Photo: Bernard Spragg. NZ (Public domain)
A self-guided audio walking tour of central Christchurch, Ōtautahi, from Latimer Square through Cathedral Square, along the Avon and west on Worcester Boulevard to the Arts Centre, the Museum and Christ's College. It starts at the Transitional Cathedral, built for the cathedral congregation after the 2011 earthquake, and the CTV site, where 115 people were killed when the building collapsed and which is now a memorial garden. In Cathedral Square, the centre of the Canterbury Association's 1850 plan, it tells the story of ChristChurch Cathedral, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, and visits the Citizens' War Memorial, the Isaac Theatre Royal of 1908 and New Regent Street, a street of forty small shops opened in 1932. Then Benjamin Mountfort's Provincial Council Buildings of 1858 to 1865 beside the river, Victoria Square on the old Market Square, the Town Hall, the memorial to the women's suffrage of 1893, Our City Ō-Tautahi, the Scott statue in Carrara marble, the Bridge of Remembrance of 1924 and the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial to the 185 people who died on 22 February 2011. The walk ends along Worcester Boulevard at the Art Gallery, the Arts Centre on the old Canterbury College site, the Canterbury Museum, whose first building opened in 1870, and Christ's College.
20 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 237 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 58 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Transitional Cathedral, CTV Site, Cathedral Square, ChristChurch Cathedral, Citizens' War Memorial, Isaac Theatre Royal, New Regent Street.
Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, Victoria Square, Christchurch Town Hall, Kate Sheppard National Memorial, Our City Ō-Tautahi.
Scott statue, Bridge of Remembrance, Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Worcester Boulevard, The Arts Centre, Canterbury Museum, Christ's College.
The temporary cathedral on Latimer Square, built after the 2011 earthquake, where cardboard tubes rise in a steep A-frame.
Benjamin Mountfort's buildings for the provincial government, built in three stages between 1858 and 1865 beside the Avon.
The memorial unveiled in 1993 for the centenary of New Zealand women winning the vote in 1893.
The triple-arched memorial bridge at the end of Cashel Street, dedicated on 11 November 1924.
Oi Manawa, the national memorial to the 185 people who died in the earthquake of 22 February 2011.
A whole city block of Gothic Revival buildings built for Canterbury College, later the University of Canterbury.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 20 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 20 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Christchurch — Cathedral Square, the Avon and the Arts Centre, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
20 narration points, including Transitional Cathedral, Cathedral Square, ChristChurch Cathedral, New Regent Street and Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings. That is about 37 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 20 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.