Ashburton District's sporting and recreational facilities are outstanding and plentiful.....

Sport is a favourite past time of the population with many facilities and clubs for rugby, netball, soccer, hockey, tennis, squash, badminton, cycling, indoor bowls, croquet, volleyball and touch rugby, to name just a few.

Many of the town’s sports fields are floodlit including an all-weather international standard hockey turf, a superb tennis center, an indoor olympic sized pool and skate board park.

Lake Hood is Ashburton’s most recent asset being a man-made lake just minutes from Ashburton, popular for rowing, jet-boating, water skiing, swimming and fishing with sites available for residential building. 
 
The first winter snowfall is much anticipated in the District and has skiers and snowboarders heading to the spectacular Mt Hutt Skifield just 30 minutes from Ashburton.

Horse race tracks both at Methven and Ashburton hold race meetings throughout the year.

Terrace Downs is a stunning 18 hole golf course of international standard, rated among the top three in New Zealand and set on the edge of the Rakaia Gorge.  Ashburton District has five more attractive golf courses, two of these are situated in Ashburton and the other three, located in the rural communities of Methven, Mayfield and Rakaia.

With its boundaries being two of New Zealand’s best salmon fishing rivers – the Rangitata and the Rakaia – the Ashburton District offers some of the best fishing in the country.  For trout fishing enthusiasts the high country lakes are populated with brown and rainbow trout.

Cultural needs of the people are met with a fine library, art gallery and museum.  Local theatre productions are held throughout the year along with concerts by visiting artists.  Ashburton’s central location puts you within 60 minutes of international sporting events and concerts in Christchurch.

A large cinema which includes movie theatres and a centre for the performing arts.  Ashburton has one Marae at Hakatere and Te Whare O TaWhaki in the grounds of Ashburton College