Things to do in  Christchurch

The whole experience was fantastic! The meal was great, the staff were all very courteous and professional, and the tram ride itself was an awesome way to see Christchurch on our first eveningthere. Would recommend to everyone, and would go back myself if in Christchurch again.

What a wonderful area to visit. Just a short journey from Christchurch. If you enjoy appreciating tasting white wines full of flavour, then take this tour. We did the lunch option, we thought it was great value.

Friendly and helpful driver. Ideal way to see Christchurch. Really liked the hop and hop off which makes it good value.

We are locals from Christchurch and decided to try the Tramway restaurant for our recent wedding anniversary. What a great way to spend an evening!! The food was amazing, service was 1st class and it's also a great way to see some of the changes to this ever changing and evolving city. Highly recommended way to spend an evening.

The tour was very well organised; our tour guide Rob was friendly and provided a lot of information about Christchurch, earthquakes and Akaroa's history. The day was clear and cruise was excellent and we got to see the dolphins, and the colony of seals. Overall we had a great time.

It was only my second time on a horse and the tour guide was very patient. He was very helpful and knowledgable. The views are beautiful! Highly recommend if you want to see the incredible views in this part of Christchurch.

Wonderful! Tram drivers excellent guides and a wonderful way to see the City😊Highly recommend this way of seeing Christchurch.

A really pleasant day. A relaxing ride to Akaroa and then a couple of hours on the water in search of dolphins. We did manage to see quite a few along with some penguins. After that some time in town for lunch before departing for Christchurch. A fun day trip.

Travelled with kids, and they simply loved it, lots to see and learn, a must see attraction if you going to Christchurch

Nothing in Christchurch is open on Christmas Day!! We arrived on a cruise ship, who also offered this as an excursion for 3x this cost. Since we were off and running we got the best times to ride all three. It is a good trip to see the city at all angles.

The driver of the shuttle was waiting for us. It was VIP treatment. From the airport to the hotel, he told us about places we might like to see in Christchurch.

I only had four days to visit Christchurch, and this package was great. I saw the main attractions and split them up between two days to fit in other activities. This was fantastic and completely worthwhile!

This is great to see Christchurch for the very first time. We had a friendly driver who was punctual.

We really enjoyed this tour! Mt Cook was beautiful, and so was the Tasman Glacier, and the Lakes. We would definitely recommend this tour company if you are staying in Christchurch, because outside of renting a car and trekking yourself, it is the easiest way to get out to see Mt Cook that we could find, and definitely the best value. The day was long, but very fun! If you are thinking that there will be a lot of time on this trip spent hiking or exploring the outdoors, this is not the trip for you. This is not a flaw per se, the distance from Christchurch to Aoraki necessitates quite a few hours on the road. You do get some time to hike around at both Aoraki and the Tasman Glacier, but it is no more than about 60 minutes at a time. Both the hiking and driving portions featured great views, but there is far more time spent on the road than on the trail. Be prepared for around 9 hours in the van, with smaller windows of time at each stop, ranging from 10 to 90 minutes outside of the transport at various stops. The van was comfortable, with great amenities (climate control, WiFi, phone charging, and on-board documentaries). The documentaries were fascinating, and helped make the car ride easier. The tour guides were friendly, approachable, professional, and provided a lot of interesting information. Both of our guides knew their way around a camera, and were happy to help take photos at the various photo opportunities throughout the trip. We do have a few suggestions on things that could be improved. First, the amount of time we had around lunch to explore the Alpine Center at the National Park didn't feel like enough to make the most of the cost of entry - when we were there we mostly wanted to use the 90 minutes allotted to enjoy the exquisite buffet, and take in the outdoor views of Mt Cook. Stopping to watch an in-door documentary or peruse the museum for too long felt like wasting the opportunity to take in the highlight of the day: the mountains themselves. No one in our trip party stayed for very long in the museum. We mention this because it definitely seems like the cost of the center is included in the package and we didn't really feel like it was necessary to the program - so maybe drop this item and the price of the package, or make it optional. Another small note, while the narration during the trip, on the van was welcome, there were moments where it would have been nice to have no narration or music or film, to allow us to better take in the majesty of our surroundings. Overall, we had a really great time. We are so happy we were able to see this natural wonder during our brief stay on the South Island. Would recommend!

We had arrived back in Christchurch and the end of our holiday, we decided to have a wine tour, we got in touch with Canterbury Leisure day tours. they picked us up from where we were staying, Sue our tour guide/ driver was very good in her knowledge of the area and of the vineries we were going to visit, we had a very good tour with her as we were traveling with four other people who were in Christchurch for the Rugby match, I think that she may have thought that we may not enjoy ourselves but we did as she put everyone at ease. I would recommend both Canterbury Day tours and Sue who also described herself as a selfie stick so that we could get better pictures of the places we visited.

The trip was customised to suit most travellers. We were picked up at the hotel in a small mini bus with only 12 other passengers. The train left from Christchurch but we travelled to Springfield on the bus to pick up the train as there was little of interest to see between Christchurch and there. The driver stopped at a small cafe at Springfield to enjoy a coffee - the pies were amazing. The train arrived after refreshments and the trip to Arthur's pass was incredibly scenic with great views on both sides of the train. The viewing decks were always crowded so getting good photos was not easy, however we took many through the panoramic windows and they came out fine. The minibus was waiting when the train stopped and we disembarked. The driver then took us to some great sights that bigger coaches could not access and we had lunch in a mountain hotel overlooking a river. Quite a long day but full of great views.

A great tour of Christchurch. Awesome food - a great way to see the city. Would recommend this to all our friends.

The tour started with a beautiful drive through the plains and hills from Christchurch to Akaroa. Our driver-guide Scotty was amazing -- so informative about the area and what we were seeing along the way! Even though it was a holiday, we were still able to stop at Barry's Bay Cheese Factory, see a video of the cheese making process, sample some of the cheeses, and make our purchases. The free time in small sea-side town of Akaroa provided enough time to visit the shops and enjoy a walk along the harbor shore. Lunch at Bully Hayes was good but nothing special -- there were other dining options nearby that would have been just as good if not better. The harbor cruise was the highlight of the tour. Andrew, the driver-guide on the boat, provided informative as well as humorous commentary through the cruise. We saw lots of Hector's dolphins, and they swam right up to the boat -- some even swam right along the side of the boat! We also saw some fur seals and several sea birds. On the return drive, Scotty took us on a different route back to Christchurch, along the top of the hills/mountains surrounding the Akaroa bays -- the views were absolute beautiful! I would highly recommend this tour it's a great way to see the beauty of the area southeast of Christchurch and experience seeing the rare Hector's dolphins!

This was a brilliant tour, well worth the money and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is staying in Christchurch. The tour guide was informative and entertaining, including everyone in the tour and full of interesting information. He had lots of information about the places we were seeing as well as New Zealand as a whole. To be able to stand on top of Mt Sunday, especially with the snow creating a winter wonderland effect, was excellent. This tour made my holiday and I would definitely look at similar tours in the future.

We did this trip from Christchurch instead of driving down from Nelson due to the delays on the roads. The coach was great and took us directly to the ticket office. After obtaining the pre-ordered tickets and a short safety video a coach took us to the quayside. It was a fairly calm day and the boat took us to see the dolphins first - there must have been 200 ahead of us just playing and doing flips. We ended up alongside many of them so photo opportunities for photos was ideal. After that we saw 3 whales during the trip, the same one twice. They didn't come as close to the boat as I had expected but we did see them from about 50m. During the trip we also saw several albatross as they flew around the boat. A great day out.