Here's your essential guide to getting the best out of a holiday in Christchurch.
Location nickname: The Garden City
Don't miss: International Antarctic Centre
Best avoid: Linwood
Don't miss: Coffee at C1 Expresso
Best avoid: Anything featuring 'sea eggs'…
Cardboard Cathedral: While the city works out what do with its damaged 19th century cathedral, the Transitional 'Cardboard' Cathedral, has become a hopeful landmark in its own right. Quickly erected using cardboard tubes, structural steel and concrete the building owes its innovative design to Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban.
Garden Tour: The Garden City lives up to its name not only in the public spaces of Hagley Park and the Botanical Garden but also in exceptional private horticulture. Expertly-escorted tours allow access to the best private gardens where displays of native and exotic species include some plantings dating from 1865.
Gondola: It's only a ten-minute dangle by cable car to the summit of Christchurch's Mount Cavendish. From 1,500ft, on a clear day 360-degree views over the city, the Canterbury Plains and Banks Peninsula are magnificent. Mountain bikes can be carried aboard and a network of varying scary trails lead down to the city.
International Antarctic Centre: Next to the airport is the entertaining public face of serious scientific research programmes run by New Zealand, USA and Italy. As well as highlighting human impact on the Antarctic environment, activities include rides aboard tracked Hagglund expedition vehicles, a 'polar plunge' ice water challenge and penguin encounters.
Jet Boating: Strapping yourself into a high-octane speedboat powered by jets of water and being hurled to within inches of unyielding cliff walls is much more fun than it sounds. Less than an hour from Christchurch, jet boats were invented for use on the Waimakariri River canyon in 1954. Grinning Kiwi skippers have been scaring tourists witless ever since.
Quail Island Ferries: 15-minutes from the city centre the flooded volcanic caldera of Lyttelton Harbour sees ferries run to nearby Quail Island. Once a quarantine station and colony for lepers, Scott and Shackleton both used Quail to train dogs and ponies for Antarctic expeditions. Today the island is a focus for the preservation of native flora and fauna.
Rebuild Bike Tours: Christchurch's Central Business District suffered badly in the 2011 earthquake, much of it until recently off-limits behind Red Zone barriers. A two-hour guided ride explores today's CBD, highlighting both the serious damage wrought in 2011 and the striking restoration that's reshaping the modern city.
SoMo: Encompassing Addington and Sydenham, post 2011 the bars, restaurants and music venues 'South Of Moorhouse' have given rise to an acronym that's synonymous with hip and happenin'. Amongst the new names are familiar exiles from the damaged city centre, including the Court Theatre, now occupying a former grain silo known as the Shed.
Take a Punt: Like New Zealand itself, parts of Christchurch seem to hark back to a more dignified, more ordered, possibly idealised, British heritage. Go with the flow on the city's placid Avon River, expertly-poled through the Botanical Gardens and leafy Hagley Park by a straw-boatered 'Edwardian' gentleman.
Wine: A short drive from Christchurch, the vineyards of North Canterbury's Waipara Valley benefit from a rare microclimate and growing local expertise to produce superlative Pinot Noirs - winning three gold medals in 2014's New World Wine Awards. Among almost 40 wineries, top names include Greystones, Sherwood Estate and Pegasus Bay.
This article has been produced in association with www.talkholiday.com
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