Akaroa Shore Excursion: Banks Peninsula and Christchurch City Sights Tour
Description
While your ship is in port in Akaroa Harbour, take a shore excursion to tour the scenic Banks Peninsula and visit the city of Christchurch. You’ll see how Christchurch is emerging from the devastation of the 2011 earthquake. Take a brief stroll through the city’s beautiful botanic gardens and admire New Zealand’s magnificent scenery.
Tour Options
Itinerary
First you will be collected at the park at the end of Akaroa Wharf (opposite the Akaroa Village Inn) at 10.30am and driven through the village of Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula with stunning views of rolling hills, lakes and coastlines before arriving in Christchurch.
After boarding our coaches from the Akaroa Port, we'll take you through to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens & Christchurch Museum via the scenic Banks Peninsula. Explore on your own for 30 minutes.
After a some time at the Botanic Gardens, your driver will take you for a sightseeing tour of the central city and highlight the Earthquake damage of 2011. After which, stop for a 45 minute lunch break (own expense) in the city.
Explore the township of Sumner (time permitting) and the beautiful port town of Lyttelton Harbour for beautiful sights of Governors Bay.
Drive up the port hills to the Sign of the Takahe for stunning views of the city, Southern Alps, and Canterbury coastline (time permitting a stop will be made so you can walk to the viewing platform). Finally return to Akaroa in time for your tender with the cruise ship.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- At time of booking, cruise ship passengers must provide the following information: ship name, docking time, disembarkation time and re-boarding time
- Please note that activity times and schedules can be slightly amended depending on your cruise ships timetable.
Reviews(228)
Good tour for cruise guests to get an overview of Christchurch and the Banks Peninsula. The driver/guide gave a lot of background information. In Christchurch you had plenty of time to explore the centre on your own.
Thank you for taking the time to submit your review which are valuable to us to ensure we meet and where possible exceed our customers expectations. We do hope that you will have the opportunity to visit New Zealand again in the not too distant future.
Chris is a local and knows the history and interesting places. He even took our grouo to a small off the beaten track beach to watch a sea lion feeding her baby in the dunes.
Kiaora Betsy and thanks for leaving a review. I'm pleased to hear that you enjoyed your tour with Chris!
The tour I was put in went to a wildlife park and I did not purchase that tour. I was supposed to be on the tour with more time in Christchurch. The guide was very rude about anything you asked her. Disgusting wasted day.
Nancy purchased the excursion through Viator / TripAdvisor, a third party OTA and was placed on the tour that was booked, which included Willowbank. Both the tour that Nancy travelled on and the excursion she thought she had booked cover exactly the same ground, however, whilst the Christchurch Sightseeing Tour has some free time in the central city the option with Willowbank does not. Had Nancy asked the driver to drop them her in the central city instead of being abusive and disruptive towards the driver then this could have simply been arranged. What is most disappointing is that everybody else on the tour knew what they had booked and had a great day.
The scenery was very pretty. Our driver was knowledgeable about the area. We enjoyed seeing the sights. Unfortunately, our driver was unfamiliar with the bus and had some trouble driving it. Nothing that was dangerous but it was disconcerting.
Kiaora Richard, thanks for your review. I'm so glad you enjoyed the tour. I have addressed the issues with our drivers knowledge of our vehicles to ensure this will not occur again. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
too much time on thr coach. therefore we only had 1 hour in Christchurch and this made it a rushed visit. the boat docked early, the trip could easily set off at 9:30 giving us more time in Christchurch
Nicolas As you are aware Akaroa is a tender port and although the cruise ship may come into port early everyone has to come ashore by tender which takes time. We had around 200 passengers on our various shore excursion from Akaroa and we were still checking passengers in at 10.20 for a 10.30 departure. The cruise ship could depart later which would give us more time, however, with a 5 pm last tender we have to get everyone back before then so the tour timing is very much dedicated by the cruise ship and not us.
We stayed at Ridgecliff Accrington Farmhouse on Chorlton Road. Our Matariki weekend was a family reunion. There were sixteen of us and we all fitted into the lovely old farmhouse in proper beds it wasn't necessary to sleep the young ones on the furniture or the floor. The Farmhouse catered for babies with a cot and high chair. The garden was large enough for the children to kick a ball. Firewood was provided and we enjoyed sitting around the fire reminiscing about the old days a perfect place with walks and history in the surrounding area. Thoroughly enjoyed every second of our stay. We will go back.
Thank you for your review, however, it would appear that you may have posted it to the wrong site. That being said I am sure all of our customers will appreciate your review of Ridgecliff Accrington Farmhouse on Chorlton Road and will be tempted to investitge further.
Our full day, small group tour of Christchurch began in Akaroa and was given by Ian. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the city of Christchurch from Akaroa. The scenes along the Banks Peninsula of rich farmlands, green hills, gorgeous clear waters and mountains were just magnificent. We ended up in the Central City of Christchurch, but we really didn't have time to see much. We didn't have any time to explore the Botanic Gardens or the Museum, we didn't get to see much of the CBD at all! We had about an hour to have lunch, and we did have a lovely lunch. However, I wouldn't do this tour again.
This review has been posted against the wrong business. In Akaroa we do not offer a small group option on any of our shore excursions. We have repeatedly asked Tripadvisor to remove this review with details of the company against whom the review should be posted and as normal the ignore the requests and do nothing!
Although the bus left on time and we were aware of the travel time to Christchurch, we didn’t expect to have only 30 minutes at the botanical gardens (also a bathroom stop). Unfortunately our driver Steve wasn’t the best. The bus didn’t start after our 30 minute stop and he didn’t explain anything to the people on the bus, except for those in the first two rows who he spoke to often without using the microphone. After being stuck for 30 minutes off we went without any explanations of what had been wrong with the bus. We then stopped for an hour and then we drove and drove and drove. I should add our driver seemed to have problems shifting gears and was constantly the only bus to pull into the passing area so other buses and cars could go by. We didn’t realize that the major of the day would be spent on a bus.....over 6 hours of driving. We arrived back at the port at 5:15. I would definitely not recommend this tour.
It is always disappointing to receive a negative review especially when the comments made by the reviewer are untrue. The reviewer traveled with us on the 7th March on the 14th April, some 5 weeks after completely the trip the reviewer requested a refund on the grounds that the excursion departed late, however, when it was shown that the excursion had departed actually a little earlier that the scheduled departure time the refund was rejected this negative review was posted. We understand that all reviews are subjective, however, it is always disappointing when outright falsehoods are stated. Please see some of the other wonderful reviews for this product, there are currently over 200 reviews with an 4.5 star average, from this I am sure you can judge the creditability of the reviewer.
Very informative & engaging representative. Gave personal insight into sights & went out of his way to accommodate wishes.
Thank you for taking the time to submit your review. I am pleased to learn that you had such a great day and enjoyed the tour so much. I do hope you have the opportunity to visit New Zealand again.
The drive to Christchurch from Akaroa is very beautiful and offers gorgeous NZ landscapes. However, we found our drive to be disappointing in terms of our guide. He did not introduce himself in the beginning (which we think is a must) and we felt his attitude was "just get the job done". He was a very good driver (necessary on windy, mountainous roads) but lacked personal "joy d'vie". The tour offered as advertised but we found it a long day.
Thank you for taking the time to submit your review. We appreciate your feedback and acknowledge that all reviews are subjective. I am sorry that driver of the excursion did not meet your expectations which is surprising given all of the other great reviews for this excursion.
