Christchurch is mostly flat, so many people get around on bicycles. Special-purpose bicycle lanes have been recently added to many streets to help promote cycling.
Navigation by car or bicycle is generally simple due to the grid layout, but watch out for one-way streets and bus-and-taxi-only intersections in the central city. Parking in the city uses a pay and display system and costs $2.60/ hour. You can pay with coins, credit card Visa, MasterCard or Amex or with a mobile phone text message the latter two attract a 50c surcharge then display the ticket with the expiry time visible on the curbside dash.
Renting a car is recommended for ease of transport, although there are public bus services covering the whole city and the areas of interest for a visitor that may lie outside the central city, such as Sumner and New Brighton Beaches, Lyttelton, Gondola, etc. However in some areas buses may be infrequent, particularly on the weekends when there may only be one or two buses per hour.
The bus service (http://www.ecan.govt.nz/O...) has been greatly improved in recent years. Buses interconnect through the temporary Bus Exchange in Tuam Street. A standard bus fare is $2.90 cash or $2.20 $4.20 maximum charge per day, $10 minimum initial purchase with a MetroCard smart card. There is also a free diesel-electric yellow Shuttle that orbits the inner-city area every ten minutes, but often it can be quicker to walk such short distances. It passes two malls and three supermarkets. Bus shuttle is not currently operating.
The restored Christchurch Tramway (http://tram.co.nz/) ticket $12.50, valid for two days also runs in a smaller loop around the inner city, 09:00-21:00 summer, 09:00-18:00 winter. Please note: this is curretnly out of service.
