Christchurch – New Brighton Beach

Christchurch – New Brighton Beach

New Brighton Beach, ChristchurchMarc and I had a lovely relaxing stroll along New Brighton Beach. If you end up in Christchurch, you should too! It is easy to find parking, there is an amazing library right next to the beach as well as a fun looking play area filled with happy children! Beaches in Christchurch are great for mini walks.

It is also a great spot to try some traditional Kiwi fish and chips, just make sure you keep your food away from the seagulls!

WhyΒ New Brighton Beach?

I made a lot of plans before we visited New Zealand. I’d read quite a few really helpful blogs, researched possible hikes and even had back-up walks for ideas if we ran out of things to do… But I didn’t plan everything! We’d had a couple of VERY busy days in the North Island. If you missed it, you can read about some of our adventures walking the Tongariro Crossing, and visiting the Maori Carvings, Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland and Okoroire Hot springs. So, by the time we’d woken up super early to drive to Auckland and fly to Christchurch, we were both ready to relax!

We popped into the city to replace my camera lens (I’d been using it soooo much in the last two years that it broke! Argh!) But this didn’t take long at all, so we found ourselves in Christchurch on a hot day, when neither of us felt like doing traditional sightseeing. What would you do in that situation? Our solution was to put “beach” into our hire-car’s sat nav, and drive to the closest beach for a stroll.

Beaches in Christchurch

It turns out that Christchurch has some amaaaazing Beaches! New Brighton Beach is incredibly long, has soft white sand and is a lovely place to go for a wander. It’s even better that Brighton Beach back in Blighty! I mean, Brighton in the UK has those pretty beach houses, and a historical pier but it is covered in pebbles, rather than soft sand.

Brighton Pier

The Kiwi version of Brighton Beach even has it’s own pier! This has recently been restored, so you can’t walk right to the end of it yet. Once it is all fixed up it’ll reach out for 300 meters into the sea!

There weren’t many other people walking on the pier when we arrived, so we made the most of it by taking slightly silly jumping photos.

And we had a chance to admire the gorgeous waves, that seem to go on forever!

Then we took a stroll alongΒ New Brighton Beach. There were quite a few people near the New Brighton Pier, but as soon as you walk, even a little way along the beach there is plenty of space with far fewer people.

There was an ice-cream van by theΒ New Brighton Beach car park (near the pier.) However the line was a bit long, so we cheated, and popped into the local supermarket to grab an ice-cream to wander with. Noms.

The beach itself had some interesting huuuuge strands of seaweed.

We also saw what looked like little blue bubbles or marbles. After a while we found a few larger ones so I took a closer look. Marc thought they might be part of a portuguese man o’ war, so we were careful not to stand on them! They look like cool little alien snails!

Fish and Chips at New Brighton Beach

After our wander, we finished our afternoon with some fish ‘n’ chips. There were quite a few fish options, so we chose Hoki and Tarakihi. Mostly because neither of us had tried those before. We had one in breadcrumbs and one battered, and they were both really tasty!

While we ate our fish and chips there was a cheeky sea gull (Gary) who came over and really wanted to be our friend. He sat with us the whole way though our meal on the beach. I know you shouldn’t give food to sea gulls because they’ll just expect it from other humans, but this little due was so cute. I gave Gary one teeny piece of my fish.

Big mistake!

The very next second, we were the most popular people on the beach as all the seagulls wanted to get in on the action! I looked up, and this was my view as EVERYONE flew over to inspect us with our meal. Oops. We decided it might be best not to give any more food away!

So, this was probably our laziest day in New Zealand. We only walked for around 5 km along the New Brighton beach. It was pretty, bright blue and really relaxing. We could have walked twice as far and still not run out of beach!

I am in no way an expert of the best things to do in Christchurch; But this beach is a pretty good option.

If you’d like to hear about our other Kiwi adventures, you can fins them all here.

54 thoughts on “Christchurch – New Brighton Beach

  1. This sounds like a lovely way to spend a day! Except for the sea gulls haha. They sound horrible!! And having a foot for comparison with the seaweed was such a great idea! They are HUGE!!!

    1. I know! Theremust be some massive sea-forest of kelp somewhere out there after all the waves!

      It was a pretty relaxed day. Christchurch seems like an excellent place for a break. πŸ™‚

  2. I was brought up in New Brighton – but in the UK! It’s ‘over the water’ from Liverpool! It was developed as New Brighton in the nineteenth century – we even had a pier at one point. They’ve regenerated the area now and it is fab! It’s on the tip of the Wirral Peninsula so there is the River Mersey and Irish Sea and as children I’d swim (and paddle) in both! πŸ™‚

  3. Never feed the seagulls until you’re ready to leave! You were right to avoid the “alien snails” though. They are blue-bottle jelly fish and if you get stung by one of them you’ll know all about it. My dog stood on one last summer. She’s a tough old mongrel, but she was howling and limping for days. They wash up on beaches all over New Zealand.

    1. Oooh we did have a feeling they could leave a nasty sting. Some of them were big and easy to see (like the ones in my photo) but some of them were almost clear, and hiding in the sand. I can see how easily your poor pup might have stood on one! πŸ™

      It was really funny giving a teeny bit of food to Gary, then looking up to see that swarm of seagulls! That did make it time to leave for us!!

    1. He really did seem like a Gary. I do have a bit of a tendency to name animals I meet on our walks! For some reason they nearly all end up with masculine names. I should get some more girly animals involved!!

  4. Wow beautiful! I just watched an episode of Cheapest Weddings (at the suggestion of No Love for Fatties, to funny) and that was where one of the couples lived. So when I began reading this I was like, ‘where did I hear Brighton Beach? Oh yeah, the reality show.’ It looks like a lovely place and adventure!

    1. Oooh nice! Did they end up getting married on the beach with fish and chips for the wedding breakfast? That would be awesome!!

          1. It was….until the generator stopped working. BTW, I don’t know if you wanted to say something to WordPress but in order to leave a comment for this post, I’ve had to actually go to the post in lieu of just responding in the comments section on the back end of the blog. Maybe it’s an issue on my side???

            1. No, I have that sometimes too. I’ve had to do that to re-comment on yours, and Katie Ps, and Erin’s posts before. I think it’s a bug with WP. πŸ™

  5. Lol!!! Yes, never feed seagulls! They will swarm the shit out of you. Not to mention, they are straight up assholes! When I was at the shore in Jersey with my sister, she had just unwrapped her sandwich and was going in for a bite, and some creep seagull swooped in and stole it!!! It was hilarious, but she was PISSED πŸ˜‚.
    Your photos are gorgeous, ma dear! Those weird blue things look crazy awesome! And, man, do I need some fish and chips now!! β€οΈπŸ˜‹

    1. Yeah, these seagulls were a little smaller than the cheeky bastards I am used to in the UK…None of them actually swooped. But they were all interested as soon as Gary had his first bite!

  6. Okay, you’ve posted another article that reminds me of another place my family just visited last year. Grand Isle in the SE corner of Louisiana has beaches that look much like New Brighton Beach. Long stretches of beach, not very many people (we saw 5 people on the beach the entire week we stayed there), and man o’ wars – hundreds of them! The kids started picking them up with sticks and tossing them back into the sea to try to save them. We saw blue-spotted sting-rays, horseshoe crabs, lots of tiny shells, and Grand Isle also has a large, lighted fishing pier that looks much like the one you visited. Anyway, New Brighton Beach looks beautiful. I’m really enjoying your posts from New Zealand – well, I always enjoy your posts πŸ™‚

    1. It’s so funny that the world is so varied, and yet has soooo many places that look just like each other!

      I am really glad you’re liking the posts Erin! The feeling is mutual. I always click when I see one of yours appear on my WP reader. <3

  7. Breaking your lens from taking too many photos is a good problem to have! I feel the need to visit this beach as I love the one in the Brighton UK so much… although the weather looks a lot better at this one in new Zealand haha

    1. Lol well, it is their summer time during the UKs winter…so you could have a full year of summer on various Brighton beaches!! πŸ˜‰

  8. Aww I just love New Brighton! It was the first place I stayed when I first visited Christchurch and I can’t keep away. Glad to hear the pier is on it’s way to being finished, I’ll have to check it out when I visit in May! Thanks for sharing your great shots, looks like an awesome day!

    1. It really is an impressive beach (especially as we had no idea where we were! Thanks satnav for taking us there!!)

      Have an amaaaazing holiday in May! I’ll watch out for your #BPS posts about it. <3

  9. this looks like such a hoot! I never knew these Brighton beaches looked so welcoming and fun! I am strangely terrified of seaweed and that big yellow glob OMG haha! Looks like you had a wonderful time!

    1. I used to HATE seaweed when I was little, I mean it is so slimy and gross! But now I am older it just fascinates me. There is a whole world of greenery just slightly further out from the beach, and we never get to see it!

      The beaches look even better for children and dogs! There were so many smiling faces when we visited!! <3

    1. Lol Gary’s pals were pretty rude, but at least they didn’t manage to poo on us! πŸ˜‰

      I should have known not to feed Gazza!

  10. Ahh this makes me want to get to the beach asap! I’m hoping to get to New Zealand later this year, so fingers crossed I can make it to this area! I especially love your photo of the seagulls!

    1. Hehehe It’s awesome that everyone appreciates Gary and his seagull friends! <3

      Do you know where you will go in Kiwiland? I think my favourite place was Mount Cook. If you like hiking, you HAVE to go there!!

    1. Hehehe that does not surprise me! I remember them being particularly cheeky in Brighton (and in Bath for some reason!?)

  11. This looks incredible! You’re giving me FOMO a little haha, I go in a few weeks but won’t have time for Christchurch. Will check out your other posts, thanks for info and hope you had a great time!

    1. Oooh where are you heading? We had a brilliant time, but I still need to write about all the epic hikes we did in the South Island. Plus, if you’re heading to lake Tekapo, there is a Japanese restaurant that I HAVE to tell you about. Their salmon donburi was so, sooooo good!

    1. Thanks Trudy!

      I AM having fun when I’m allowed to jump around! I try not to do it when there are toooo many people as it embarrasses my husband!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: