Located within the suburb of Riccarton near Christchurch, the Westfield Riccarton indoor shopping…read morecenter is one of the largest malls in New Zealand at 54,000 square meters. It is anchored by Hoyts (cinema chain), Kmart (discount department store), Pak'n'Save (warehouse grocery store), and Farmers (department store), and has many periphery stores. Even on a Thursday morning, the indoor mall was busy: a good place to people watch along with picking up any essentials or gifts for back home.
We were in the port town of Lytteltown, visiting on the Celebrity Edge on a Thursday. The ten dollar shuttle dropped us off near the bridge of remembrance on cashel street, and it was about a 3 km walk to this mall (we ended up taking a public bus back). Because there is a large East Asian population in Riccarton, most of the retail stores and restaurants surrounding the mall are Asian-themed, with Filipino, Cambodian, and Korean being prevalent. We ended up eating nearby before heading back to the ship.
There is free wi-fi available in the mall, and is quite fast. But we had difficulties getting on: sometimes it was easy, but the next time it was more difficult. Thinking the upper limit of users were being reached and they were limiting it somehow.
Now some background:
The mall was originally established in 1965 as the Riccarton Mall. Three extensions opened in 1970, 74, and 79, bringing store count to 50 stores and 205,300 square feet. Remodeling occurred in 1992 and 2005, and an expansion in 2009, bringing the size up to present size. It is owned by the Westfield Group, a different (but with same origins) company than the Westfield malls in the States.
As mentioned, Riccarton is a suburb (aka neighborhood) of Christchurch and is 39.1% Asian. It is located in the region of Canterbury (population of 694,000) and the council seat being in Christchurch. Riccarton Road is the main street that goes to downtown Christchurch, and is lined with predominantly Asian businesses.
