It follows the abandonment of a camp-out planned by the Canterbury Freedom and Rights Coalition due to bad weather on Saturday.
A small number of tents appear to have been set up on Tuesday morning.
Christchurch city councillor Jake McLellan took to Facebook to vent his frustration.
"Disappointing to see protesters have now set up camp at Cranmer Square. Residents have been putting up with large amounts of disruption for months now.
"Protesting is an important part of democracy. However, targeting a residential area for a sustained period of time doesn't seem fair to me. Certainly not winning any hearts or minds," he said.
The Christchurch City Council and police have been approached for comment.
Meanwhile, protesters in Wellington have woken up to calm and still conditions in the capital this morning on day eight of their sit-in on the Parliament lawn.
The atmosphere of the protest today resembles more like that of a farmers market than the high tensions of last week.
There seem to be far fewer graphic signs; most of them say some variation of "End the Mandates" or "Freedom for New Zealand" rather than some of the aggressive and threatening messaging seen earlier on.
After a weekend of wild weather, the hay-strewn lawn is full of tents still intact, and protesters mill around drinking coffee and chatting.
There are visibly more people, tents and signs than last week, but the number of police does not appear to have grown since the last arrests were made on Thursday. They watch on several metres back from the orange barricade, which has been fortified in places by a concrete barrier.
Protesters have resumed delivering speeches, which have varied widely in topic.
One protester spoke passionately about a friend who he believed had died from the vaccine, while another said she was double vaccinated, but wanted to speak out to discredit reports made by police of unsanitary conditions at camp.
She implored the people of Wellington to come to support the protest movement.
Another speaker warned protesters there were "wolves in sheep's clothing" among the group and people trying to infiltrate the movement.
"Don't trust everyone who comes up here and speaks, even me," he said.
As anti-mandate protesters sought urgent talks with Government ministers yesterday, police warned Wellingtonians had now had a "gutsful" of the occupation and that the protest could drag on for weeks.
