Ashburton Backcountry accommodation

About South Canterbury, New Zealand

Catch a salmon at the Rakaia River or head inland towards the mighty Mt. Hutt Ranges. Time your trip right and you can even try your hand at curling in Staveley! For a true high country experience check out the lakes Clearwater & Heron.

The braided rivers of South Canterbury are a truly marvellous sight and provide excellent fishing opportunities.

Don’t miss Lake Tekapo where you can marvel at the crystal clear night sky by night and the iconic lakeside Church of the Good Shepherd by day.

A highlight for any traveller has to be a visit to Mt. Cook. Just keep your fingers crossed for a fine day and you won’t have seen anything like it for pure majesty!

You can spend a day travelling the roads of the South Canterbury countryside and fail to count enough cars to run out of fingers!

This is also Lord of the Rings country. Nestled in Rangitata, in the northwest of South Canterbury sits the famous Mount Sunday - a sheer-sided hill in the middle of an expansive plain in the Rangitata River Valley - a hill made famous by Peter Jackson's Oscar winning trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

Mount Sunday was the set for Edoras, the valley of Helm’s Deep, and the fortress city of the Rohan people in The Two Towers and The Return of the King movies.