When to Go

When to Go

Choosing the best time to come to the Christchurch area depends largely on your tolerance for crowds. In summer, Christchurch is especially busy as its events calendar gets the city buzzing. The Garden City SummerTimes festival runs from New Year's until late February, offering free classical music concerts and other activities in Hagley Park. Mid-January brings the World Buskers Festival with plenty of zany, free acts; the Festival of Flowers is held around February; and there are also the International Jazz & Blues Festival in late March, and the Antarctic Festival in September or October. A list of upcoming events and festivals can be viewed at www.bethere.co.nz.

The song by New Zealand band Crowded House about "four seasons in one day" barely exaggerates the local climate. Summer days can be chilled by a sudden east wind, and the nor'wester can be calm and warm one day and blustery the next. Winter's weather (May-September) is more settled but colder, and though some activities close down, the lack of crowds makes traveling easier. For skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports, this is the time to come. From the first weekend in June through October you can be assured of snow at Mt. Hutt, the first local ski area to open and often the last to close. Snow on the ground in Christchurch is a rarity.