Visit a working sheep farm with dog mustering, sheep shearing, and afternoon tea. Continue with a sightseeing tour of Christchurch, exploring the city’s historic landmarks, beautiful gardens and picturesque surroundings. Learn about the devastating earthquakes of 2011, see the remarkable rebuild that continues today, and discover how Christchurch has transformed while retaining its unique heritage and charm.
08.45 – Meet and greet in Lyttelton township for your Christchurch Highlights Tour with working sheep farm experience.
10.00 – Arrive at the sheep farm, where you will enjoy an authentic New Zealand farming experience. See sheep dogs working, rounding up the flock and penning them in for you to touch, examine and photograph. A sheep shearing demonstration will also be arranged, with the farmer explaining the different types of wool and how it is dealt with once shorn. Following the farm experience, enjoy morning tea with a choice of tea or coffee and a selection of homemade delights.
11.30 – Depart the sheep farm and travel back towards Christchurch.
12.30 – Arrive at Mona Vale, a stately home surrounded by magnificent gardens. Take a stroll through the grounds, following the Avon River which forms one of the property’s boundaries. The coach will then travel around to the rear gatehouse where your tour guide will meet you once you have had the opportunity to explore the gardens.
13.00 – Depart Mona Vale and travel into the central city of Christchurch, which was devastated by the Christchurch earthquakes in February 2011. Your guide will explain both the history of the city and the effects of the earthquake. You will see for yourself both the destructive powers of nature and the rebuild which has taken place and continues today.
The central city tour will include the major highlights of Christchurch, concluding in Cathedral Square, where you will have time to explore this central part of the city on foot and enjoy some great photo opportunities.
Time for lunch – Continue to Riverside Market, where you will have free time to choose and purchase lunch from the wide selection of local food and cafés.
14.30 – Depart Christchurch city and travel via the Port Hills. The route climbs through the old volcanic crater wall towards the Sign of the Takahe, a Scottish-style building with a viewing platform providing magnificent views over the city of Christchurch, Pegasus Bay, the Canterbury Plains and the Southern Alps, which can be snow-capped for much of the year.
Continue via the Port Hills towards Sumner, enjoying the scenic views over Christchurch and Lyttelton Harbour before travelling back towards Lyttelton.
16.00 approx. – Arrive back in Lyttelton township, where your awaiting shuttle will transfer you back to your cruise ship.
Typical start time: 8.45am
Duration: 7.5 hours
Please Note that the timings are indicative only for cruise ships berth by 8 am or earlier. For all other cruise ships with a later arrival time in Lyttelton the excursion times will be adjusted to meet the cruise ships schedule.
Please note minimum numbers are required for this tour to proceed.
Rated 3.5 out of 5 from 8 verified travellers
8 reviews
Quite a bit of driving, the upside is experiencing the stunning scenery and hearing about New Zealand. We really enjoyed the Sheep farm visit. Seeing the working dog, sheep shearing and delightful Tea and cookies. Lovely gardens at the farm. ChristChurch was a drive by today, fine with me but not as advertised.
Wonderful, fulfilling tour of countryside, sheep farm experience, and Christchurch city tour. The tour guide was a great driver but should not be assigned guiding duties. Unable to hear his diminutive voice and he was unable to exude a sense of wonder that we expect from Viator Tour Guides.
Our guide Graham provided little commentary during the one hour plus drives to and from the sheep farm. Seeing the sheep dog herd sheep and watching a sheep being sheered was interesting. The hosts Trevor and Heather were informative. Graham was much more talkative during the Christchurch portion of the tour.
Excellent driver/guide very knowledgeable. Very informative farm visit, gracious hosts, lovely snacks we’ll set up location. Drive to and from farm very scenic.
It was wonderful to get out into the country and tour the sheep farm. The bus drivers were very knowledgeable about the towns history.
Waited an hour to get started... no reason given. Driver was negative about everything... bike riders out for exercise were "idiots", government programs were "stupid", spoke negative about native animals, etc. It was tiring! Ride around town was boring. Long ride to the farm to see a 5 minute roundup of sheep and 5 minute sheep shearing. While the later was interesting, it wasn't worth the long trip and the "show" was so short. Tour company also puts two groups in one van so you end up driving to two places and waiting.... again. Driver ran a stop sign trying to get us home and almost hit a tractor trailer! WOW! I wouldn't recommend this trip
The farm was wonderful, great learning how the family farm operates. Lovely scenic drive to the farm as well. Small group tour is the way to go.
The folks running this tour cancelled it less than 24 hours in advance without sending us an email. We only found out when I checked the Viator app to determine the meeting location. They had a good reason for cancelling but the communication was quite lacking.
