Christchurch

Accessed via its International airport or 1 hour 40 minutes flight from Auckland. Visitors enjoy Christchurch for its elegant simplicity and gracious lifestyle.

This ‘Garden City’ has been voted one of the most beautiful and liveable cities in the world. Christchurch has achieved a fine balance between the extremes of modern metro hustle and the grace and charm of an earlier era.

Christchurch was named by nostalgic settlers after an Oxford university college, and the traditional English ambience can be felt in many ways. Recent European and Oriental immigration has created a melting pot of other exotic cultures, reflected in a host of exciting eateries, nightclubs and street entertainment. There is a wealth of cultural centres, theatres, , shopping arcades and quaint boutiques. Vibrant cafes, bars, nightclubs and restaurants offer fine cuisine and award-winning wines. There is regular street entertainment in the form of buskers and an eccentric ‘wizard’ pontificating on a soapbox in Cathedral Square. You can even sip a glass of Champagne while punting on the river. Winter skiing is within an hour’s drive of the city.

Downtown Christchurch is extremely visitor-friendly. The city layout is compact and orderly and a historic restored electric tramcar follows a 2.5 km circuit past the major city sights and a shuttle bus operates from the Visitor Information Centre in the square.

Colonial New Zealand is alive and well at The Charlotte Jane Boutique Hotel. This fine Victorian building once a private girls boarding school now offers top boutique hotel accommodation.

From Christchurch the spectacular scenery of the South Island unravels. The breathtaking mountain vistas of the Southern Alps, spectacular lakes, rivers and bush clad valleys, giant glaciers descending almost to sea level, precipitous fiords and World Heritage scenic wonders await. Enjoy it all.