Christchurch: Street Art and Where to Stay

Christchurch is the main hub for people flying in and out of the southern regions of New Zealand, as it’s the largest city on the South Island.

The city however, is currently in a state of mass redevelopment, due to the recent damage of the 2010, 2011 and 2016 major earthquakes. We actually travelled through a large region of the damaged areas whilst staying in Kaikoura for a couple of days. You can see us explore the city and the route to Christchurch in the vlog below.

Follow our 6 week road trip through New Zealand

This post is just a small chapter of our extended road trip throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Make sure to check out our whole trip and detailed itinerary within the main post!

Something that Joe mentioned throughout the video is that in times of devastation, it’s always great to see people come together and find the positives of a situation.

It’s heartbreaking seeing the damage of an earthquake, but warming to see the continuity of life.

You can see a lot of shipping containers used to support multiple fragile buildings around the city, incase an earthquake happens again. It could almost be seen as a piece of art altogether.

Creativity always shines through after a natural disaster, and street art is a great way to truly express yourself and share the thoughts of a community to the outside world.

It’d be really interesting to go back to Christchurch in a few years time to see how the rebuild has come along. Right now, there’s still a large amount of the city under construction, so there’s definitely a lot of change in process and the city’s potential is huge!

We spent a few nights at Eco Villa, a boutique hotel which made our Christchurch experience really enjoyable and super comfortable.

Personally for me, Eco Villa was easily one of my favourite places I’ve ever stayed in. I absolutely loved their ethos and the aesthetics of the whole place.

This is the entrance to the hotel, how cute is it that they have chilli plants by the entrance?! 🌶

It’s always great to support a company who wants a more sustainable world.

We stayed in The Rimu; the room has a super king bed with an ensuite, exactly what we needed to make our stay comfortable.

They had recently opened, following heaps of renovation, so we got to experience the place fairly fresh. They’d managed to salvage quite a lot of the original features, which made the little touches to the place a ‘home from home’.

We were grateful to have a well-equipped shared kitchen and a spacious lounge area (shown in the vlogs).

Another feature to the place was the edible garden! I felt spoilt with the choice of mint leaves growing; spearmint, peppermint and chocolate mint.

We enjoyed own homemade mint teas, whilst having a bath in their outdoor bath under the trees 👌🏼🌿🛁

During our stay in Christchurch, we did a couple of day trips out of the city to Akaroa and also to the Canterbury Plains for a hot air balloon ride! Check out the post below and catch up with the rest our trip around New Zealand through our road trip itinerary.

Beautiful Scenery from a Hot Air Balloon, New Zealand

A scenic drive around the Akaroa peninsula and panoramic views of the Southern Alps via an epic hot air balloon in Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand Road Trip Itinerary: 6 Weeks

Follow our 6 week New Zealand road trip itinerary—including accommodation and activities across the North and South Islands—starting with a flight from Brisbane to Auckland with Air New Zealand.

We’d like to thank Eco Villa for making our stay in Christchurch memorable and really enjoyable. After staying from place to place whilst travelling through New Zealand, it was great to have a place to relax that really felt like home 🏡

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