Children's theatre

Every school holidays we are lucky in Christchurch to be able to take the kids to the theatre for a reasonably price.

The Court Theatre, The Mill, and The Malthouse all hold regular school holiday performances. Prices are good - usually around $7 or $8 per ticket.

The Court Theatre is in the Arts Centre in town, and the actors are professionals, which usually makes for a great show.

The Mill is in Wise Street, off Lincoln Road in Addington, and the shows are usually of a good standard.

The Malthouse is at the South end of Colombo Street, and the actors are often teenagers doing drama courses, so the quality is a bit more amateur. It's called "cushion theatre", as everyone sits on the floor with a cushion (BYO, although I think some are provided).


The Court Theatre shows are good for kids aged 3 til around 9 years old. The Mill's Playbox is best for the 1 to 5 year olds and the Malthouse is similar. Most of the shows only run for 45 minutes to an hour, so aren't too long for the little ones and their little attention spans!

Check out the theatre's websites for details of current shows and booking details.

Ghost Walk at the Arts Centre

Did you know that Christchurch has its very own Ghost Walk? No? Well, you do now.

For $20 you can join a small group, hosted by "Dr Aloysius Mort", and take in the hidden secrets of the neo-gothic Arts Centre at night.

Being as the Ghost Walk is put on by the Court Theatre, a part of you KNOWS that the ghosts aren't really real, it's all a big show... but ooooh! It's actually really quite creepy, although I think that the suspense and drama of the event is more to blame for us jumping at our own shadows than any real ghosts!

You learn a huge amount of history (true? embellished? I'm not sure) about the Arts Centre and you get to go "behind the scenes" into places that the general public usually don't get to see.

NOT recommended for children - teenagers would probably be fine though. There is a fair amount of walking up and down winding staircases, so it's not so good for people with mobility problems.

Like any show that involves a small group of participants, the type of group you end up with on the night can make or break your experience. On the night I went I was lucky - we had a nice group of around 8 people, and they were all very excitable and squealed loudly at times, which ramped the suspense and excitability levels up for the rest of us. A friend went on a different night - they were in a larger group of about 15 people, with a couple of boorish sceptics who spent the whole time muttering loudly about how this is all made up and wasn't really real. Grrrrr! (Well, why the hell did you waste your $20 and spoil it for the rest of us!?)

For something different, a Ghost Walk is really very cool.


Book at the Court Theatre website, or you can phone them on 963 0870. You can also book through the i-Site Visitor's Centre in Cathedral Square. Tours take about 1 hour 20 mins, and run on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights - 8.01pm in winter, 9.01pm in summer.

The Art Gallery

Oh we love the Art Gallery!

There's nothing better on a rainy day than to spend a pleasant hour or two wandering around the various galleries. My kids are aged 6 and 4 and they really love it too.

We usually park in the basement carpark ($1.10 per half hour). We peruse the downstairs exhibits (the temporary exhibits - by the way, the current Daniel Crooks exhibit is AMAZING! Well worth a visit!) before heading upstairs to the more permanent rooms.

There is a gallery set aside especially for kids, with plenty of interactive activities for them. It's great (not to mention educational)!

But even the main galleries are well worth a wander. My kids enjoy taking in all the different types of artworks, trying to decide what the picture is of, or what the artist was thinking when he or she made it.

There's a cafe downstairs if you fancy a snack (although to tell the truth, we avoid it when we have the kids with us as it just seems too fancy and I'm scared they'll break something!). There's also a gift shop which sells all sorts of exciting things (I was very excited to see my favourite painting on a gift card, mine for the very reasonable sum of $3).

Occasionally the gallery has shows and concerts on in the gallery foyer - last week we happened across a fantastic brass band concert, another time we came upon a hiphop dancing show.

And of course, admission is free - fantastic!

Visit the Art Gallery's website for more information on current exhibits and other bits and pieces.

The Art Gallery is in the central city, on Montreal Street, between Worcester and Gloucester Streets (the carpark entrance is off Gloucester Street).

Canterbury Museum

It was a cold rainy day so where better to go than to the Museum!

Unfortunately, nearly half of Christchurch and three quarters of all the tourists in town that day had the same idea. The place was heaving!

However, it was great.

I love the museum - it's such an interesting place to visit. The kids and I usually try to go along a couple of times a year, and even though it's usually always the same exhibits, it never gets boring.

We usually park in the Botanic Gardens carpark (free for up to 3 hours, and even if you stay longer there is no-one watching as far as I can see...) and walk through the gardens to the museum (about 5 to 10 minutes).

Once inside we go through the early New Zealand and Maori exhibits - the displays are always excellent!

Then we head through the old Christchurch streetscape, through the transport section, and we zip upstairs to the Egyptology, geology and dinosaur exhibits.

All of these different areas have plenty of hands-on stuff for the kids to enjoy - they get to sit on a horse in the old Christchurch street and go inside an olden-days toy shop. They get to ride in an old carriage and sit on a penny farthing in the transport section. There are magnet headdresses to put onto Egyptian pharoahs and you can touch meteorites and quartz in the geology section.

Then you come to the Discovery room - it is an added extra, especially for kids, and it costs $2 per person (free for under 3s). It is well worth it. (You can also pay an annual membership, about $15 if I remember rightly, which gives you unlimited access for the year).

We easily spend up to an hour in the Discovery Room - there are puzzles, books, magazines, toys, and a myriad of stuffed animals and pinned insects and butterflies to look at. My favourites are the jars upon jars of preserved specimens, including animal foetuses and even a human hand! The kids particularly like the animal figurines and the hands-on activities. We both really like opening up all the many specimen drawers to see what's inside.

My only complaint with the Discovery Room is the computers - they are loaded with The Magic Schoolbus games, but every single time we've tried to use them they seem to go SOOOOO SLOWWWWW. Plus the volume is set very low and we usually end up giving up in frustration after a few minutes.

Continuing on around the museum, there's the bird hall - always interesting. Then there's the boring room of Asian artifacts. Then there's the very interesting Canterbury environment exhibits - I always want to spend ages reading every single panel, but the kids always hurry me along as they're not that keen.

Last but not least is the Antarctic exhibit. Now, having just been to the Antarctic Centre a couple of weeks ago, I have to say that this exhibit is great. Save your money and just visit the museum instead.


Then there's the Museum Cafe. I have got good memories of this cafe - when I was a bored younger mother with two toddlers in a pram we used to come here during the quiet weekdays. The large picture windows give a lovely view of the Botanic Gardens and there were magazines for me to read while sipping my coffee. Plus there was a fantastic kids' play area, complete with baby friendly options also.

Then came this latest visit. Hmmmm.

Admittedly, it was a VERY busy Sunday afternoon. There were only two young women behind the counter, both working flat out, trying to serve the long queue. Unfortunately this meant that the cafe was disgustingly dirty. None of the girls had a chance to come out to clear and wipe tables. Every table was laden with dirty dishes.

I ordered a mocha coffee, which took about 10 minutes to arrive (due to the woman making coffees being snowed under in orders). It was the worst coffee ever. Luke warm, with a huge solid lump of grainy chocolate (inedible) at the bottom which made the last quarter of the cup undrinkable.

We also had a piece of chocolate fudge cake. Seeing as it was obviously made earlier in the day I figured it couldn't go wrong, right? Wrong. Worst fudge cake ever. It was disgusting and had the texture of sawdust.

I could have gone and complained, but those poor girls looked very unhappy to be there anyway. We just quietly left.


So that was my only disappointment, and it was a REAL disappointment after my previously good encounters in this cafe.


But overall, the museum is GREAT.


Cost - FREE!!!! (Donations accepted). $2 per person for the Discovery Room.

Allow - 2 hours minimum, but you could easily spend 3 - 4 hours there.

Location - Rolleston Ave, central Christchurch.

Visit the website for more information!