Otahuna Lodge

Head into Christchurch – the South Island’s largest city, shaped by both heritage and reinvention. Here, you’ll walk past Gothic Revival buildings that now house galleries, cafés and local shops. You’ll also pause by the Avon River, watching punters glide beneath willow trees. In Hagley Park, you’ll breathe in the fresh air that sweeps through its sprawling green gardens.

Visit museums that trace the region’s colonial past and modern art spaces that show its future. Later, you’ll drive along the coast where waves crash against volcanic cliffs. By evening, you’ll return to Otahuna, with the city’s energy still fresh in your mind.

Step onto Otahuna Lodge’s Great Lawn where your helicopter waits, blades cutting through the morning air. Moments later, you’re rising above the estate, watching its gardens shrink into a patchwork of green. The Canterbury plains stretch out beneath you, rivers winding towards snow-covered peaks. The pilot points out Lake Ellesmere and the Southern Alps as sunlight flashes off the water.

You hover near ridgelines where sheep graze on steep slopes and descend briefly beside a remote alpine lake. The flight ends back at the Lodge, the adrenaline still running through you. It’s the same land you saw before but now from a different perspective.

You can set out with sturdy boots and a map marked with trails that wind through Canterbury’s varied terrain. You begin among volcanic hills that rise sharply from the plains, then move into native forest alive with birdsong and filtered light. The track opens to views of the Pacific, the sea stretching endlessly ahead.

Each trail feels distinct – some steep and rocky, others soft underfoot with pine needles. You stop to take in the distance you’ve covered, feeling the mix of effort and calm that walking brings. Back at Otahuna, your legs ache in the best way possible with the land still in your head.