This is the story of a simple overnight trip from Dunedin, heading north by bus through Oamaru and Timaru before arriving in Christchurch. Looking back, it turned out to be more significant than I knew at the time — I was walking through a Christchurch that would be irrevocably changed just a year or two later, by the 2011 earthquake.
Day 1：Dunedin → Oamaru → Timaru → Christchurch
Morning: Leaving Dunedin Under Grey Skies
The sky over Dunedin that morning was a solid, unbroken grey. The bus followed the coast northward, and the first stop was Oamaru.
Oamaru — Passing the Penguin Colony Without Knowing It Existed
I later found out that Oamaru is home to a colony of little blue penguins, with organized evening tours to watch them come ashore. At the time, I had no idea. I passed straight through. It’s near the top of my list for a return visit — if you’re planning a South Island trip, don’t make the same mistake.
Timaru — A Brief Pause at a Quiet Port Town
Timaru was another near-miss: a quick rest stop, nothing more. The town has the feel of a natural halfway point between Dunedin and Christchurch — unhurried, coastal, quietly pleasant. I’d like to come back and actually walk it properly someday.
Arriving in Christchurch: A City Still Intact
The most significant thing about this trip, in hindsight, was arriving in a Christchurch that still looked like itself. The buildings that would later be destroyed or demolished in the 2011 earthquake were still standing — grand and solid, exactly as they’d been built. I didn’t know then what was coming. Knowing now makes those photos feel like documents of something that no longer exists.
I arrived in the early evening. Walking through the overcast city, the atmosphere was unmistakably European — Gothic stone buildings, the quiet drift of the Avon River, trams on heritage streets. And above everything else, the spire of Christchurch Cathedral rising intact against the grey sky. I took a photo. I’m glad I did.
That night, I checked into a small hotel in the city center and turned in early.
Day 2: City Walking → Willowbank
Morning: Exploring the Parts I’d Missed
Day two brought more of the same overcast weather — which, for walking, is ideal. After breakfast at a café, I headed to the parts of the city I hadn’t reached the evening before: the wide green expanse of Hagley Park, the stone-paved back streets with their independent cafés, the museum, the architectural details of the older buildings. Pre-earthquake Christchurch was genuinely beautiful in a way that felt almost European — orderly, dignified, full of craft. I didn’t know yet how much of it would be gone.
Afternoon: Willowbank Wildlife Reserve
No visit to Christchurch is complete without Willowbank, and I mean that with full sincerity. The reserve is home to kiwi, kea, tuatara, and an array of other native species — it’s essentially a concentrated argument for why New Zealand’s wildlife is unlike anywhere else on earth.
The kea were predictably chaotic, doing exactly what they wanted with no apparent concern for boundaries. The kiwi enclosure required patience — standing in the dark, eyes adjusting, waiting for movement — but the moment you spot one is genuinely worth it. The tuatara, ancient and still, watched everything from their corners with the unhurried calm of animals that have seen several hundred million years come and go. The whole place has the feel of a large private garden rather than a zoo. Calm, unpretentious, and quietly wonderful.
It was the right way to end the trip.
Final Thoughts: Two Days, Surprisingly Full
Dunedin to Christchurch via the coast, with an afternoon at Willowbank — it’s a short itinerary that punches above its weight. A quiet port town, a pre-earthquake city caught in its last years of wholeness, and an afternoon with some of the world’s most unusual animals. More detail on Christchurch and Willowbank coming in the next post.
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