Take the kids on an adventure and spend a fascinating half-day exploring picturesque and historic Quail Island by taking Black Cat Cruises Quail Island ferry – a short 15 minute ferry ride from Lyttelton.
Quail Island’s scenic walkway passes by shipwrecks, a former leper colony and a former quarantine station used by the early European settlers. The Antarctica explorers, Scott and Shackleton, trained their sled dogs and ponies there.
Today the island is home to native birds including the fantail, kingfisher, silvereye and many sea birds. The ferry leaves from Lyttelton Harbour, just 15 minutes’ drive from Christchurch CBD.
Visit Black Cat Cruises to find out more and book your next adventure: click here
9 April, 2026
Haven’t been to Christchurch for years, but this could be a great excuse to make a trip down. We love exploring our natural world and getting up close and personal with our native birds too.
Looks like a beautiful place. The water looks nice and calm – perfect for taking the family. Also, looks like lots of interesting history there as well, especially the ship wreaks, will have to get there some day.
We have never been to Christchurch and this looks so beautiful. The name of the place is inspiring as well. We hope we get to do a family trip here in the future. New Zealand is such a beautiful place and I would love to explore the whole place from North to South.
This would be an adventure my kids would love to do. May be something to consider if we are ever in Christchurch.
Quail Island is another spot I wish I had visited when I lived in Christchurch but never made it to. Christchurch is slowly but surely recovering from the earthquakes and one day I would love to take our kids down for a holiday to share the place with them.
Ooh, this looks great! I know my husband would love to go there, we might have to do this on our next family trip to Christchurch!
Oh my gosh this looks so awesome!! We live in Dunedin and don’t get to go out of town very often due to time and budget. But we are planning on heading to Methven around October and wanted to at least get through to Christchurch. I’m going to investigate this adventure and plant the seed with my partner!! Our 6 year old would love it! 🙂
Wow this looks super cool and I can’t believe I have never heard of quail island and we live 1 1/2 hours away from Christchurch. The kids would love to go on black cat cruises to get there and look around it looks great for kids and they even get to see an old ship and look around. This is a must do for us thanks for telling us about it.
Wow!!! This sounds so so awesome what an incredible family adventure this could be. We are so lucky I this country the treasures our land holds and mostly super accessible and family friendly. Love how you can goon ferry and then enjoy the nature and views and all it has to offer
I’ve never actually heard of this place before so many hidden treasures… I’m quite happy to just discover these sorts of neat places than travel overseas to be honest.
This sounds absolutely amazing. Last time I went on a cruise was in Dunedin to see all the water wildlife when I was 11. Would be cool to take the kids to chch and do this one. It looks amazing. Will definitely be looking into this more.
So weird… we have only been to quail island twice but during busy times when there were events on… just last week my hubby took our 3 yr old for one one one time to quail island on a weekday…it was alot nicer to explore, no hustle and bustle and a great experience for her…they had a picnic, played and took tons of pics… a great little day trip within reach of budgets and distance… highly recommend this..