An Indian billionaire shared a luxury dinner with Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker before leaving the city in his private jet.

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya made a fleeting visit to Christchurch on Friday to retrieve three bottles of whisky that British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton took to Antarctica in 1907.

They were found in ice under the floorboards of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island near McMurdo Sound in 2007, and had slowly been thawed at the Canterbury Museum since August last year.

Mallya owns the company that produced the whisky more than a century ago, and planned to personally take the rare bottles back to Scotland.

On Friday, he dined with guests, including Parker and his wife, Jo Nicholls-Parker, at The George Hotel's Pescatore restaurant.

Along with his liquor company, which produces Kingfisher beer, Mallya owns an airline and newspapers.

He has stakes in three football teams, an Indian Premier League cricket team, a Formula One motor-racing team, and one of the world's largest private yachts.

Mallaya, who had a day in Queenstown, said New Zealand was stunning.