Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A simple guide for Christchurch NZ .. a local recommends

When in Christchurch, make sure you see the Canterbury Museum and right beside it, New Zealand's oldest Botanic Gardens.

While here, your food choices are wide, from Indian to Japanese, from Thai to Greek, and many, many, other ethnicities, and of course lots of upmarket cafés.

Your choices for dinner at night are huge too: my recommendation would be to combine Maori culture with your meal. Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, is only 15 mins from the city centre - if you combine it with Kotane, the Maori Experience you will have an evening with a uniquely New Zealand flavour.

While there,( Willowbank) you will also be able to see our native kiwi in natural surroundings – this flightless bird is only found in New Zealand and we locals call ourselves kiwi too.


Make sure you visit the the multi-award-winning International Antarctic Centre: Christchurch has long been the jumping off place for Antarctic exploration – from Robert Falcon Scott right through to today. This will take the entire morning as you experience an arctic storm, learn about the Antarctic, take a ride on a real Antarctic all-terrain Hagglund vehicle, and spend ages with the very cute, rescued, penguins in New Zealands first indoor-outdoor penguin viewing area.

Another must-do is to take a guided bike tour! I can well recommend Christchurch Bike Tours for a two-hour trip from the city centre to Mona Vale. Christchurch is also called the City of the Plain so no hills and very comfortable retro bikes to travel on.
one of my favourite native birds .. the pukeko - part of the Christchurch coat of arms

 After burning up some energy, how about a kiwi favourite for dinner tonight? A New Zealand staple - fish and chips with tomato sauce are not low fat but something we really, really love as a treat. Eat them out of the paper wrapping, with your fingers and you will know another reason why we love them – no dishes to wash, just crunch up the paper and throw it in the rubbish. Enjoy your days in my old city.  See more tips for travel (worldwide) on my other blog

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