Exploring Christchurch, New Zealand

When I visited New Zealand in 2015, I spent the majority of my time in Christchurch. The primary reason for my trip to the area was to attend a Geocaching Mega Event in the area known as Kaiapoi. I spent nine days in and around Christchurch exploring the city and the countryside.

I will cover most of the main area’s I visited in Christchurch in this post. However, there are a couple of posts that I have previously shared a little about my time in Christchurch. I will list them below if you want to read more about my time in Christchurch.

• Geocaching As A Tour Guide
• Hiking Godley Head, New Zealand

Hagley Park

I visited Hagley Park on numerous occasions while in Christchurch, both as a place to walk and to find a few Geocaches. The park itself is almost like a break or buffer between the Christchurch CBD and the suburb of Riccarton.

There are many large trees throughout the park and many beautiful gardens. There is even a relatively shallow waterway that it is possible to kayak through as well.

Hagley Park also incorporates the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. Throughout there are many beautiful gardens full of flowers at the time that I visited.

The Groynes

The Groynes is a rather large park with many walking trails and a range of dog off leash areas. There are also some beautiful areas through the park such as this one with a tributary of the Waimakariri River running past.

Cathedral Square

Cathedral Square sits at the centre of Christchurch when you look at Christchurch on the map. Depending on the map the city name will be almost on top. It is also the place where the Christchurch Cathedral, which was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake stands still very much damaged.

As you look at the buildings around the square, it can be rather difficult to see why some are barricaded off. While others show the very visible signs of the damage from the earthquake. Such as the building below which is fenced off but has no external signs of damage.

Christchurch City Walk

I did not spend a lot of time in the Christchurch Central Business District. But on the one chance, I had to walk around there was a couple of interesting features that I spotted. The first was at one point when I came across this waterwheel. It does seem to be a relic of the past, but I wonder for what it might have been used.

There is also the Bridge of Remembrance; I am not certain if the repairs were for the bridge itself or the archway. However, it is dedicated to those who died in World War I and serves as a memory to those who participated in both world wars.

Renew Shopping Mall

One interesting area of Christchurch that is new since the earthquake is the Renew Shopping Mall. It is in this area that a lot of shipping containers have been used to rapidly build a place for the shops to operate.

It is an interesting area, and I wish I had been a coffee drinker at the time I visited as this might have been a good spot for coffee.

185 Chairs Memorial

There is a temporary art installation which in some ways acts as a memorial to the lives lost in the 2011 Earthquake. There sits here 185 empty white chairs each one representing a life lost in the earthquake.

Governors Bay

While I was out looking for Geocaches around Christchurch, there were some amazing spots that I discovered. This particular spot is near to a location known as Sign of the Kiwi and looks down across the hills to Governors Bay.

Waimakariri River

The Waimakariri River runs a little to the north of Christchurch. The river flows for around 150km from the Southern Alps, across the Canterbury Plains to the Pacific Ocean. At this location, it is quite wide almost at the Pacific Ocean, but further upstream it flows in a braided fashion.

So Much To See

The city of Christchurch and the surrounding area offers so much to see and explore. What I have shared today in this post is just a fraction of what I got to see myself and a smaller fraction of what is there to explore. I just did not always have the camera out at the right times to capture everything in pictures. I know that I will return to the area one day and delve in a little deeper, especially on some of the walks and hikes.