Seeing Christchurch from a Tourist's Point of View

Having covered the Christchurch earthquakes in a journalistic capacity, along with maintaining an earthquake blog, I thought it would be interesting to see how "earthquake tourism" was doing in the city. Hassle-Free Tours are a well known company in the area and I'd often seen their double-decker buses cruising through the CBD. The Discover Christchurch tour sounded like a good option so armed with my camera and notebook, I set off on a chilly Friday morning.

City CentreThe first hour of the tour was on an open-top double-decker bus and this took us through the city centre area. The guide gave a running commentary and pointed out the number of cranes on the skyline - about 20 - and explained how the city is being rebuilt in precincts. At the moment, Christchurch central has many open spaces where buildings have been demolished, as well as some new buildings and a large number of ruined ones. The tourists on board asked questions as we observed the devastated Christchurch Cathedral and the Catholic Basilica. In places, shipping containers lined the streets, preventing the potential collapse of damaged buildings. Gap-filler projects were pointed out where groups of people have beautified empty land by placing garden features, benches and other objects of interest. Surprise was expressed at the number of broken buildings that still lined the streets - their condition making it obvious that they would have to be demolished.

Christchurch Tour

After the CBD tour, I transferred onto a closed-top 1960's London Bus for the remaining two hours of my adventure. Our first stop was Mona Vale, a beautiful historic property close to town. The gracious old buildings sustained serious damage in the earthquakes but are undergoing restoration work at present. The gardens are an amazing mix of roses, a lily pond and a profusions of coloured blossoms. A stream meanders along the edge of Mona Vale and across the water are a number of beautiful homes - some also undergoing a rebuild due to earthquake damage.

Sumner

From Mona Vale, we headed right across the city to a quaint beach area named Sumner. Our guide pointed out the shipping containers that lined the road to the beach, saying they were there to prevent rockfalls from reaching the road. On the top of the hills were the remained of homes that had plunged down the cliffs during the earthquake. Sumner was open for business and coffee shops lined the waterfront area. A large cave on the beach was open but carried warnings on rockfalls and currents. Seagulls hovered, hoping for scraps from people walking along the beach.

Port Hills

Our last stop of the day was on the top of the Port Hills. These hills separate Sumner from Lyttelton which is the harbour that serves Christchurch. The road was windy and narrow and at the summit, it was closed off. It suffered from large rockfalls during the earthquakes and is no longer safe to use. The views from our vantage point were amazing - pale turquoise waters, gold and green hills, and wispy white clouds. 

All in all it was a wonderful trip and although I have lived in Christchurch for ten years, I learned a number of  things about my city. You can book your tour with Hassle-Free here.

Lord of the Rings - Hassle-Free Tours

Imagine standing on a knob of rock on top of a hill, surrounded by gold and green plains and a ring of mountains. Snow-capped peaks glint in the sun and the air is fresh. That was the highlight of a recent Lord of the Rings tour I was part of. The hill was actually Mt Erebor of Lord of the Rings fame, aka Mt Sunday.

The tour was run by Hassle-Free Tours and I was picked up at 9am in Christchurch along with several others – an eclectic group as we were from five different countries, six if you included our guide. It was a journey of three hours to our destination but time went quickly. Thirty minutes was taken up by a video that gave the background to the movies and we had a coffee break at Salmon World in Rakaia.

Our first taste of amazing scenery was at Lake Clearwater and from there-on, we were ensconced by majestic mountains, clear streams and blue lakes. Our guide locked the hubs on the four wheel drive as we entered Mt Potts Station. The vehicle easily handled the small streams and river as we bumped over the shingle road to our destination.

I’ve lived in New Zealand for ten years and have travelled up and down the country dozens of times but this scenery was among the best I’ve ever seen. Mt Erebor is a low hill surrounded by soaring mountains, braided rivers, golden tussocks and green grass. Our guide showed us photos of the movie set as it was at the time – and I confessed at that stage that I’d never watched the Lord of the Rings.

Armed with replica swords and a Lord of the Rings flag, we embarked on the 20 minute climb up Mt Erebor. The view from the top was amazing. As one of the group said, “You photograph it but when you get home, you can’t convey how incredible it is up here.” We took turns in posing with various swords and the flags and then wandered around for a while, trying to imagine the movie set, horses stampeding across the valley and the Great Hall presiding over Mt Erebor.

When we’d taken heaps of photos and soaked up the scenery, it was time to head back to the base of the hill where our guide spread a picnic blanket out by the river. Lunch was sandwiches and slices accompanied by juice and bubbly. Conversation flowed freely and by the time we set off on the return journey, we were all good friends. We arrived back in Christchurch at 5pm.

Hassle-FreeTours have a great product here and the guide had excellent knowledge about the movies, characters and also the areas we passed through. Safety was paramount at every stage and we were shown the safety beacon and given directions of what to do in case of an accident or emergency. I would give them a five star rating.