Twenty-five people got the chance to take a rare glimpse inside the historic Christchurch building, learning about its architecture and the ongoing work to rebuild it.
Project manager Keith Paterson said the free tours were fully booked within an hour.
"The purpose of these tours is to let as many people as we can sensibly handle get inside and have a look and just understand it a little bit better. And then hopefully they'll go and tell two people, and they'll tell two people and so on."
"What they'll see is quite a lot of scaffolding. But I'll also be pointing out to them the way the strengthening is being done, some of the stonework that's been taken down and basically how the walls are constructed, that sort of thing."
But the team behind the project admit the cost of the rebuild has significantly increased.
"A few surprises which have led to us reassessing the overall position of the project. But it doesn't stop the fact that it's still the heart of the city and that there's a lot of love for this project around the community."
$30m of that $114m shortfall needs to be found by August to avoid the risk of mothballing the project indefinitely.
This limited series of free one-hour public tours of the cathedral will run each Monday through to the end of May.
Interested members of the public can visit christchurchcathedral.org.nz for bookings and more information.
- By Geoff Sloan, made with the support of NZ On Air
