Stay at a luxury hotel in the ‘garden city’ of Christchurch with Small Luxury Hotels of the World. With its leafy parks and winding river, this cosmopolitan and cultured South Island city is the Oxford of the Southern Hemisphere.
Luxury things to do in Christchurch
Don your boater hat and pack a picnic for a punt along the tranquil, willow-lined River Avon. Classic Porsches and Mercedes and retro Ford Prefects catch the eye in Yaldhurst Museum’s eclectic collection of vintage cars. Opera and ballet top the bill at the restored Edwardian Isaac Theatre Royal, while satire and black comedy entertain at the cutting-edge Court Theatre.
Luxury shopping in Christchurch
Northlands Mall is the place to pick up garments made from luxury pure wool, deerskin and mountain silk to prepare you for the New Zealand outdoors. Gloucester Street’s galleries and the Centre for Contemporary Art sell abstract one-offs by New Zealand creative set. Shop for Pacific treasures like rainbow-coloured abalone pearls and New Zealand jade at Colombo Street’s exotic jewellers. Your luxury Christchurch hotel is close to the restored, redbrick lanes off Lichfield Street with its shops showcasing Kiwi designers and vintage boutiques.
Gourmet Christchurch
Choose delicious tapas or teppanyaki when you dine on the fairy-lit patios outside Sol Square’s minimalist-chic restaurants. Organic-farmed produce fresh from the Canterbury countryside is the staple in delis and cafés in Christchurch’s British-named lanes and terraces. Oxford Terrace is the place to be seen in bistros overlooking the River Avon serving New Zealand lamb and beef.
Escape to a ‘little England’ in Christchurch with Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Vintage Marlborough Cloudy Bay chardonnays accompany views over Hagley Park and the River Avon in a contemporary-chic, boutique hotel.