Start from 70 curated places around Christchurch, NZ, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
INATI
Simon and Lisa Levy's 24-seat counter-dining restaurant on Hereford Street - a six-or-eight-plate seasonal tasting menu of share-style modern New Zealand cooking around a U-shaped chef's pass. The Christchurch room everyone in the country names when asked about the South Island.
Gatherings
Alex Davies' 26-seat vegetarian set-menu restaurant on Papanui Road in Merivale - five courses around a slow-changing seasonal sheet, with the kitchen visible across the open counter. The country's most-awarded plant-led tasting room outside Auckland.
Trails & outdoors
Bridle Path
The 2.4km historic settler track climbing from Heathcote Valley over the Port Hills crater rim to Lyttelton - the route European arrivals walked in 1850 to reach the Canterbury plains. Steep, sealed in places, with the Lyttelton harbour view as the reward at the saddle.
Godley Head Walkway
A 3-hour return coastal loop from Taylors Mistake car park out to the WWII coastal-defence ruins on the cape - cliff-edge track, dolphin and seal sightings on a calm day, and the gun emplacements you can walk through. The big coastal walk locals send visitors on first.
Things to do
Christchurch Gondola
A 10-minute cable car ride from Heathcote Valley up to Mt Cavendish at 500m - 360-degree summit views of the city, harbour, plains, and the Southern Alps on a clear day. The single fastest way to understand the city's geography.
Christchurch Tramway
A heritage tram loop running 2.5km through the CBD - Cathedral Square, New Regent Street, Worcester Boulevard, the Arts Centre, and back. Hop-on-hop-off ticket valid all day, conductor narration on each leg. The orientation ride first-time visitors take to learn the streets.
Landmarks & sights
Christchurch Botanic Gardens
21 hectares of Victorian-founded gardens tucked into the loop of the Avon inside Hagley Park - rose garden, conservatories, the New Zealand alpine collection, and the cafe in the curved-glass Visitor Centre. The orientation point every first-time walking tour uses.
Hagley Park
165 hectares of flat parkland wrapping the Botanic Gardens - cricket pitches, cycle paths, daffodil lawns in spring, and the most direct walking route between the museum and Riccarton. The lung the CBD planned around in 1855 and still uses.