Christchurch
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50 free Christchurch trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Christchurch is the largest city in New Zealand's south, an English-flavoured settlement laid out on a grid in 1850 that has had to reinvent itself more than once. The earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 flattened much of the centre, and the rebuild that followed produced some of the most inventive public buildings and memorials in the country. This quiz collects the fun facts people actually ask about: where the name came from, what the city is nicknamed and why, which explorers, scientists, writers and sports stars it produced, and the oddities, from a council job found nowhere else to a visiting American humorist's verdict on local cyclists. Landmarks, suburbs, day trips and local firsts are all covered. It suits anyone planning a visit, locals testing their hometown knowledge, and quiz hosts after a New Zealand round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which unusual job did Christchurch City Council pay Ian Brackenbury Channell $16,000 a year to do until 2021?
Wizard
Wizard was his official post: from 1998 the council paid him to provide acts of wizardry promoting the city, after gallery directors had declared him a living work of art.
Q 02Which everyday material forms the giant tubes of Christchurch's Transitional Cathedral, opened in 2013?
Cardboard
Cardboard tubes form the walls and roof of the A-frame building, which was designed to last about 50 years rather than to be permanent.
Q 03After the 2011 earthquake, the Re:START pop-up mall in central Christchurch housed its shops inside what?
Shipping containers
Shipping containers made a colourful temporary mall on Cashel Street, and it proved so popular with locals and tourists that it stayed open until January 2018.
Q 04When James Cook charted the volcanic Banks Peninsula beside Christchurch in 1770, what did he mistake it for?
An island
An island is what Cook recorded, deceived by the outline of the land behind, and he named it Banks Island after the botanist aboard his ship.
Q 05Which director's 1994 film Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet, dramatised a notorious Christchurch murder case?
Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson co-wrote the screenplay with Fran Walsh, and the film gave both Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey their first feature film roles.
Q 06Which Nobel laureate, called the father of nuclear physics, studied at Christchurch's Canterbury College in the 1890s?
Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford is remembered on the old campus by Rutherford's Den, a small museum in the rooms where he studied, now part of the Arts Centre.
Q 07Which Christchurch suffragist organised the 1893 petition that made New Zealand first to give women the vote?
Kate Sheppard
Kate Sheppard's portrait appears on the ten-dollar note, and the Christchurch house where she lived during the campaign is now a museum.
Q 08Christchurch has sent off explorers since 1901 and still hosts American and Italian bases for expeditions where?
Antarctica
Antarctica is supplied through Christchurch Airport, the take-off point for the main air route south to the American station at McMurdo.
Q 09Which soil effect pushed thousands of tonnes of silt up through Christchurch streets in the 2011 earthquake?
Liquefaction
Liquefaction turned the wet, sandy ground of the eastern suburbs to slurry and undermined foundations, badly damaging 80% of the water and sewerage system.
Q 10Christchurch most likely takes its name from Christ Church, a college and cathedral at which English university?
Oxford
Oxford's Christ Church was the old college of several of the founders, though the reason for the choice was never recorded and many early colonists disliked the name.
Q 11Which river, named by a pioneer after a stream in his native Scotland, winds through the centre of Christchurch?
The Avon
The Avon takes its name from a stream near a pioneer's grandfather's farm in Scotland, not from Shakespeare's river, and visitors now glide along it in punts.
Q 12An unofficial Christchurch memorial to the 2011 earthquake victims was made of 185 white-painted what?
Chairs
Chairs painted white by a local artist went on show on the first anniversary, and the short-term installation lasted until April 2023.
Q 13Which Christchurch-based side is the most successful team in Super Rugby history, with titles stretching back to 1998?
Crusaders
Q 21Which harbour town near Christchurch was settled by French emigrants in 1840 and still has streets named Rue?
Akaroa
Akaroa began with 57 settlers who sailed from Rochefort, only to learn on reaching New Zealand that Britain had already proclaimed sovereignty.
Q 22Which scenic train leaves Christchurch, runs through the Otira Tunnel and ends at Greymouth?
TranzAlpine
TranzAlpine trains take almost five hours over 223 kilometres, passing through 16 tunnels and over four viaducts on the way to the West Coast.
Q 23Which green space in central Christchurch, reserved for public recreation in 1855, contains a famous cricket oval?
Hagley Park
Crusaders teams won three straight titles from 1998 to 2000, even though each of those finals was played away from home.
Q 14Which form of public transport, gone from Christchurch by 1954, returned in 1995 as a central-city tourist loop?
Electric trams
Electric trams ran from 1905 until buses replaced the last line, from Cashmere to Papanui; the revived loop runs restored heritage cars.
Q 15Which multi-sport event did Christchurch host in 1974, with New Zealand introducing colour television in readiness?
Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games events were held at the purpose-built Queen Elizabeth II Park, and it was the last edition to carry the word British in its title.
Q 16Which Christchurch-born fast bowler became the first cricketer to take 400 Test wickets, doing so on his home ground?
Richard Hadlee
Richard Hadlee reached the milestone against India while a group of old boys from his former school sang their school song, and he was knighted the same year.
Q 17Which Christchurch baking powder brand's cookery book, first printed in 1908, has sold over three million copies?
Edmonds
Edmonds first tucked recipes inside its baking powder tin lids, and the firm's factory in the suburb of Linwood later featured on the book's cover.
Q 18Which fast shallow-water craft was developed by engineer Bill Hamilton, whose company moved to Christchurch in 1948?
Jet boat
Jet boat pioneer Hamilton never claimed to have invented water-jet propulsion; he joked that the honour belonged to Archimedes.
Q 19What is the Māori name for Christchurch, taken from a chief's seasonal food-gathering site beside the river?
Ōtautahi
Ōtautahi means the place of Tautahi, and it was adopted as the name for the whole city only in the 1930s.
Q 20Which port town, linked to Christchurch by a road tunnel since 1964, received the first four settler ships in 1850?
Lyttelton
Lyttelton lies over the Port Hills, so the first settlers reached the plains by climbing a steep track that became known as the Bridle Path.
Hagley Park covers about 165 hectares, with the river looping through it, and its founding decree promised it would stay open for the enjoyment of the public.
Q 24Which Christchurch department store burned in 1947 in New Zealand's deadliest fire, which killed 41 people?
Ballantynes
Ballantynes had grown into a maze of joined buildings with no sprinklers or alarm system, and the inquiry that followed called for urgent changes to building and fire-safety rules.
Q 25Which British explorer, whose Christchurch statue was carved by his widow Kathleen, led the Terra Nova Expedition?
Robert Scott
Robert Scott sailed from the local harbour in 1910, and his marble statue broke in two when the 2011 earthquake threw it off its plinth.
Q 26Which Christchurch-born 'Queen of Crime' created the gentleman detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn in 1934?
Ngaio Marsh
Ngaio Marsh was born and died in Christchurch, where as a girl she was one of the first pupils at the newly founded St Margaret's College.
Q 27Which Christchurch singer, who began by busking in town, topped the UK classical charts in 2003 with Pure?
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra sold more than two million copies of the album, a mix of classical, light pop and traditional Māori songs.
Q 28Christchurch's vast central playground, opened in 2015 after the earthquakes, is named after which children's author?
Margaret Mahy
Margaret Mahy gives her name to a riverside playground billed as the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and built as part of the recovery plan.
Q 29The 'disaster architect' who designed Christchurch's Transitional Cathedral free of charge came from which country?
Japan
Japan's Shigeru Ban worked out the concept during a single visit to Christchurch, then designed the building with local firm Warren and Mahoney.
Q 30What do Christchurch locals call the hot föhn wind from the mountains that sometimes reaches storm force?
The nor'wester
The nor'wester often arrives under a band of high white cloud that looks like an arch in an otherwise clear blue sky over the Southern Alps.