Home   >>   Canterbury Holiday Activities   >>   Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House

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Price Guide:     (Average price per person: $10 - $29)

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Located in the heart of Christchurch's Cathedral Square, Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House is designed to take you on a journey of discovery to explore the splendour of the South Island's unique aquatic wildlife as well as lively NZ Kiwi, and Tuatara. Over 120 different species are displayed including Sharks, Rays, massive Eels, Seahorses, Octopus, Blue Freshwater Crayfish and much more.

The main marine display is where the larger sharks, rays and boney fish reside and they certainly have appetites to match. This occurs everyday at 3pm generally with a dive and is when the larger fish in the aquarium are fed.

There is a special feed at 11am every day and this will generally consist of either an eel feed or a flatfish display feed depending on the day or the presence of a group.

The kiwi encounter enables members of the public to view our rare and increasingly endangered North Island Brown kiwi first hand as they interact with one another and forage among the fernery looking for tasty tidbits. The kiwihouse has a reversed light cycle as the kiwi are nocturnal birds, and generally only come out at night.

Southern Encounter currently has eight species of salmonid of which only three are commonly encountered in the wild- certainly enough to pique the curiosity of any keen sports fisherman. Southern Encounter is the only attraction in New Zealand where the Atlantic salmon and the lake char can be seen first hand. One of our guides will take you around and allow you to feed pellets to our salmon, trout and char species whilst telling you all about them.

Southern Encounter is open daily (except Christmas Day) from 9.00am until 5.00pm. Kiwi are on display from 10.30am until 4.30pm.

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