5 Best Places to Shop in Greater Christchurch, Christchurch and Canterbury

A new take on a neighborhood mall, this haven for food and fashion fans includes a stylish mix of designer clothes, eats, salons, and gifts along with an arthouse cinema. Shops to spend time browsing include Industria for homewares, and NZ-based fashion designers Annah Stretton and Repetoire for frocks and high-quality clothing. It's located just outside the central city, in Sydenham. Every Friday morning, an indoor market showcases an exclusive selection of local Christchurch and Canterbury producers to display their scrumptious artisan food, hand-made gifts and all kinds of creative goods.

The delicious sweets at de Spa Chocolatier's pair Belgian chocolate with Kiwi ingredients and fruit fillings (among other delectable things). Here you can watch the chocolatiers at work through a glass-walled kitchen, and they conduct factory tours. They also make a special line of sugar-free chocolate. The factory and showroom are on the way to Ferrymead Heritage Park and Sumner.

Founded in Christchurch in 1973, Macpac sells good-quality outdoor (and merino) clothing, backpacks, accessories, sleeping bags, and tents. The store is now found at locations across New Zealand, with four outlets in Christchurch, including the central city flagship store. It also frequently has great sale prices, but if you're not here at the right time, you can hunt for a bargain in its biggest clearance area---upstairs at Tower Junction off Mandeville Street, Riccarton.

It is one of those unlikely projects that would probably never have gotten off the ground in Christchurch before the earthquakes: turning an old former industrial tannery on the banks of the Heathcote River into a Victorian shopping mall. Not only that, but the developer had each brick removed, cleaned, then put back once the buildings were reinforced. With its spectacular architecture, The Tannery's now an interesting place to head, with quirky shops, fashion, deluxe cinemas, and a fabulous cake shop and deli. Try Mitchelli's Cafe Rinato for tasty food in a friendly atmosphere or The Brewery for craft beers and superb wood-fired pizza.

New Zealand's leading sustainable lifestyle fashion brand was established in Christchurch and has a real designer edge. The stylish lifestyle clothing is easy on the Earth too, with signature fabrics including organic cotton, Ecopossum (a mixture of possum fur and merino wool), and Mountainsilk (silky-fine machine-washable organic merino). Their flagship store has a licensed café, Untouched World Kitchen, serving fresh food, organic and free range when possible, in its native garden environment.