Friday 6 March 2026 – In the manner of matters serendipitous, things worked out well for our stay in Christchurch. The weather was fantastic, the walking around in the city centre was interesting and we went on an afternoon tour which accidentally supplemented our wanderings rather well. The tour was part of our scheduled itinerary and billed as “Discover Christchurch” and so I rather wondered what else I would discover about Christchurch on this tour. The answer was, frankly, not a lot, but it was an enjoyable half day and we did get to see other parts of the environs that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. We had been walking around the city (obviously) in the morning, and knew that driver Brent would be picking us up at the hotel at 13.25, so we had to scurry back to be in time. We didn’t want to make Brent cross*, after all.
Brent carted a minivan load of us around for the afternoon; a motley crew consisting of four Indians, four Yanks and us two Brits. He started off by driving us around the city centre, giving a desultory commentary about what we could see out of the windows. Since we’d already walked around the city centre – twice! – there was very little in this that was new to us, although we did get a good idea of the huge expanse of Hagley Park, which an enlightened government decreed in 1855 should be “reserved forever as a public park, and shall be open for the recreation and enjoyment of the public.” It was from Brent that we learned something about the new sports stadium (such as its cost, its lack of parking and the fact that he thought the money would have been better used for a mass transit rail system. The traffic we saw at times during the afternoon strongly supports this view.)
Having shown us the city centre, Brent then took us out of the city proper, to Mona Vale, an area around a public park in the suburbs to the west of the city. It has some very attractive (and very expensive) housing
and a Homestead building
which functions now as a very decent-looking cafe, offering, inter alia, a posh High Tea. The Homestead has what I would call a conservatory
but which is officially called a Bath House. Walking further through the park, we spotted something which we were never promised:
a Rose Garden. There was a vast number of different rose varieties planted there and even I could appreciate the scent – it was lovely.
The next thing on the itinerary was a visit to “The Sign Of The Takahē”. I was expecting some kind of ecological message, or at least a bird statue, but actually it was
a restaurant and coffee shop, on a hill to the south of Christchurch. It was originally built in 1918 at the behest, mainly, of one George Henry Ell, a New Zealand MP, who envisaged the building as the gateway into the Port Hills area. It was to be one of four planned rest houses in the area for those walking in the Port Hills that overlook Christchurch and Lyttelton harbour. The other rest houses were to be Sign of the Kiwi, Sign of the Bellbird, and Sign of the Packhorse, but only the Sign of the Kiwi has survived. We stopped for coffee and a scone there (scones are a bit of a thing in New Zealand) and then took the short walk to the viewpoint over Christchurch.
It kind of makes you grateful for the new stadium; at least one knows where to look, because it would otherwise be difficult to know exactly where the centre of the city was. Even the vast area of Hagley Park can’t easily be made out, which was a surprise to me. (I think it’s the green area to mid-left of the picture, but I’m not sure.)
After this, Brent took us south towards Lyttleton, which is a major port; the journey there allowed us to see that by going to the Sign of the Takahe and then further south we were going over the lip of an extinct (it is hoped) volcano.
We passed the village of Rapaki
and stopped at a sort of viewpoint. We couldn’t see much of the town of Lyttleton, but we could see its container port.
We amused ourselves for a while watching the container transport vehicles – I had never seen these in action before, believing that all the container action was done by crane. But these vehicles are rather neat.
That was it for the tour. Brent’s route back into the city demonstrated the sense of his assertion that a mass transit system would alleviate the traffic problem. A couple of the junctions we had to turn right at were just ridiculously gridlocked, but, there you go. They’ve got the stadium. We did pass some more murals
and an intriguing but incomprehensible installation.
The day, though, wasn’t done, because we then took the opportunity to go for an evening walk. Obviously. Our target was the Botanic Garden, which occupies a part of Hagley Park, and our visit there chimed nicely with our meeting with friends of mine the previous evening. Janet used to lead the ‘cello section in the same orchestra as me in Surrey, back in the UK; and the reason she was in New Zealand was because her husband, Wolfgang, had been invited to come over from the UK to run the Botanic Garden. The four of us had had a delightful meal together in the excellent restaurant at the George, 50 Bistro. As with the other encounters we’ve had as we’ve travelled across New Zealand, it was a lovely opportunity to catch up with friends I haven’t seen for years, and particularly interesting to hear Wolfgang’s perspective on the Botanic Gardens and some of the heritage buildings that also fall under his remit. Janet, ever supremely thoughtful, had brought along a supply of Twinings finest Earl Grey, as she was worried that we might go short.
So: we walked along the side of Hagley Park from the George. It was clear that Something Had Been Going On in the park, from the sheer number of portable toilets that were set up.
We think it might have been a festival of some kind.
Our main target was indeed the Botanic Gardens, but en route we passed a couple of notable constructions. The first was an arresting sight of the reconstruction/modernisation of the Canterbury Museum.
The building is undergoing significant structural work, with parts of the facade supported by extensive temporary steel bracing. In the meantime, its content have been housed elsewhere in the city.
On the other side of the road is another handsome building, the Christchurch Arts Centre (formerly the University of New Zealand Canterbury College).
It appeared to be open, so we peeked in. It has a couple of magnificent quadrangles
one of which hosts a wine bar.
It would have been lovely just to sit and while away some time there, but we wanted to take a look in the Botanic Gardens, which are directly opposite, so we hauled ourselves away and crossed the road.
The Botanic Gardens area is huge – 21 hectares – and based around the river Avon, which makes it very pleasant to walk around. We hadn’t that much time before it closed, but we managed to see a few corners of it, such as the World Peace Bell
and the Dahlia display
before we had to start heading back to the hotel. On one lawn was a handsome pair of Paradise Shelducks
(with a decidedly frisky male and a less interested female) and on a path we came across some terminally cute Californian Quail chicks,
being minded by their parents.
It was utterly charming to see them in action.
We also passed a striking 2013 artwork by David McCracken called “Diminish and Ascend”, intending to create the illusion of a staircase to the sky.
So, that was it for Christchurch – lots of walking about, many artworks and a splendid reacquaintance with friends, all in delightful weather. One can’t ask for much better when travelling, I reckon.
Tomorrow, we have to leave Christchurch; we’re getting in training. Stay tuned to hear more.