Media: New Zealand

The only city in New Zealand where streets are called Rue instead of Street. In 1838, French whaling captain Jean-François Langlois "bought" almost the entire Banks Peninsula from the Māori for 1000 francs — the deposit was paid in hats, shirts, trousers, and one pistol. In 1840, 63 French and German settlers arrived here on the ship Comte de Paris, accompanied by the military corvette L'Aube under the command of Captain Charles Lavaud. The British Britomart got there first and raised the flag on August 10, 1840 — five days before the French warship and a week before the settlers themselves. Learning that the land was already British, none of the colonists agreed to free passage to Tahiti — they stayed and built the French Quarter. The main street Rue Lavaud is named after the captain of L'Aube, Rue Balguerie — after the chief investor of the colonization company; at the corner of these streets stands the Bank of New Zealand building from 1905 in Italian style.

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The wooden lighthouse of 1878 was not originally located here: for almost a hundred years it stood ten kilometers away, at Akaroa Heads at the entrance to the harbor, protecting ships passing between Littleton and Dunedin during stormy weather. The structure was destroyed twice by southern storms — the second version was made with double cladding. The lighthouse beam, lit in January 1880, was visible for 37 km; the lens came from France, the mechanism from Scotland. In 1980, after 97 years of service, the tower was dismantled into parts and moved to the city center, to Lighthouse Point, where it stands today.

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The museum opened in 1964 on Rue Lavaud and combines three historic buildings, including the Langlois-Éteveneaux cottage — built by French colonists in the 1840s and the only surviving residential building of French colonial construction in the country. The exhibition tells the stories of the first settler families, the Māori heritage of the Banks Peninsula, and an unexpected connection to polar exploration: Akaroa native Frank Worsley was captain of the ship Endurance in Shackleton's Antarctic expedition.

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A village at an elevation of 740 meters at the foot of Arthur's Pass, which grew as a temporary camp for builders of the Otira Tunnel (8.5 km, constructed from 1908 to 1923 — 15 years). The first European to cross the pass was surveyor Arthur Dobson in 1864 — the trail proved so steep that the horse had to be left at the summit, and the dog had to be lowered on a rope; as early as 1865–1866, a wheeled road was built here. The railway from Christchurch reached the village in 1914, 9 years before the tunnel's completion. Today you can get here via SH73 or by train on the TranzAlpine — one of the most beautiful railway routes in the world. It is here that you are most likely to see the kea — the world's only alpine parrot and one of the planet's most intelligent birds.

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A cheese factory operating since 1895 using traditional methods — the only one of nine family cheese-making cooperatives that once existed on the Banks Peninsula to survive to the present day. Milk and finished cheese in those years were transported by boat, then by train to Littleton port — for export to England. In 1950, the local cheese received the Bledisloe Cup at the British Dairy Show — one of the most prestigious awards for cheesemakers of the British Commonwealth. The current building was constructed in 1953; cheese production runs from September to May. Through the window, you can see cheese being made right now, and in the adjacent shop — cheddar and gouda tasting.

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A two-hour cruise on a comfortable catamaran takes you deep into Akaroa Harbour — essentially along the rim of an extinct volcano — past sheer volcanic cliffs, New Zealand fur seal colonies, and rare yellow-eyed penguin colonies. But the main goal of the journey is to meet the Hector's dolphin: the smallest and one of the rarest dolphin species on the planet, found nowhere else in the world except in New Zealand waters. For over 40 years, Black Cat Cruises has explored these waters as a pioneer of New Zealand ecotourism — with a 95–98% chance of encountering dolphins on each voyage.

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On July 9, 1863, gardener Enoch Barker planted a single oak tree here to commemorate the wedding of the future King Edward VII and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Today, from this one tree has grown a garden spanning more than 20 hectares.

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Cathedral Square — the historic heart of Christchurch, planned in 1850 as the geometric center of the city; despite its name, the square has a cross shape. Here stands the Anglican ChristChurch Cathedral, severely damaged in the 2010–2011 earthquakes, and the first public statue of a specific person in New Zealand's history — a monument to Canterbury's founder John Godley by English sculptor Thomas Woolner (1867). Around the square, old and new coexist: the cathedral under scaffolding and modern iconic buildings - the Tūranga library and Te Pae conference center, built after the earthquakes.

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Christchurch Arts Centre — a complex of 23 Gothic buildings built between 1877–1916, the largest collection of architectural monuments of the highest protection category in New Zealand. Until 1975, it housed Canterbury College, later the University of Canterbury; student Ernest Rutherford, the future "father of nuclear physics", conducted his first experiments here, and in his honor a museum called Rutherford's Den is preserved in the basement. The buildings were severely damaged in the earthquakes of 2010–2011, but today they are no longer ruins but a living quarter with cafes, galleries and workshops — and since 2017, some university faculties have also returned here.

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Ride the gondola almost half a kilometer up and in just 10 minutes, a panorama of all Christchurch, the Canterbury Plains, the Southern Alps, and Lyttelton Harbour unfolds before you.

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Historic route through the city center, restored after the 2011 earthquake.

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A waterfall approximately 131 m high in a hanging valley of a Bealey River tributary, with the Māori name Te Tautea o Hinekakai — according to legend, the waterfall is connected to a guardian spirit whose cloak was woven with processed flax threads (muka). The walking track to the viewing platform is approximately 2 km return with an elevation gain of about 90 metres via wooden stairs, averaging around 45 minutes each way. The track passes through two bridges — across the Bealey River and Devils Punchbowl Creek — and dense beech forest, where kea and the rare large spotted kiwi (roroa) can be encountered.

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Historic house of the first settlers and an adjacent viewpoint with a sea seal colony at Point Keen Cape.

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Firefighters Reserve — an unusual memorial on the banks of the Avon River, dedicated to the memory of 343 New York firefighters who died on September 11, 2001, and firefighters around the world. Its central element — genuine steel beams weighing 5.5 tons, fallen from the 102nd floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center; they were donated to Christchurch by the New York City Mayor's office in 2002. The opening of the memorial was accompanied by a blessing from the elders of the Māori and Muslim communities of the city - at a place sacred to Ngāi Tahu (iwi Ngāi Tahu)

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Popular resort with open-air thermal pools and spa in the mountains.

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Mona Vale — a fairy-tale estate on the Avon River with an amazing rescue story

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The highest point of SH75 route (≈476 m), where the view of the entire Akaroa Harbour opens up for the first time — a completely flooded volcanic crater. A plaque nearby confirms: you are standing on the rim of a volcano. Below, in the center of the harbour, is the Ōnawe peninsula, a remnant of an ancient volcanic plug and the site of tragic events in 1832 in the history of ngāi tahu. The same view opened up to French settlers in August 1840 — already after the British had occupied the harbour.

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Lookout platform for the 440-meter Otira Viaduct — an engineering structure that opened in November 1999 (built by McConnell Smith Pty Ltd), replacing a dangerous section of road from 1866 with a height difference of approximately 495 m. During construction in July 1998, 25-year-old worker Tony Western died — a memorial plaque is installed at the site. A popular spot for observing kea birds.

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Family winery with restaurant and sculpture garden, top of Waipara.

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Here, in Riccarton, the true history of Christchurch begins — seven years before the official arrival of the first organized settlers. In 1843, brothers William and John Deans established themselves right here, on the site that the Māori called Pūtaringamotu, honestly leasing the land from Ngai Tahu for 21 years

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Timeball Station — a time signal station that has been operating since 1876. Every day at exactly one o'clock in the afternoon, a one-hundred-kilogram metal ball was raised and dropped along a mast, allowing ship captains in the harbor to synchronize their marine chronometers.

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Year-round sperm whale watching in a deep canyon off the coast.

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Willowbank is not a classical zoo. Everything here is designed to showcase New Zealand animals in the most natural conditions possible: fewer cages, more open spaces. Before humans arrived in New Zealand, there were almost no land predators, and many animals evolved with virtually no protection

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