Christchurch travel guide

Top 10 sights in Christchurch

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Michal Klajban · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Al Noor Mosque

   A Sunni mosque in the suburb of Riccarton, built between 1983 and 1985 by the Muslim Association of Canterbury. It was the first target of the attack of 15 March 2019, in which 51 worshippers were killed here and at the Linwood centre.

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   Lancaster Park

   The ground where New Zealand played test cricket and rugby for a century, wrecked by the earthquake of February 2011 and finally demolished. The site reopened in June 2022 as a public park with community pitches, which is what the neighbourhood asked for.

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   3© W. Bulach · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Christ Church Cathedral

   The Anglican cathedral of Christchurch, built between 1864 and 1904 and wrecked by the earthquake of February 2011, which brought down the spire. After years of argument about demolition, reinstatement was agreed in 2017 and work continues.

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   4© Photograph by Greg O'Beirne · CC BY 2.5

   Canterbury Museum

   A museum founded in 1867 on the collections of the geologist Julius von Haast, strong on moa, Māori taonga and Antarctic exploration — Christchurch was the port for expeditions south. The building closed for rebuilding in 2023.

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   Christchurch Botanic Gardens

   Twenty-one hectares in a loop of the Avon beside Hagley Park, begun in 1863 with an English oak planted for a royal wedding. The rose garden, the herbaceous border and the Victorian glasshouses are the set pieces, and punts pass along the river through it.

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6. 

   6© Roger 8 Roger · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Linwood Islamic Centre

   A Sunni mosque in Linwood that opened in 2018 and was the second target of the attack of 15 March 2019. The building was demolished in 2023, and a new mosque is planned for the site.

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   7© Photograph by Greg O'Beirne · CC BY 2.5

   Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

   The Catholic cathedral of Christchurch, opened in 1905 in a domed classical style admired well beyond New Zealand. The earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 damaged it beyond saving and it was demolished in 2020.

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8. 

   8© Francis Vallance · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Christchurch Art Gallery

   The city's public art gallery, opened in 2003 behind a rippling glass front. It served as the civil defence headquarters after the 2011 earthquake and did not reopen as a gallery until 2015.

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9. 

   9© Phillip Capper · CC BY 2.0

   Hagley Park

   A hundred and sixty-five hectares of park set aside in 1855 and protected by law as open ground for the people of the city forever. The Avon loops through it and the botanic gardens sit inside the bend.

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10. 

    10© Schwede66 · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Cardboard Cathedral

    A temporary cathedral by Shigeru Ban, opened in 2013 to replace the wrecked one — an A-frame of ninety-eight cardboard tubes coated against weather, with a triangular window of stained glass. It was designed to last fifty years.

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1. 

   1© Misaochan · CC BY 4.0

   Christchurch Central City

   The centre of Christchurch, bounded by four avenues and holding Hagley Park at its western edge. It took the worst of the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, lost most of its older buildings and has been rebuilt low and open.

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   2© Michal Klajban · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Edmonds' Clock Tower

   A memorial clock raised in 1929 by Thomas Edmonds, the baking-powder manufacturer, to mark his fiftieth year in Christchurch. Its stone tower has been listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 2 historic place since 1981.

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   3© Greg Hewgill · CC BY 2.0

   Orana Wildlife Park

   An eighty-hectare open-range zoo on the outskirts of Christchurch, opened in 1976 and run by the Orana Wildlife Trust as a charity. Animals are held behind moats rather than bars, and it runs the only lion encounter in the country, in which visitors ride through the enclosure in a cage.

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   4© Misaochan · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Cathedral Square

   The square at the centre of the city, with the ruined cathedral on one side and a steel cone of stylised leaves at its middle. It was closed behind fences for years after 2011 and has come back into use slowly.

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5. 

   5© Eli Duke · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Bridge of Remembrance

   One of the city's two main war memorials, a triumphal arch over the Cashel Street bridge at the head of City Mall, raised for the dead of the First World War and later rededicated for Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam. Damaged in the 2011 earthquake, it reopened on Anzac Day 2016.

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   Air Force Museum of New Zealand

   The air force museum at Wigram, the first operational RNZAF base, opened in 1987 on the service's fiftieth anniversary. Around thirty aircraft are on show, from a Vickers Vildebeest to a Skyhawk, and entry is free.

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   Victoria Park

   A recreation area on the Port Hills above Christchurch, established in 1883, with mountain bike tracks and walks through pine and regenerating bush. The road up it gives the view over the city and the plains.

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   8© Jocelyn Kinghorn · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Christchurch Catholic Cathedral

   The Catholic cathedral planned to replace the one demolished in 2020. A site was bought in the central city and the design is being worked through; the diocese has used a converted building in the meantime.

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   Ferrymead Heritage Park

   An open-air museum in the Heathcote Valley, on the line of New Zealand's first public railway, opened in 1863. Founded in 1964 by local heritage groups short of space for their collections, it runs a mock Edwardian township with working trams and trains, largely staffed by volunteers.

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10. 

    10© Michal Klajban · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Victoria Square

    One of the four squares in the original plan of Christchurch of 1850, and the city's market place until it was laid out as a park in 1896-97. It took the name Victoria Square in 1903; a small Maori settlement stood here on the bank of the Avon before European colonisation.

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