By Kloe Palmer
The Australian government is warning its residents looking to travel to New Zealand - beware of Christchurch.
Its travel advice website has ranked the city next to some of the most unstable war torn places in the world such as East Timor and Iran.
On their travel advice website it warns to take a "high degree of caution" in Iran and East Timor and now the exact same warning stands for Christchurch and Lyttelton.
Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Tim Hunter is not impressed.
“We thought it was unreasonable, you know we’ve got a fair few challenges here and we certainly didn't need that.”
Australian visitor numbers to the city are still down 20 percent from 2010 and Mr Hunter says the Australian government's warning is unfairly putting them off.
“We'd like them to come and reassess the situation here and show them where visitors go, what they do and that it’s a perfectly safe place to be.”
Australians on holiday in Christchurch don’t understand why the warning is there.
“I think that's a ridiculous statement and perhaps Australian politicians need to come over and visit Christchurch,” one says.
“We had great food, great entertainment I can't see why anyone would be frightened of coming to Christchurch, it’s been fabulous,” another says.
But one Australian thought it was a precaution.
“Governments always tend to be over cautious to protect people from incidents.”
No one from the Australian government could be reached for comment, but New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs department is working to get the danger warning removed.
The Lonely Planet’s guide to Christchurch is the complete opposite.
Despite being published post-earthquakes, it says if you're heading to New Zealand make sure you stop off in Christchurch city, as it's one of the most exciting places in the country.
3 News