Christchurch turned demolition sites into the Southern Hemisphere's densest mural gallery. Between free civic art collections, restored Gothic Revival stone and a brand-new theatre quarter, three days here read as one long argument about what a city keeps.
More than 60 large-format murals fill the gable walls demolition left exposed — Askew One, Rone, Wongi Wilson and Ampparito among them. The Watch This Space map is free online; guided two-hour walks run most Saturdays.
Twenty-three Gothic Revival stone buildings from the 1877 university campus, rebuilt over a decade for about NZ$290 million. Courtyards, artist studios and the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities are free; open daily 10am–4pm.
The city's main collection, closed for five years after 2011 and now free to enter, holds strong Canterbury holdings — Petrus van der Velden, Bill Hammond, Rita Angus. Open 10am–5pm, Wednesdays until 9pm.
The 2018 civic library by Schmidt Hammer Lassen with Architectus wraps five floors in gold anodised aluminium panels patterned after Ngāi Tahu weaving. Floor five's southern windows frame the Port Hills and Cathedral Square.
Canterbury Museum's dedicated earthquake gallery at 299 Durham Street North: the ChristChurch Cathedral rose window, salvaged shopfront signage, seismographs and filmed survivor testimony. Open daily 10am–5pm.
A 2016 chamber-music hall on Armagh Street with a 350-seat auditorium tuned for acoustic performance. Free lunchtime recitals by Christchurch Symphony players and University of Canterbury students run most weekdays.
New Zealand's only surviving Edwardian lyric theatre, built 1908, dismantled and rebuilt after 2011 at a cost near NZ$40 million. The domed auditorium ceiling painting was removed in sections and reinstalled intact.
After 14 years in an Addington grain shed, the country's busiest professional theatre company opened its NZ$65 million Gloucester Street home in 2025 — a 370-seat main house plus studio, staging roughly ten productions a year.
Over the Port Hills tunnel, this harbour town lost most of its Victorian main street in 2011 and rebuilt as the region's music and craft hub. The Saturday market on London Street runs 10am–1pm beside Lyttelton Coffee Company.
An indoor food hall of about 50 traders at 96 Oxford Terrace, opened 2019 on a block flattened after the quakes. Canterbury growers, Kaikōura seafood and a rooftop bar sit under a sawtooth timber roof; open daily from 7am.
Aotearoa's national marae on Pages Road, opened 1990, welcomes visitors for pōwhiri, carving and weaving demonstrations and hāngī. Its wharenui carvings represent iwi from across the country rather than one hapū.
A 300-metre concrete pier, the longest in Australasia, anchors a beach suburb rebuilding through its Saturday makers' market and seaside hot pools. Five saltwater pools face the Pacific at NZ$22 for two hours.