Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - What to do on a weekend in CHC in Nov

Any tips appreciated

Antarctic Centre
Scroll around town and the river
Go up the gondola
Pop over to Lyttelton

www.christchurch.org.nz

Christchurch is a university town, so it is filled with arts & crafts, some neat stuff, and all the usual university amenities. Great fun if you are so inclined.

That all sounds interesting for the day, but what about nightlife? I'm a bit old to hang out with college kids. Where do the professors go to unwind?

I was hoping someone else would answer, as I've only stayed in CHC 3 or 4 times and only for a day each time ... however I found no problem with meeting good company and making new friends just by walking around, it is a very friendly town (more so than Auckland for some reason, maybe because it is more remote, maybe because I like university towns). Just stay out of the grim attractions, like the casino (though there is a good music club near it, don't quite remember where ... ). However to answer your specific question, where do the university profs hang out, I think it is in the great room of their gorgeous houses, and not in any publicly accessible areas. But others should know more about this than I do.

Thanks number_6!

I was there in December 2004 for a couple of nights. School was already out.

The downtown area is not large -- you can walk across it quite easily. As a result, the nightlife is pretty concentrated and you shouldn't have much trouble finding places to go. If you don't like one place, another won't be far away. To echo the comments of others, everybody seemed genuinely nice and eager to help, so I'm sure you'll have no trouble getting pointed in the right direction. I'll try to look at a map and dig up some credit card statements to see if I can't jog my memory of the specific places I went.

That said, there isn't a great deal of nightlife, so you can't be too picky. :)

The botanic garden is good for a walk during the day and the contemporary art center is good for killing at least an hour or two. If the weather is nice enough people sit on the banks of the Avon River as there's certainly no shortage of green spaces.

And what's this crap about being too old to hang with the college kids? :p

What brings you to Christchurch, anyway? If it's the only place you're going on the South Island, you could always hop on Air NZ over to Queenstown. It's the only place in that half of the country that you're going to find "real" nightlife. (Dunedin may qualify as well, but again, no students were there when I came through.)

I'm there for work and I have a weekend to kill. I've already done AKL and WLG, so I thought I'd give CHC a try.

Might find a few ideas in my trip report...very beginning, but mostly towards the end

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=402292&highlight=south+island

Akaroa makes a nice side trip. Or hot pools/walks at Hanmer Springs.