Transport
There's a bus running from the Airport to the city centre which costs $7 NZD.

Christchurch is the biggest city in the South Island and compared to the bigger cities in the North Island it has a much more laid back attitude. I visited the place in potentially the quietest time of the year, on a Sunday in the middle of winter and all the people around the city where divided between Cathedral square and the Botanic gardens.

On my first visit to Cathedral Square in the centre of Christchurch, I saw an old tram carrying tourists around the city. I like the old tram so I hopped on for a short 12 stop trip around the city's main attractions. The most famous building is the gothic Cathedral in surprise, surprise, Cathedral Square which also hosts the millennium chalice. Forgive me if I'm being repetitive but this place is indeed influenced by British architecture. That said I enjoyed taking pictures of the building whenever a Chinese (or Japanese) wasn't in front of the camera.

After the tour and more than 24 hours on planes I went to unwind in the botanical gardens. Before I fell asleep on the bench I was sitting on, I made it to one of the few open Asian restaurants and had a Korean BBQ spicy octopus.

Full of octopus I dragged myself to the Foley Towers Hostel which is probably one of the quieter hostels in Christchurch within walking distance of the centre. I was welcomed inside by a German whose name I would have swore my right ball was Katia. In fact I was right, she was a Katia. There's no way anybody could have named her otherwise. Apart from that she was also a good sport and managed a 23 sentence score in the boyfriend naming game. [You're not mentioning that she had an assortment of infectious looking acnes on her face.] Here I spent an extra $2 dollars for a shared room instead of a bunk-bed dorm, but had to ask for a duvet because it wasn't provided. It seems that having a sleeping bag with you is the norm when backpacking in NZ.

View the complete Christchurch Gallery here