Beautiful trip from ship port Akaroa to Christchurch But consumes a lot of the time of the tour. The Willowbank zoo was excellent and the guide, Matt, was phenomenally informative about NZ wildlife. But just too short a time for other features, the museum and garden.

Christchurch was some what disappointing because on the ongoing earthquake repairs. Willow bank was informative and fun. Actually saw a Kiwi bird eating in the dark.

Too much travel to get to Christchurch

We enjoyed our trek to Christchurch, it was a bit of a drive but our driver kept talking about the area and entertaining us the whole way. Willow bank would have been interesting but our tour guide there did our hour long tour in about 20 minutes....The countryside was beautiful, and it was interesting to see how Christchurch has recouperated after the earthquake, it seems to be a vibrant city....would have liked a little more time there. Akaroa was stunning in the sunshine.

It was fantastic. The only draw back was that the Kiwi Bird could not really be seen in the total darkness, even under flushlight from the guide.

willowbank wildlife reserve amazing..you get to see the kiwi in a nocturnal setting. first hand look at the rebuilding process in Christchurch atfer the earthquake

Ship did not stop due to fog.

This tour was a mixed bag. The countryside on the drive from Akaroa to and from Christchurch was beautiful. Seeing the devastation caused by the 2011 earthquake was both sad and fascinating and at Willowbank we actually got to see a live Kiwi. Unfortunately, the tour operator left a lot to be desired. When we started out, our driver/tour guide did not know what the tour was supposed to include. We had to educate him by reading him a printout of the tour. Then our bus broke down on the return trip to Akaroa. The driver ultimately got the bus going again but we weren't sure that we'd get back before the ship sailed without us. We were all very nervous about missing our ship for half of the return trip and only got back to the ship 1 minute before the all aboard deadline.

Definitely saw some beautiful country from Akaroa to Christchurch. Very rushed day but got to see a taste. Very dissappointed in not really seeing a Kiwi in the wildlife reserve as they do hide but we were guaranteed to see one but only saw a fury ball way up in the corner. Did enjoy the personal tour around the wildlife reserve.

LOVED The wildlife preserve! VERY interesting.Would highly recommend it!
Not much to see in Christchurch except empty lots were buildings had been razed as a result of the earthquake 5 yrs ago. One stop, however, was a church that had severe damage as a result of the quake and left for viewing by the tourists. We did have a brief stop at the Maori museum in Christchurch were able to take a rushed tour there. wished we could have spent more time there.
While the scenery on the way there was fantastic new Zealand is a gorgeous country!, the area around Christchurch was flat and rather monotonous. Our driver did a good job of pointing out various things along the way, IE kiwi fruit growing, vineyards, sheep and cattle grazing and other facts about New Zealand.