Southern Escape Tours

Southern Escape Tours creates self-guided puzzle experiences that invite people to explore cities through landmarks, stories, and clues. Its Christchurch experience, Shadow of the Prism, is a casual city escape tour for friends and whānau, blending history, mystery, and adventure. Starting and ending at Cathedral Square in the city centre, the 2.5-kilometre route takes players past iconic sites as they solve cryptic puzzles and uncover hidden secrets.

The tour’s fictional storyline follows Sir Edward Grange, an Antarctic explorer whose journal is discovered during renovations to Christ Church Cathedral. Players join the Aurora Fellowship and follow his clues on a mission to recover the Aoraki Prism before it falls into the wrong hands. The experience is self-guided, can be started at any time, and typically takes 90 to 120 minutes. It is designed for teams of two to four and costs NZ$45 per team. Southern Escape Tours also offers gift purchases and features a leaderboard and customer reviews. The brand is operated by Stable Variance Ltd.