Christchurch is New Zealand's cheapest big city for travellers: its flagship museums are donation-entry, the Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park cost nothing, and a flat NZ$2.65 Metrocard fare reaches beaches, hills and volcanic bays.
Thirty hectares of free gardens inside 165-hectare Hagley Park, open 7am to sunset with no gate and no ticket. The Central Rose Garden, 1923 Cuningham House conservatory and huge riverside oaks cost nothing; free public toilets and drinking fountains throughout.
Permanent entry is free every day, 10am–5pm (until 9pm Wednesdays). Five levels of Canterbury painting, Bill Culbert neon and rotating contemporary shows. The wavy glass facade and Ron Mueck sculptures alone justify the visit; free lockers and wifi inside.
Shigeru Ban's Transitional Cathedral, built from 98 cardboard tubes, asks only a gold-coin donation and opens 9am–5pm. Two minutes' walk away, the 185 Empty White Chairs memorial to the 2011 earthquake victims sits free and unfenced on the old CTV site.
Nine kilometres of demolished suburb turned wild riverside parkland between Fitzgerald Avenue and New Brighton — free, unfenced and open 24/7. Ghost driveways, orphaned hedges and fruit trees from abandoned gardens make it Christchurch's strangest free walk.
Christchurch's biggest Saturday market, 9am–2pm on the lawn beside Riccarton House. Canterbury berries, cheap bakery seconds and NZ$5–8 hot food stalls. Entry is free and it sits beside the free Riccarton Bush kahikatea remnant forest reserve.
Indoor market on Oxford Terrace with 25 kitchens, open daily 9am–6pm. Bao, Thai boat noodles, dumplings and Turkish plates run NZ$10–16 — cheapest hot lunches in the central city. Free seating on the mezzanine and free water stations.
Canterbury's collection is free by donation while the Rolleston Avenue building is rebuilt, showing Māori taonga, Antarctic sledges and the Paua Shell House. Open 9am–5pm daily; the free Antarctic gallery explains why Scott and Shackleton sailed from Lyttelton.
Colombo Street south of Moorhouse is where locals eat: Little India lunch boxes, Vietnamese banh mi around NZ$9, Malaysian roti canai NZ$8 and NZ$12 pho. The Colombo mall food court and neighbouring takeaways all sit well under NZ$15 a head.
The free alternative to the NZ$40 gondola: a 45-minute climb from Heathcote Valley to the Bridle Path summit, with the Lyttelton Harbour crater and Southern Alps in one view. Bus 28 gets you to the trailhead for NZ$2.65 with a Metrocard.
The port village 12km from town runs a Saturday market 10am–1pm on London Street, with NZ$8 fish tacos and free harbour views from the Time Ball site. Wandering the steep streets, the tunnel-mouth lookout and the wharf costs nothing at all.
A 300-metre concrete pier free to walk day or night, plus 18km of Pegasus Bay sand. The adjacent He Puna Taimoana hot pools charge NZ$18, but the pier, the free library-with-sea-view and the surf beach cost nothing. Bus 5 runs from the centre.
Christchurch's 1932 Spanish Mission pastel street is free to stroll, and one block away Tūranga library's fifth floor offers free city-and-Port-Hills views, free wifi and free seating until 8pm weekdays — the cheapest sunset spot in the central city.