If you love the outdoors, but want to stay close to the finest in coffee, cake and cafe culture,  you could do no better than to visit Christchurch, a  small, but cultured and spectacularly-located city, far down along  New Zealand's  rugged, southern Pacific coastline.     This most English of cities has over 740 public parks and gardens for the enjoyment of its 300,000 citizens.  The largest is Hagley Park, in the very centre of the city with 400 acres of playing fields, trails, tree-lined avenues and rivers,  a botanic garden and one small lake.    New Zealand forests are evergreen,  so the concept of fall/autumn  colours is not native here.  But Christchurch's founders brought some of old England with them,  and Hagley Park, all oaks and elms, is as richly coloured  in April as  New England in October.     In the dim light of early morning ,  joggers , walkers and cyclists are everywhere across this college town. 

It seems that everyone runs, walks, rides, climbs, hikes, kayaks, bungee jumps, skis, para-glides and goodness knows what else.   In all those cafes, the lunchtime chat, when not covering the next cycling holiday in France or the last canoe trip on the Amazon, is about the coolest new kayak, advances in high-tech bike suspensions or the latest in rock-climbing gear.  The local traffic lights even have separate lanes and phases for cyclists.  

Just to the east is the Pacific Ocean coastline,  with the rocky volcanic headlands of the Port Hills and endless deserted sandy beaches.  And to the city's west are the snow-capped peaks of the Southern Alps. Think  Boston with 10,000-foot mountains  stretching a couple of hundred miles north and south.  

No matter what your favourite outdoor pursuit is,  you'll find it in Christchurch.  And when you are done,  the indulgence of all the European-style cafes you could hope for is never more than an hour away.