand plants inside the largest urban park in the country, the Canterbury Museum is free and the best regional museum in the country, Quake City is the honest way to understand what the rest of the centre is a response to, and the memorial wall along the river carries the hundred and eighty-five names. Most travellers give Christchurch 1 night on Stippl.
Christchurch is where the South Island starts for most people, and second only to Auckland as the place a trip ends. 45.1% of stops here run a single night, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, the city opens 28.7% of the trips it appears on and closes 30.6%, because the airport is the island's main international gateway and most rentals start here.
Sleep in the central grid, visit the memorial rather than avoid the subject, take the tram loop as a way of seeing the rebuild, and collect the car on the way out rather than the way in. Skip treating the earthquake and the attack of 2019 as photo opportunities, since both are recent and both are local, and skip Aoraki Mount Cook as a day trip, because three hours each way is a poor day and worse in winter.
Plan Christchurch in Stippl
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Download the appWho Christchurch is for
South Island first-timers
The island's main airport and the natural place to begin or end, opening 28.7% of the Stippl trips it appears on.
Families
A flat gridded centre, the largest urban park in the country, a free museum and a gondola, all within a short walk or bus ride.
Architecture travellers
The rebuild drew Shigeru Ban and other international architects, and the result is legible on foot in a way few cities offer.
Garden travellers
The Botanic Gardens of 1863 and Hagley Park are, by every account, the finest urban green space in New Zealand.
Budget travellers
The hostel scene is deep and cheap, and the centre's best things, the museum, the gardens and the memorial, are free.
Trip-enders
30.6% of the Stippl trips Christchurch appears on end here, the rental returned and the flight out the next morning.
Maybe not for you: anyone expecting an intact heritage city, since the earthquake took most of it and the rebuild is the subject; and anyone using it only as an airport, because the gardens, the museum and the rebuilt centre earn the night every guide gives them.
The best time to visit Christchurch
Summer
December to February
Twenty-one to twenty-three degrees, the driest months of the year and the domestic holiday peak from late December, with 51.4% of Stippl stops in the wider summer.
Autumn
March to May
March is the pick, still warm and settled with the summer crowds gone, and Hagley Park turns in April.
Winter
June to August
Maxima of eleven or twelve, frost on the plains and the wettest stretch of the year, when the city works and the day trips do not.
Spring
September to November
The Botanic Gardens are the point, with blossom in September, the gardens through October and warm settled weather by November.
- Most travellers give Christchurch 1 night on Stippl, and 45.1% of stops are exactly that. Two days covers the centre and the gondola; three adds Akaroa on the peninsula.
- The busiest month here on Stippl is January of plans, and 13.1% of stops fall in the winter. The city is the airport in every season, and the day trips are the difference.
- The Buskers Festival takes January. The city's signature summer event runs city-wide for most of the month, and the hostels are busier than the rest of the summer.
- Hagley Park turns in April. The autumn colour comes to the largest urban park in the country, and April brings the quietest good weather of the year in the city.
- Anzac Day closes the shops until afternoon. On 25 April the dawn service fills the square and the museum, and the rental desks open late.
- Only 2.9% of Christchurch trips on Stippl stop nowhere else in New Zealand. The city is the door to the island, and the car is collected on the way out.
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Things to do in Christchurch
Photo by Oliver Williams via UnsplashPunting on the Avon
A flat-bottomed boat poled down the river from the Antigua Boat Sheds through the Botanic Gardens, about half an hour, and the city's most traditional activity.
The Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park
Gardens from 1863 holding over ten thousand plants from six thousand species, inside the largest urban park in New Zealand, in the middle of the grid.
The Canterbury Museum
Free, and rated the best regional museum in the country, with the Antarctic exploration gallery and the Māori taonga collection as the reasons.
Quake City
The earthquake museum, and the honest way to understand what the rest of the centre is a response to, in an hour.
The Earthquake National Memorial
A curved wall along the river carrying the hundred and eighty-five names, opened on the fifth anniversary, and part of the city rather than apart from it.
The 185 White Chairs
A temporary artwork that became permanent, a hundred and eighty-five painted chairs each one different, standing for each person who died.
The neighbourhoods of Christchurch
The city centre
The rebuilt grid
New architecture beside surviving Gothic Revival, the tram, the nineteen-thirties shopfronts of New Regent Street and the Riverside Market, compact and walkable with the rebuild as the subject. For first visits.
Everything on foot and the rebuild around you, but the quietest evenings of any city this size.
Riccarton
The budget side
West of the centre beside Hagley Park, with the university, the shopping centre and a long run of cheaper beds, well served by bus. For budgets.
Cheaper rooms and the gardens at the end of the road, though a bus into the centre.
Merivale
The leafy suburb
Older and leafier north of Hagley Park, with established restaurants, wine bars and boutiques along the main road and very little noise. For foodies.
The eating is good and nobody is on a pub crawl, but a walk or a bus to the centre.
Sumner
The seaside village
Fifteen minutes south-east under volcanic cliffs, with a surf beach, an esplanade of cafés and the walks up onto the Port Hills. For families.
The beach and the coast walks at the door, but a car or a long bus into town.
Addington
The nightlife quarter
The former railway quarter west of the centre that filled with cafés, bars and the theatre after the earthquake, and the city's newest nightlife precinct. For a night out.
The most independent energy in the city, though the rooms are few.
Sydenham
The unpolished strip
Immediately south of the centre, low-slung and unpolished, with the Colombo Street strip and a concentration of independent kitchens. For eating.
The food is the reason and the streetscape is not, and nothing to stay in.
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Where to stay in Christchurch
The city centre is the right choice for a short stay, with the rebuild, the gardens, the market and the memorial all walkable from it, and Riccarton beside the park is the budget version with a bus in. Most travellers give Christchurch 1 night on Stippl, and the airport hotels take the early-flight trade.
The city centre
Hostels, new hotels and apartments on the grid, €17 to €180 a night.
Riccarton
NZ$90–250
Motels, hostels and budget hotels by the park, €45 to €125 a night.
Merivale
NZ$130–320
Boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts in the leafy streets, €80 to €200 a night.
Sumner
NZ$130–300
Beach motels and guesthouses under the cliffs, €70 to €160 a night.
Addington
NZ$100–260
A few hotels and apartments in the old railway quarter, €60 to €130 a night.
Sydenham
NZ$100–240
Budget motels on the strip, €50 to €100 a night.
What to eat in Christchurch
The region's export animal and the meat New Zealand is known for abroad
A large New Zealand shellfish, usually steamed in wine or a broth
A patty of tiny translucent juvenile fish bound with egg, seasonal and expensive
White bread rolled around melted cheese and onion soup mix, then toasted. The southern South Island's own snack
Hand-sized shortcrust pie, mince and cheese or steak. The national convenience food
Vanilla through honeycomb toffee, the national flavour
The Waipara valley an hour north is a serious cool-climate wine region
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Christchurch customs and what not to do
Visit the memorial
The wall and the chairs are part of the city, and locals expect visitors to see them rather than avoid the subject.
Use Ōtautahi
The Māori name for the city is in ordinary use and on the signage alongside the English one.
Ask about the rebuild
People here talk about it readily, and it is the city's defining recent history rather than a sore point.
Not a photo opportunity
The earthquake killed a hundred and eighty-five people and the attack of 2019 killed fifty-one, both recent and both local, and the sites are visited with that in mind.
The centre is not dead
It was, and it is not now: roughly sixty percent has been rebuilt, and anything written before about 2018 understates it.
Do
- Visit the memorial; locals expect it
- Use Ōtautahi; it is on the signs
- Ask about the rebuild; people talk about it readily
- Ride the heritage tram once; it doubles as a way of seeing the centre
Don't
- Treat the earthquake sites or the mosque as photo opportunities
- Assume the centre is dead; it was, and it is not now
- Swim at Sumner outside the flags; it is patrolled in season only
What a Christchurch trip costs
Budget
€51–81
A shared campervan or car, free and conservation campsites, all meals cooked and one paid activity a week.
Mid-range
€101–162
A rental car with motels or hostel privates, a restaurant meal most days and a big-ticket activity most weeks.
High-end
€228+
Hotels and lodges, guided walks and cruises and restaurant meals throughout.
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Fun facts about Christchurch
The Botanic Gardens in Christchurch date from 1863 and hold over 10,000 plants. From 6,000 species, in a city with more trees per head than any other in the southern hemisphere.
The Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch is made of cardboard tubes. Designed by Shigeru Ban as a transitional replacement after 2011, opened in 2013 and still in use.
Christchurch has been an Antarctic gateway since Scott and Shackleton sailed from Lyttelton. Which is why the Antarctic Centre and the museum's polar gallery are here rather than anywhere else.
Akaroa on Banks Peninsula was settled by the French in 1840. And the street names still say so, an hour and a half from Christchurch over the crater rim.
The 185 White Chairs in Christchurch were meant to be temporary. Each chair is different, one for each person who died, and the artwork became permanent because the city would not let it go.
30.6% of the trips carrying Christchurch on Stippl end here. Second only to Auckland as the place a New Zealand trip finishes, because the rental goes back to the airport.
Local tips for Christchurch
Flat, gridded and walkable
The centre is small enough to walk, which is the exception among New Zealand cities, and the tram loop covers the rest of it.
The tram is a way of seeing it
The heritage tram runs a loop through the rebuilt centre and doubles as the tour, with a day pass and a commentary.
The car starts here
You need one for everything outside the city, and Christchurch is where most South Island rentals begin and end.
The Alpine Fault is published
The emergency programme puts a three-in-four chance on a major quake within fifty years, and the city's rebuild is designed around it.
Sumner is patrolled in season
The surf beach fifteen minutes out has lifeguards in the summer months only, and the flags are the rule.
One night, and a door
45.1% of Stippl stops here are a single night and only 2.9% of Christchurch trips stop nowhere else, because the island starts here.
Christchurch questions, answered
Two days covers the centre and the gondola, and three if Akaroa is on the list, though most travellers give Christchurch 1 night on Stippl and 45.1% of stops are exactly that, because the rental car is waiting.
Some, and the rebuild is the more interesting half: roughly sixty percent of the centre has been rebuilt, with new architecture beside the surviving Gothic and the memorial wall along the river. Quake City is the hour that explains what the rest of the centre is a response to.
Every guide that asks the question answers yes, on the strength of the gardens, the free museum and the rebuilt centre. Put one night into Stippl on the way in or out, then ask people in subreddits like r/chch what they would add to the day.
The Canterbury Museum, which is free and rated the best regional museum in New Zealand for its Antarctic gallery and its Māori collection, with the Botanic Gardens and the memorial free beside it. The centre's best things cost nothing, which is why the hostel scene is deep.
Three hours each way makes it a long day and a poor one in winter, so it belongs in the itinerary as an overnight rather than a day out. The busiest month here on Stippl is January of plans, and the summer is when the mountain road is at its best.
At one end: the city opens 28.7% of the trips it appears on and closes 30.6%, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, because the airport is the island's main international gateway and the rentals start and finish here.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Christchurch in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the app