Christchurch is New Zealand’s second biggest airport but there’s not a lot of direct flights in here.  The following have direct flights: Bangkok, Brisbane, Dubai, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Nadi, Perth, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.  If you’re coming from Asia and don’t live or want to stopover in Singapore, my suggestion is to stay a few nights in Melbourne, my favourite city in Australia. Once you get to Christchurch, stay 2-4 days, hire a car then drive down through the Southern Lakes, staying in Queenstown, Wanaka, Milford Sound, then drive up the West Coast then back over to Christchurch.

Driving is easy in and around Christchurch and throughout the South Island. On the main highways through the McKenzie Country, you can drive for 10-15 minutes and not see another car. The New Zealand media have a field day with tourists’ dangerous driving so stay alert and if you’re not comfortable, hire a driver to drive you around. some of the roads are winding and narrow, something you don’t see much in most of Asia in the cities, so take it easy, if you’re holding 20 cars up behind you, pull over and let them pass.

For sports, outdoor (hiking, running, tramping, camping), there’s loads of excellent shops here including Rebel Sports, a massive sports shop selling everything you can think of for almost every sport possible, Champions of the World – selling All Blacks and Super Rugby gear, Torpedo7, and Bivouac, one of the better hiking/outdoor shops I’ve been to anywhere in the world.

The inner city can be rather boring so if I was a tourist, I’d try and stay somewhere on the outskirts near Hagley Park. Having said that you can drive form one side of the city to the other in about 30 minutes so regardless of where you stay you shouldn’t be too far from anything. Taxi’s are not cheap and I’ve never taken public transport in Christchurch but it does exist, just not many people use buses. They don’t seem to fo frequently and don’t cover everywhere.  I took an Uber a coupe of time and that was easy to get and not that expensive.