This Christchurch hotel is a masterclass in old meets new

Hotel Review: The Observatory Hotel, Christchurch

Where: The Observatory Hotel, 9 Hereford Street, Christchurch, New Zealand

How much: Rooms from $NZ239 ($218) per night

Once home to the University of Canterbury, the Arts Centre is an atmospheric huddle of 19th-century Gothic Revival-style buildings opposite Christchurch Botanic Gardens that now houses an intriguing assortment of museums, galleries, boutiques and restaurants.

The hotel occupies the former physics, zoology and astronomy departments, above which there's an impressive observatory tower that was almost destroyed in the city's devasting 2011 earthquake. After years of restoration, the Observatory Hotel opened in May 2022.

Imagine a bucolic cross between Cambridge University and Hogwarts - a movie-set montage of handsome grey and white stone buildings, manicured quadrangles, stately oak trees and colonnaded passageways. It's easy to imagine notable former pupils, such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Rutherford and New Zealand's first Maori graduate, Apirana Ngata, scurrying between lectures, arms laden with books.

The hotel skilfully blends heritage features, such as exposed-brick walls, imposing stone doorways and ornate wooden staircases, with modern furniture, vibrant fabrics and contemporary artworks.

The communal drawing room is especially lovely - a high-ceilinged, light-flooded space with colourful sofas and walls adorned with artworks, including a dramatic 1.2-metre-wide oil painting of New Zealand's east coast by acclaimed Kiwi artist Simon Edwards.

Spread over three floors, the hotel's 33 rooms are all different, with their own colour schemes, layouts and artworks by emerging local artists. All feature luxurious king-sized beds, plush bathrobes, smart TVs, Nespresso machines and upscale toiletries by the French Note.

Splash out on one of the premium suites and you'll get more space and better views; some also have skylights and standalone bathtubs.

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The hotel doesn't have an inhouse restaurant but offers a good continental breakfast of cereals, breads, cold meats, cheeses and pastries for $NZ25 ($22). The drawing room has a complimentary self-service tea and coffee station and from 6pm-8pm, there's a small menu of snacks and drinks available for purchase. For something more substantial, the Arts Centre has numerous venues, including several food carts, the excellent Bunsen cafe and the atmospheric Cellar Door wine bar. There's plenty of options two blocks away on Oxford Terrace in the CBD, but our pick is the Curator's House, a 1920s cottage within the Botanic Gardens that serves fabulous Spanish tapas made with local produce.

The Arts Centre has an eclectic range of attractions, from a museum celebrating Rutherford's groundbreaking work (he was the first person to initiate an artificial nuclear reaction) to an impressive collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts in the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities. There's also a boutique cinema, several art galleries and a selection of interesting stores, including upmarket NZ homeware specialist Frances Nation. You won't regret a stroll along the banks of the Avon River and Christchurch's ever-evolving city centre is only a 10-minute walk away.

Breakfast on the hotel's balcony terrace, a tranquil spot overlooking one of the Arts Centre's historic quadrangles.

Explore more: observatoryhotel.co.nz; curatorshouse.co.nz

The writer was a guest of the Observatory Hotel.