American Express 773 Colombo St (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, plus Dec-Feb Sat 9am-noon; tel 03/365 7366).

Automobile Association 210 Hereford St (tel 03/379 1280).

Ballooning Up Up And Away (tel 03/358 9859) offers peaceful and eye-bulging hour-long balloon flights over Christchurch for around $200.

Banks and exchange Most banks have branches and ATMs on or near Colombo St and Hereford St. Foreign exchange is best conducted at American Express ; Thomas Cook ; Asia Pacific World Travel, cnr Hereford St & Manchester St (tel 03/377 7703); and Travelex, 730a Colombo St (tel 03/365 4194).

Bike rental The most convenient bike rental is from Trailblazers, 86 Worcester St by the Square (tel 03/366 6033; $5 per hr, $20 per day), though you can also call City Cycle Hire (tel 0800/343 848) who deliver machines to you accommodation or to the visitor centre. Note that Trailblazers also do long-term rentals with touring bikes equipped with panniers going for around $250 for 4wks.

Bookshops The majors, Whitcoulls and Dymock's are both in Cashel Street Mall. Other good high-street bookshops are Editions Book Shop, 16 Colombo St; Kate Shepherd Women's Bookshop, 145 Manchester St; and Scorpio Books, 79 Hereford St; Liberty Books, 151 High St, are good for secondhand paperbacks; while Map World, 173 Gloucester St, have the best range of walking maps and street plans. Bookshops are generally open Mon-Thur 9am-5pm, Fri-Sat 10am-6pm.

Buying a vehicle Your best bet is to head along to the Canterbury Car Fair, Addington Raceway, Wrights Road (Sun 9am-noon; infoline tel 03/338 5525). There's usually a huge selection of used cars, vans, 4WDs and motorbikes and there are no fees for buyers (sellers pay $20). Hostel noticeboards are another good hunting ground with other hostellers often advertising their vehicle along with all sorts of accumulated paraphernalia - tents, sleeping mats, coolers, cooking equipment, deck chairs, you name it.

Car rental There are dozens of car rental places in Christchurch and yet from January to March you may have trouble landing anything if you don't book ahead. Deals come and go, so the best policy is to ring around either before you arrive, or plan to manage without a car for the first few days (you don't really need one in Christchurch) and call around once you arrive. Many companies have flyers all over town offering astonishingly cheap deals. Almost invariably they are less appealing on closer inspection with all manner of limitations and extra charges (mileage charges, long rental periods only, insurance etc). Of the majors, Avis, Budget, Hertz and Thrifty all have offices at the airport; smaller agencies often deliver. The following are the majors plus some reputable local agencies: Ace, 237 Lichfield St (tel 0800/202 029 & 03/366 3222, fax 377 4610); Avis, 26 Lichfield St (tel 03/379 6133); Avon, 166 St Asaph St (tel 03/379 3822); Better, 236 St Asaph St (tel 0800/269 696 & 03/365 2979, fax 365 6725); Budget, cnr Oxford Terrace & Lichfield St (tel 03/366 0072, fax 365 7194); Hertz, 46 Lichfield St (tel 03/366 0549, airport tel 03/358 6730); McDonalds, 156 Tuam St (tel 0800/164 165 & 03/366 0929, fax 366 0927); National, 134 Victoria St (tel 03/366 5574, fax 366 5027); Nationwide, 524 Wairakei Rd (tel 03/359 2013, fax 359 2085); Pegasus, 127 Peterborough St (tel 03/365 1100, fax 365 1104); Scotties, 288 Lincoln Rd (tel 0800/736 825 & 03/338 0997, fax 338 0992); Thrifty, at the airport (tel 03/358 7533); U-Save, 70 Moorhouse Ave (03/379 3492); Welco, 248 St Asaph St (tel 03/366 2294).

Emergency services tel 111.

Festivals For the last few years the local city council has been enthusiastically backing a number of summer festivals, most of them much better than you'd expect to find elsewhere. Look out particularly for the Jazz Festival (mid-Oct); the World Buskers Festival (late Jan), which is lots of fun and free and mostly takes place around the Arts Centre and in front of the Dux De Lux; and the Festival of Romance (early to mid-Feb) on the lead up to Valentine's Day.

Horse riding Heathcote Valley Riding School, 131 Bridle Path Rd, 500m from the Gondola terminal (tel 03/384 1971), offers evening rides (Thurs & Sun 6pm; $30, including BBQ) and other horse treks in the Port Hills.

Internet access and email services Christchurch is littered with places offering Internet access, but none are bigger and more centrally sited than Vadal (daily 8am-10.30pm, vadal@hotmail.com on the north side of Cathedral Square, with fast connections, low prices and cheap international phone calls. Other places to try are: Cyber CafA©, 127 Gloucester St (Mon-Fri 8am-10pm, Sat & Sun 9am-8pm); Cyber Pass Internet CafA©, 27 Chancery Lane, near the Square (Mon-Fri 9am-9pm, Sat & Sun 11am-4pm); and E-Caf, 28 Worcester St above the Boulevard Bakehouse (daily 8am-midnight).

Left Luggage Vadal store luggage from $3 a day per item.

Library Christchurch Central Library, Gloucester St (Mon-Fri 10am-9pm, Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 1-4pm).

Medical treatment In emergencies call 111. Biggest of the hospitals is Christchurch Hospital, cnr Oxford Terrace & Riccarton Ave (tel 03/364 0640; emergency dept tel 03/364 0270). For a doctor at any time call The 24 Hour Surgery, cnr Bealey Ave & Colombo St (tel 03/365 7777, no appointment necessary). To obtain the number of the rostered after-hours dentist call the NZ Dental Association on tel 03/366 6644 ext 3002.

Mountain biking The Mountain Bike Adventure Company (tel 0800/424 534) offers a range of trips, from just over an hour to a full day rattling around the hills ($45-70).

Paragliding Nimbus Paragliding (tel 03/328 8383) and Phoenix Paragliding (tel and fax 03/326 7634, www.paragliding.co.nz ) both offer 20-minute tandem flights from around $80 per person; pick-ups available.

Pharmacies Urgent Pharmacy, 931 Colombo St, cnr Bealey Ave (tel 03/366 4439) stays open daily until 11pm.

Police Central Police Station tel 03/379 3999.

Post office The main post office on Cathedral Square (tel 03/353 1814) has post restante facilities.

Shuttle buses For airport and train station transfers shuttle buses offer a cheaper alternative to taxis. Try Carrington Services (tel 03/352 6369), Just Shuttles (tel 0800/742 000); PBS Shuttles (tel 03/551 1111) and Super Shuttle (tel 03/365 5655), who all run from Cathedral Square to the airport ($10 for one, $6 each for three). They'll also pick you up from your accommodation, although if you're catching a morning flight you should book your transfer the evening before.

Skiing Christchurch is within a couple of hours' drive of over ten skifields, all of which are covered elsewhere in the guide. They are Broken River , Cragieburn , Fox Peak , Methven , Mount Cheeseman , Mount Cook , Mount Dobson , Mount Hutt , Mount Olympus , Porter Heights and Temple Basin . For information on conditions dial the free Infophone number and enter the additional four-digit code for the service required (tel 03/363 5000, plus 1101 for weather, 1102 for ski hire, 1103 for transport).

Swimming The handiest of the indoor pools is the Centennial Leisure Centre, Armagh St (Mon-Thurs 6am-9pm, Fri 6am-7pm, Sat & Sun 7am-7pm; tel 03/366 8917). There's also indoor swimming at the Queen Elizabeth II centre in New Brighton ; and an open-air pool at Jellie Park Aqualand 4km northwest of the centre at Ilam Rd (Airport bus from Cathedral Square). Expect to pay $2-3 entry; waterslides may cost extra.

Taxis Blue Star (tel 03/379 9799); Gold Band (tel 03/379 5795).

Thomas Cook cnr Armagh St & Colombo St (tel 03/379 6600; Mon-Thurs 8.30am-6pm, Fri 8.30am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm).

Tours Guided walking tours (tel 03/342 7634; daily: Oct-April 10am & 1pm; May-Sept 1pm; 2hr; $8), led by local volunteers who really know their stuff, start from a kiosk in Cathedral Square near the cathedral entrance. Christchurch Sightseeing Tours (tel 0508/669 660, www.christchurchtours.co.nz ) offer three tours and combinations which save $5-10): City Gardens (mid-Sept to early Dec & mid-Jan to March Tues-Sat 9.30am-12.30pm; $25) visits four or their roster of 20 gardens each day; Heritage Homes (Wed & Sat 1.30-4.30pm; $25) calls at three homes not normally open to the public; and Sightseeing (mid-Sept to mid-April daily 9am & 1.30pm, mid-April to mid-Sept 1.30pm) spends 3-4hr touring the vicinity including Mona Vale, Sumner, Lyttelton and the Summit Road. Christchurch Wildlife Cruises (tel 0800/436 574; www.blackcat.co.nz ) runs two-hour Hector's dolphin spotting cruises on Lyttelton Harbour (Nov-March 10am & 2.30pm; April-Oct 2.30pm only; $39). They depart from Lyttelton Marina at Magazine Bay, but there's a free shuttle running from the Christchurch visitor centre half an hour before the boat departure.

Train information tel 0800/802 802.

Travel agencies Your best bets are Destinations Travel, 485 Papanui Rd (tel 03/352 2612); Flight Centre, 761 Colombo St (tel 03/377 1441); Guthrey United Travel, 126 Cashel St (tel 03/379 3560); STA, 90 Cashel St (tel 03/379 9098) or Student University Building, Canterbury University (tel 03/348 6372); and Usit Travel Centre, 158 Cashel St (tel 03/379 8046, fax 374 6519, www.usitbeyond.co.nz , enquiries@usitbeyond.co.nz ).

Whitewater rafting Easily the best trip in these parts is with Rangitata Rafts (tel 0800/251 251, www.rangitata.rafts.co.nz , mail@rangitata.rafts.co.nz ) who run the Grade IV+ gorge section of the Rangitata River between September and May ($115). It is a full day out from Christchurch with around 3hr on the water.