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Downtown Christchurch Christchurch
29 Reviews - The city centre features a huge new steel sculpture, an oversized bunch of wheat, higher than the surrounding high-rise buildings. Its name is "Flour Power". (August/September 2008) The square at...
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Lake Wakatipu Queenstown
5 Reviews Lake Wakatipu is the South Island’s second largest lake after Lake Te Anau. It is Z-shaped, has a total length of 77 kilometres, and covers 293 square kilometres. It is surrounded by steeply rising...
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The Octagon Dunedin
4 Reviews The Octagon is the central "square" [actually and obviously an octagon] in the centre of the city. It is well laid out with a nice covered walkway alongside the road thru the middle. A variety of...
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Architecture Christchurch
23 Reviews - This impressive stately building with its classical ornamentation is located right behind Christchurch Cathedral, and opposite the Press buidling and Cathedral Junction. It was designed in 1909 (and...
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Jetboat Rides Queenstown
2 Reviews Although a little "touristy", I think most visitors to Queenstown should try out one of their famous Jetboat rides, because it offers its passengers a safe way to enjoy the sights offered by the...
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Currency Exchange Christchurch
2 Reviews Here's your view of the ANZ currency exchange, while comfortably ensconced on their couch. Yellow, orange, green - what a colour scheme... I guess you could call it 'funky' but those words aren't...
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Bridge of Remembrance Christchurch
3 Reviews The bridge of Remebrance is just that, a momument to all soldiers who went to war in the various theatres of war last centuary. This includes both World Wars won by the British with the help of our...
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View from the top Christchurch
4 Reviews Christchurch is a very flat city. You get a real sense of this from the air when you are on your way out. The city is squished up against the port hills with homes covering much of their lower slopes....
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Beautiful flowers Christchurch
5 Reviews Floral Clock On reserve in Victoria Square south west of Town Hall adjoining amphitheatre Floral Clock presented to the citizens of Christchurch by Calder Mackay Co Ltd in 1953. Two bronze plaques...
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Millennium Chalice Christchurch
3 Reviews I was very amused by the negative reaction many Cantabrians have towards the Millennium Chalice in Cathedral Square. This modern piece of sculpture is suitably celebratory in its style and to me is a...
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Hagley Park Christchurch
2 Reviews When the first settlers from England arrived at Lyttelton in 1850, they brought with them the gardening traditions of that country. It was just 13 years after their arrival that the initial plans were...
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John Britten, son of Christchurch. Christchurch
1 Review John Britten, inventor extraordinaire. Christchurch is the home of the Britten motorcyle. It has a revolutionary motor, quite different to the conventional and previous styles. This motorcycle goes...
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Port Hills Christchurch
1 Review The Summit Road, drive it or bike it or take a bus then walk it. Breathtaking views over Christchurch City, the Southern Alps, Pegasus Bay, Lyttleton Harbour and the Banks Peninsula - often all from...
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Ohhhhhhh this pie is so delicious!!!! I have lost my tongue!Local people call it "Pavalova" and have been wondered with my pronunciation this russian surname - "Pavlova".Long time ago, at the beginning of 20-th centery, the great russian ballerina Anna Pavlova visited New Zealand and this wonderful dessert was made for her.... Now it has her name.
Rustic camp site near the start of the Hollyford Trail, with a collection of cabins used by workers who built the road to Milford Sound in the 1930s. Started by Davey Gunn, an NZder with an amazing sense of humour! ;-) I really enjoyed the experience :-) You can also walk to the start of the Hollyford Trail near the camp, to see it.. and there's a beautiful river beside the camp you cross over there.Veronica and I had lunch at Te Anau (after driving there from her farm at Mossburn- we can see the road to Te Anau from it!) before proceeding to Gunn's Camp for NYE 2010.
These two villages are so similar and only 30 minutes apart so I am writing about them together. We stayed at Fox but our two visits to Franz Josef pretty well showed us they were similar. Tiny places with many times the amount of accommodation and eateries they should have. Of course things are somewhat expensive but if you are keen on spending you money you can do nearly anything here. Just be aware close access is not guaranteed to the actual glaciers. The access roads to Fox Glacier were closed the entire time we were there. My favourite part were they unexpected glances of the glaciers that might confront you around any corner. Just so stunning. In the morning sunshine they were beautiful. Mind you we didn't get much sunshine.
My fiance loved Queenstown because there was so much to do there. He is right of course and if you have the money the sky is the limit. I must admit I was expecting a larger city and was surprised about the lack of normal shopping available. Sure there were lots of tourist shops and even some up market ones but when it came to boring old groceries we didn't discover the Remarkables shopping centre past the airport for a while. I think it would really be busy in the ski season and the town would have a better feel than in Summer when it was pretty relaxed. My favourite part of Queenstown is that it is so close to everything. We didn't see half of the nearby areas. Lake Wakatipu is pretty impressive in size. We loved watching the planes take off and just get over the mountains.
It is a well known fact that there are more sheep than people in New Zealand.There are many farm places for locals and tourists. You can feed bottles of milk to lambs. You can see dogs sheepherding in action. You can see shearing of wool off a sheep. Incredible to have the wool come off in one piece without a nick on the pink naked skin of the sheep relieved off its white woolly cover.
Cadrona Pass can be a fantastic driving expierience, but be aware, some parts are still gravel and hard to judge when driving to fast...but end of the year 2006 some adventure will have been taken out, all will be sealed road by then just driving is fun
from Christchurch around 5-6hours roadtrip to Lake Wakatipu..Queenstown, in Sunshine or Snowtime (Skiseason) at the Remarkablesrealy a remarkable countryside, Lord of the Rings have been filmed here, so you will be spoiled by Nature I feel blessed, living here!:-))
through Arthur's Pass and the Otira Gorge Road, looks so benign, doens't it? But drive carefully and don't get distracted....drive on to the most charming small Town on the West Coast..Hokitika, its a lovely spot with charming People, good food and the Pounamu Factory, where you can buy all your gift for the loved ones at home. Pounamu is New Zealand's Greenstone or Jade. if you like to know more about ..have a look at my Hokitika page, you won't regret it the people, the food, the fresh air where mother nature is on steroids......the place where you can get away from it all.
There are many small settlements, not even classed as towns, where you can find examples of our history. I reiterate that New Zealand is a very young country so our European civilisation history doesn't go back very far.If you drive hwy 73 > 77 out of Christchurch and head towards Mt Hutt, you pass through this tiny settlement called Glentunnel.It's worth a stop here, if you can allow the time. Hardly glitzy nor glamorous, but oozing with smalltown history. I just loved this place!! The Glentunnel Library was one of the highlights of my last trip to the South Island. This cute, very old (by NZ standards) small brick building, round in shape, was so intriguing, I just had to stop and explore. I discovered that this building is one of only 4 of our oldest buildings still being used for it's original purpose.You can see more photos af this library and read more about Glentunnel, here.
On the West Coast, just south of Westport, there is a place called Punakaiki. Here you can see these wonderful pancake rock formations and blowholes at Dolomite Point.There is a 15 minute walk from the carpark around the rocks, which is well worth the effort and time. The Visitors Centre for Paparoa National Park and Punakaiki Rocks is here, pay them a visit.Go to this site and type in Punakaiki in the search box: www.doc.govt.nz If you are lucky enough to time your visit at a high tide, then you should see a fantastic display from the sea coming into and gushing up from the blowholes. This is rather spectacular at high tide.You can see more photos on my Punakaiki Travelogue.
Copthorne Hotel Commodore Christchurch Airport Christchurch
6 Reviews and 321 Opinions Prior to the earthquakes, I have always stayed in town at some renowned hotel chains. When I was...
Browns Boutique Hotel Queenstown
1 Review and 187 Opinions Within stroling distance from the main town. Welcoming and homely. A warm cozey room admist the cold...
858 George Street Dunedin
2 Reviews and 61 Opinions We spent 3 nights staying here. The two rooms we had (1 twin and 1 double) were spacious,...
Reviews and photos of South Island attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for South Island sightseeing.
Q: Hi Everyone, I was reading through the forum on the trans alpine train and am yet unable to decide as to what i should be...
A: hi i think if you are worried about the cost....drive the distance and i think you will not miss much. The drive is as safe as any of our main highways. You can chose...
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