Christchurch-Canterbury, New Zealand Travel Blogs

Kaikoura Whale Watching
Sep 5, 2004 (14 photos)

In July we headed down to Kaikoura for a weekend away and to get out on the whale watching boat. We caught the Bluebridge ferry from Wellington to Picton at the very sociable hour of 3am and tried to convince ourselves that the humming and vibrating of ...

A whale's tail
Dec 22, 2006 (14 photos)

The summer holidays had arrived. With a spring in my step I boarded the Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Christchurch. I gazed out of the plane window at the velvety blue sea, the warm and shining arc of Golden Bay, the long tongue of sand ...

Dusky Dolphins
Nov 11, 2005 (11 photos)

... , so after a scenic 2 hour drive, we stopped at Hanmer Springs. Thankfully Stu had forgotten to bring his 'trunks' to New Zealand, so he'd bought some altogether more fashionable swim shorts the previous day. We paid just $10 each and proceeded to have ...

Around the South
Apr 9, 2005 (9 photos)

... ", how could I not stop? I saved two trees myself. It's interesting that in Australia the possum is endangered while in New Zealand they're trying to wipe them out completely. The possum is extremely harmful for the native forest and I wouldn't mind ...

Hanmer Springs
Jun 17, 2008

The drive to Hanmer was fantastic. Middle Earth is really quite stunning. The rolling hills gave way to the snowy mountains and Oscar's first drive was wonderful. The heater was used to its full potential that night and we woke up to be frozen in. We ...

Walking up Mt John
Dec 16, 2005 (6 photos)

... , so we got a great view of the 5000 sheep who were in the middle of the road, near Lake Pukaki. Jens was going to Christchurch, whereas I was just travelling an hour up the road to Lake Tekapo. On arrival, we said goodbye and I made my way to the YHA, ...

Christchurch
Jun 20, 2008 (6 photos)

... All Blacks. Before this dream was comprehensively shattered, we had spent the previous night at Lyttleton winter festival (Christchurch's harbour). Live music, fireworks, lights and food stalls galore, it was a great evening although our body clocks were ...

Back to New Zealand!
Aug 22, 2005

... back pack and the locals! I had an hour to kill so I spent the last of my change on sweets, converted my notes back to New Zealand Dollars, and read a free magazine I'd picked up on the way out of the hostel. Not only did this magazine have an article on ...

A very Kiwi Christmas
Dec 25, 2006 (6 photos)

... started, which provided motivation to get back to the mussels. The next day we explored the city a little more. Christchurch has a very English feel, with stone buildings, a Victorian Gothic cathedral, quaint little bridges over the River Avon, and ...

Akaroa, South Island
Dec 22, 2004 (2 photos)

Akaroa is located on the Banks Peninsula and is themed like a small village in France. Those who found it were French. It is really picturesque with restaurants all the way along the waterfront and palm trees on the beaches. The main thing to do in ...

Finishing work...prematurely!
Aug 9, 2005

... a day early. No problem. I have a lot of stuff to sort out before Melbourne anyway, so the extra day in Christchurch will be useful. I certainly don't want to spend much money there, but I can organise accommodation, transport and activities for my trip ...

Kaikoura Part 1
May 1, 2005 (10 photos)

Kaikoura We left Christchurch at 8am and had a long drive to Kaikoura arriving early afternoon. A combination of the Pacific Ocean, deep trenches and underwater canyons up to 3 KM in depth that are only a few Km's away from the shore and a marine ...

Just Landed
Apr 14, 2007

... nearly have it's own entry (have to build up those dots on the map) As you know we left Australia on Friday for New Zealand. The flight into New Zealand was unbelievable! There were so many mountain ranges, rivers and we even flew over Fox Glacier. ...

Oscar!
Jun 17, 2008 (5 photos)

... of this whole campervan rental process, getting Oscar was a breeze. The same model as Sophie and Basil, Oscar has some extra New Zealand features; insulated curtains, a heater and snow chains. To take the flash-packing dream one step further, this time we ...

Christchurch
Jun 14, 2008 (14 photos)

... and they'd now landed a lovely house in a lovely town. We started off by going to a pub to watch England vs. New Zealand at rugby. Rob made his loyalties very clear with some very overdramatic celebrations, met with much silence in the rest of the pub. ...

Whale Watching in Kaikoura
May 12, 2008 (23 photos)

Another day and with it brought the anticipation of seeing whales! Now as we are well and truly running out of diverse descriptive words to emphasise what we are seeing...... we are just going to list a whole load here and you can assign them yourself; it ...

Christchurch - last stop in the South
Dec 28, 2004 (4 photos)

Christchurch - the final stop on our South Island trip! Chrischurch was actually a lot nicer than expected with real nice city square, river and botanic gardens. The weather was good and hot so we did a punt down the river (how romantic) and also kayaked ...

Kaikoura
Jun 18, 2008 (6 photos)

Another amazing film set drive over to Kaikoura. Arriving into the town we headed to the seal colony stopping first at a BBQ stall to get some sea food chowder and garlic muscles. We pulled up at the seal colony right on the sea front, surrounded by ...

The South Island -The end of brilliant New Zealand
Aug 17, 2006 (35 photos)

... (green stone), but we didn't find any! So after two nights in Barrytown, we moved onto Franz Joseph, situated in New Zealand's Southern Alps, where there is a Glacier that descends deep into the lush rainforest of Westland National Park. The Franz Josef ...

Kaikoura Part 2
May 1, 2005 (5 photos)

... plane in the hanger (by pushing it there) and I was given my certificate and driven back to town. I really want to do this again. My new path in life to be a pilot. I had a great day to day again a lot of firsts. Tomorrow I head back to the North Island ...

Organising...and a little bit of socialising!
Aug 11, 2005

I stayed in a different hostel on this visit to Christchurch, as I wasn't overly impressed with Foley Towers last time. The Old Countryhouse was a bit further away from the city centre, but it was a spotless place...and I had a dorm to myself for the first ...

Note to oneself... must come back here one day....
Jan 15, 2009

...  Cook Islands.  However, flying over the south island did make us envious of those who have managed to get to New Zealand and we will definitely come back here for another holiday one day.   Absolutely stunning country from the air! ...

Penguins and Leprechauns in Christchurch
Apr 24, 2005 (4 photos)

... the end they even got dressed up like the Village People and did a song and dance to "in the Navy" so funny. I liked Christchurch; it's very quaint. My biggest find there was the Antarctic shop-full of penguin stuff. When I walked in my eyes were in 10 ...

Archbishop Averill?
Sep 4, 2004 (4 photos)

... a Scenic Circles Hotel in Franz Josef. Don't think I really want that isolation. Now, I wasn't planning on updating in Christchurch again, but I was walking around today and I decided I'd check out the Cathedral. As I'm walking, I find carved inside ...

Its CHRISTMAS
Dec 26, 2006 (42 photos)

Oh my god christmas is finally upon us!! Thanks to everyone who sent emails, ecards and txt messages - we love you all millions and millions xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Well I guess you could say that we haven't been fellin too christmassy until ...

And All Because The Lady Loves Mount Hutt
Sep 12, 2004 (7 photos)

... the inviting (yet forbidding) looking snow-capped mountains of the Southern Alps. En-route (not more French?!?) we crossed New Zealand's longest bridge, a feat we were looking forward to accomplishing but in reality it also made the Guinness Book of ...

As English as putting Mayo on your chips
Sep 12, 2004 (6 photos)

... around the chilly South Island we were given extra duvets, blankets, pillows and a set of snow chains before heading towards Christchurch city centre with a stop-off at a local supermarket for a stock-up. We found a really nice campervan park five ...

Unchained Medley
Sep 14, 2004 (10 photos)

... of a bronze statue of a sheep dog. After half an hour we came across another large lake called Pukaki whose waters reflect New Zealand's highest mountain, Mount Cook on a clear day, but today there would be no such view as a thick mist covered most of ...

EnZed
Nov 2, 2003 (2 photos)

... and found somewhere to camp as it was getting late. Wednesday 29th October Today we took a drive out to Lyttleton Harbour which is Christchurch's Port Town. It was a bit of a dingy day today so we had a bit of a wander and then a drive along the ...

Cairns to Christchurch
Apr 18, 2008

To be kept as draft so that christchurch is marker on map