Christchurch - someone has teleported Cambridge to the Southern hemisphere (Christchurch (New Zealand))

Member Name: beckyX

Product:	Christchurch (New Zealand)
Date:	26/09/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tourist attractions, beautiful city

Disadvantages: Not very Kiwi

Christchurch is in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island and is the largest city on this island. Like the North Island's Auckland, it is a key arrival point and hub for international travellers.

Christchurch is situated close to the East coast and to the West lie the immense flat sweeps of the Canterbury plains. These vast plains feel flat, even to me, a native of East Anglia. Their main use is farmland and they require regular wind blocks of tall fences of trees to stop the topsoil from blowing away.

Named by the after Oxford's Christ Church (a college that one of the Canterbury Association went to), it was a colony sponsored by the Church of England about 150 years ago. Even today, the city centre has an extremely British in feel to it and even has a river Avon upon which you can go punting!The centre itself has the feel of a very small city, but this is deceptive as maps of the sprawling suburbs show.

It reminded me of a mixture between Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews. Indeed, adjacent to the river on either side, the roads are called Oxford Terrace and Cambridge Terrace. This naming scheme can make navigation interesting on occasion - you start off on one road and it suddenly turns into a road with another name, then changes back again further down.

There is much for the tourist to do in Christchurch. I recommend the trams, the Botanic Gardens and the Canterbury museum in particular. I would very much like to see the Christchurch Gondola, a cable car that takes you to nearby Mount Cavendish, but it is not very convenient to access if you only have a short time in the city and are travelling by public transport. The public transport is, in my (very limited) experience very good - it was straightforward to get from the airport to the city centre by bus. The centre itself is small enough to walk around. Do take a look at the cathedral if you get an opportunity - I was lucky enough to visit when there was a carol service, to which I was immediately invited.

For accommodation, I stayed in the Copthorne Central - this was reasonably priced, comfortable and was, indeed, central. For food, I can recommend Dux De Lux, which is particularly good for vegetarian foods. From the centre, you can go on day tours to see Lord of the Rings sites, which are worth a visit if you have lots of spare money! There is even a Lord of the Rings shop in the tram station.

In conclusion, this is a very good city to go visit, even if you only have a couple of days to spare in your trip to New Zealand. It is extremely different from the rest of the country (and, sadly, has relatively little Maori influence in the city centre), so don't go for a taste of authentic New Zealand life.

Summary: A very Engish city in the middle of New Zealand