Pray for good weather because most of the best things to do in Christchurch are outdoors, which is similar to most places in New Zealand.
If you’re into hiking, running, sports or anything outdoors, Christchurch is the place to shop for outdoor and sports equipment and gear. There’s loads of massive sports shops including Rebel Sports, Stirling Sports, Bivouac, Katmandu, Torpedo7 and a bunch of other stores online that will ship in a few days. Pet shops are also massive and plentiful. Animates is definitely worth a visit and carries pretty much everything you can think of to do with pets.
Mona Vale – Fancy public park with lovely homestead. The avon runs through here and if you get a nice day it’s worth visiting. Not the most awe-inspiring things to do in Christchurch but definitely worth a visit if you’re in Christchurch for any period of time.
Loads of other things to do in Christchurch including laser tag, skateboard parks, Orana Park, watch a rugby match, take a day trip to Akaroa where you can swim with dolphins, take a kayaking tour or just drive around and explore the area. The Christchurch Botanical Gardens – It’s lovely walking around here, especially if you get a nice day. Not a whole lot of actual activities but you don’t really need them, just enjoy the walk and where you are, and the kids will have a ball finding and feeding ducks. I might be biased because I used to live there but this is one of my favourite botanical gardens anywhere in the world.
Swim With the Dolphins in Akaroa – Popular with the locals as well as tourists, you can swim with New Zealand’s most famous dolphin – the Hector’s Dolphin. Sightings are also guaranteed – you get some of your money back if you don’t see any, but with an 85% success rate you’ve got to be a bit unlucky.
Adrenalin Forest – Great place to go to see who’s balls are the biggest. Start with whatever level you’re comfortable with then keep moving up until you shit your pants! There’s over 100 different challenges so lots of variety and it’s become popular with team building and corporates, as well as tourists looking for something a bit more adventure packed than flowers and slow walks. Kids must be over 1.3m so make sure to check their website before going for all the rules and opening hours.
Hot Air Ballooning – With the Southern Alps on one side, the Canterbury Plains and the Pacific Ocean, on the other, if you’re going to do hot air ballooning somewhere, this would probably be the place. You need to check the weather and wind conditions, or rather they do and get in touch with you the night before, and kids need to over 1.1 m high (otherwise they can’t see over the basket).
Sumner Beach and Taylors Mistake – I was never a “surfy” as we used to call them but my nephew has grown his hair long, wears his pants halfway down his legs and probably enjoys a doobie or two – making him a “surfy” by any definition of the word. He heads to Taylor’s Mistake to show off his mad skillz, give high fives to his mates and probably takes his girlfriend for a bit of a pash afterwards. Anyway, even if you’re not a surfer, Sumner beach and Taylor’s Mistake are the to places to go for beach activities.
Golf – There’s a couple of posh courses in Christchurch but if you want something different, head to one of the local courses. Harewood is close but it can get quite busy. Drive past that to Mclean’s Island, or Coringa Golf Club, past Orana Park. When the wind blows, you can be hitting 3 irons 120 yards. They’re dirt cheap (if you’re a local, you can buy a one year membership at a lot of these courses for the cost of one round of golf at most courses in Asia). Message me directly if you want to know more about golf in Christchurch. I used to play everyday and have played most of the courses here. Shirley and Waitikiri are private but you can get on if you’re prepared to pay a bit more.
Skiing at Mt Hutt – Used to ski here quite often when I was younger and lived in Christchurch so was quite excited to go back here and see what it was like. Let’s start with the negatives. It’s busy, loads of people there and the restaurant was packed. Took about 30 minutes to buy a ticket and get rental gear. They definitely need some more people on some counters. The mostly student staff behind the rental gear counter were a bit useless.
They were more interested in having a coffee or laugh with themselves than getting you the gear. The snow wasn’t great, quite icey and nothing like the soft stuff on trail you get in Japan. Despite the amount of people, the cues for the lifts went quite fast and I never waited for more than 10 minutes. When I skied there 20+ years ago they had pomas’s, T-bars which have now been replaced by chair lifts. It’s mostly black and blue runs, but most of the black runs were either not open or not skiable (because not enough snow).
For kids, there’s a beginners (never skied before) slope with magic carpet, and really only one other run that starts from the quad chair. Other than that not much to ski for smaller kids, so take note of that.There’s a small sled slope but it’s pretty tiny and not really worth buying a sled for (because you can’t rent them. The last few times I’ve skied in Japan (Kiroro and Rusutsu) which have amazing kids facilities for kids so it’s probably not that fair I compare to the two.
Overall, if you love skiing and are looking for things to do in Christchurch, then give Mt Hutt a try. It’s a an hour and half drive, there’s various transport options, but easiest would be to hire a car and drive there yourself, stop on the way to take enjoy the scenery.
See a few more things to do in Christchurch in Toucan’s Tip for kids, including Hagley Park, The International Antarctic Centre, Orana Park and the Margaret Mahy Playground.
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