Christchurch — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

Pre-city Māori activity

Prior to European occupation of the modern-day greater Christchurch area, the land was originally swampland with patchworks of marshland, grassland, scrub and some patches of tall forest of mostly kahikatea, mataī and tōtara. The inner coastal sand dunes were covered in hardier scrub bush, including akeake, taupata, tūmatakuru, ngaio, carmichaelia, and coprosma. Christchurch was rich in birdlife, but European colonisers burned forests to create pasture and introduced predators. This led to local extinction of many species of native birds.

Evidence of human activity in the area begins in approximately 1250 AD, with evidence of prolonged occupation beginning no later than 1350 AD. These first occupants lived in coastal caves around modern-day Sumner, and hunted local species of moa. The early settlers and their descendants became known as the historic Waitaha Māori iwi. Around c. 1500 the Kāti Māmoe iwi migrated south from the east coast of the North Island and invaded the Christchurch basin, ultimately gaining control of much of Canterbury. Kāi Tahu arrived a century later, and the two ultimately absorbed Waitaha through a mixture of conflict and marriage.

Most of the Māori settlement was along the coast. Other areas of Christchurch were also important foraging grounds and a seasonal settlement. Several Māori settlements were within Christchurch during the early-nineteenth century, such as Pūtarikamotu in modern-day Riccarton, and Papanui. In both cases these were located in areas of surviving tall forest. In South New Brighton there was a major Māori settlement named Te Kai-a-Te-Karoro, an important food-gathering area to Ngāi Tūāhuriri. It had kelp gulls and mānuka scrub. Te Ihutai (The Avon Heathcote Estuary) was an important food source for local iwi and hapū with the estuary providing food such as flounder and shellfish. Kaiapoi Pā was the most important trading area, and the centre of a thriving economy. The pā was located at the nexus of the major rivers of Christchurch, the Avon River / Ōtākaro, Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River and the Styx River. It was likely the richest eel fishery in the country at that time. Sugar was produced from plantations of cabbage trees.

Early European presence and establishment of the city, 1830–1853

European settlement of the Canterbury region was largely influenced by brothers William and John Deans in 1843. The Deans farm located in Riccarton Bush was a crucial factor in the decision of where to place the settlement of Christchurch, as it proved that the swampy ground could be farmed. The Deans brothers named their farm after their former parish in Ayrshire, Scotland; they also named the river near their farm after the Avon Water in South Lanarkshire, which rises in the hills near to where their grandfather's farm was located.

The Canterbury Association's Chief Surveyor, Captain Joseph Thomas, surveyed the area from 1849 to 1850. Working with his assistant, Edward Jollie, they named the various ports and settlements in the area, and chose a simple grid pattern for the streets of Christchurch. The First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton Harbour in 1850. These sailing vessels were the Randolph, Charlotte Jane, Sir George Seymour, and Cressy. The journey took three to four months, and the Charlotte Jane was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850. The Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, on the model of Christ Church in Oxford.

Transport between the port and the new settlement at Christchurch was a major problem for the early settlers. By December 1849, Thomas had commissioned the construction of a road from Port Cooper, later Lyttelton, to Christchurch via Evans Pass and Sumner. By the time John Robert Godley arrived in April 1850, all the funds for public works had been used up in constructing the road. Godley ordered all work on the road to stop, leaving the steep foot and pack horse track that had been hastily constructed over the hill between the port and the Heathcote valley as the only land-access to the area of Christchurch. This track became known as the Bridle Path. Goods that were too heavy or bulky to be transported by pack horse over the Bridle Path were shipped by small sailing vessels some 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) by sea around the coast and up the Avon Heathcote Estuary to Ferrymead. Overturned boats at the Sumner bar were a frequent cause of new arrivals to the colony losing all their luggage. The Sumner Road was completed in 1857, though this did not alleviate the transport problems. In 1858 the provincial superintendent William Sefton Moorhouse announced that a tunnel would be dug between Lyttelton and Christchurch. While the tunnel was under construction, New Zealand's first public railway line, the Ferrymead Railway, opened from Ferrymead to Christchurch in 1863.

Period of the Canterbury Province, 1853–1876

Between 1853 and 1876, Christchurch was the administrative seat of the Province of Canterbury. While slow at first, growth in the town began to accelerate towards the end of the 1850s, with a period of rapid growth between 1857 and 1864. Christchurch became the first city in New Zealand by letters patent on 31 July 1856, and Henry Harper was consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury as the local Anglican bishop. He arrived in Christchurch a few months later in December 1856. In 1862 the Christchurch City Council was established. By 1874, Christchurch was New Zealand's fourth-largest city with a population of 14,270 residents. Between 1871 and 1876 nearly 20,000 immigrants arrived in Canterbury, and through the 1880s frozen meat joined wool as a primary export. The last decades of the nineteenth-century were a period of significant growth for the city, despite the national economic depression. Many of the city's stone Gothic Revival buildings by provincial architect Benjamin Mountfort date from around this period, including Canterbury University College, Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury Museum, and the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, among others. Mountfort oversaw construction of a prison on Lincon Road in 1874, which operated until 1999.

Christchurch experienced a number of minor natural disasters during this period. Heavy rain caused the Waimakariri River to flood Christchurch in February 1868. Victoria Square (known as Market Place at the time) was left underwater with "the whole left side of the [Avon] river from Montreal-street bridge to Worcester street was all one lake, as deep as up to a horse's belly". Christchurch buildings were damaged by earthquakes in 1869, 1881 and 1888. The 1888 earthquake caused the highest 7.8 metres of the Christ Church Cathedral spire to collapse, many chimneys were broken, and the Durham Street Methodist Church had its stonework damaged. In November 1901, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, centred near Cheviot, caused the spire on top of Christ Church Cathedral to collapse again, but this time only the top 1.5 metres fell. On this occasion, it was rebuilt with timber and metal instead of stone.

The Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was opened in February 1905. It was designed by Francis Petre with inspiration from the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris. In 1906, the New Zealand International Exhibition opened in Hagley Park, which had over a million visitors. In 1908, the city experienced its first major fire which started at the Strange's Department Store and destroyed buildings in central Christchurch on High St, Cashel St and Lichfield Streets.

Christchurch was increasingly industrialised in the early 20th century, particularly in the suburbs of Woolston and Addington, with Woolston housing a large amount of New Zealand's rubber industry. Many warehouses, factories and large premises of railway workshops were built along the Main South Line. There was notable development of breweries, flour mills, and light-commercial in Christchurch. This significantly increased the population of workers in the city, which soon spread industrialisation to Sydenham. As central Christchurch grew, many cottages were demolished to make way for light-industrial and retail premises near Moorhouse Avenue as they expanded south. Many churches were also built to compensate for its growing Christian population. The population of Christchurch exceeded 100,000 for the first time in 1919.

City growth, 1876–2010

Despite the central city remaining relatively unchanged between 1914 and 1960, Christchurch grew rapidly during the 20th century, in part due to the construction of many state houses. The earliest state houses were built in Sydenham in the 1900s, to house workers that were employed in nearby factories, with more houses built in 1909 near the Addington Railway Workshops. Part of this period of growth included the annexation of surrounding municipalities — in 1903 the boroughs of Linwood, St Albans, and Sydenham were annexed into Christchurch City. In 1921, two more boroughs were annexed: Spreydon and Woolston. In 1941, the New Brighton Borough was annexed and in 1945 the Sumner Borough was annexed. In 1953, an urban part of Heathcote County was incorporated into the city.

In November 1947, a basement fire at the Ballantynes department store on the corner of Cashel and Colombo Streets unexpectedly burned out of control, resulting in New Zealand's worst fire disaster. Despite being initially thought to be under control, the fire suddenly spread to the upper floors and consumed the entire building within minutes. The speed of the fire trapped 41 staff members on the upper floor, all of whom were killed. The department store was actually a combination of seven or eight different buildings, joined to form a "perplexing maze" with no sprinklers or alarm system. A subsequent Royal commission of enquiry resulted in changes to the building code to improve fire safety. Thousands of mourners, including the Prime Minister, attended a mass funeral in the aftermath.

During the 1960s Christchurch experienced urban sprawl, with much of the retail business of the central city moving out to urban shopping malls. These typically included large car parking areas to suit the growing shift towards personal car ownership, and away from public transport. Hornby became a significant industrial suburb in the 1960s, with industrial and residential premises expanding westwards. The Lyttelton road tunnel between Lyttelton and Christchurch was opened in 1964. Television broadcasts began in Christchurch on 1 June 1961 with the launch of channel CHTV3, making Christchurch the second New Zealand city to receive regular television broadcasts. The channel initially broadcast from a 10-kilowatt transmitter atop the Gloucester Street studios until it switched to the newly built 100-kilowatt Sugarloaf transmitter in the Port Hills on 28 August 1965. In 1969, the one-way system running through central Christchurch was established. The first two streets to be made one-way were Lichfield and St Asaph streets. They were followed by Barbadoes, Madras, Salisbury and Kilmore streets. A police station opened in 1973 on Hereford street, it was imploded and demolished in 2015.

Christchurch hosted the 1974 British Commonwealth Games at the purpose-built Queen Elizabeth II Park. The sports complex was open in 1973, one year before the games.

Earthquakes and beyond, 2010–present

On Saturday, 4 September 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Christchurch and the central Canterbury region at 4:35 am. With its hypocentre near Darfield, west of the city at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), it caused widespread damage to the city and minor injuries, but no direct fatalities. This was followed by the Boxing Day earthquake a few months later, which occurred directly under the city centre and also caused widespread damage, but this was less severe.

On Tuesday, 22 February 2011, an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.3 struck the city at 12:51 pm. Its hypocentre was located closer to the city, near Lyttelton, at a depth of 5 km (3 mi). Although lower on the moment magnitude scale than the previous earthquake, the intensity and violence of the ground shaking was measured to be IX (Violent), among the strongest ever recorded globally in an urban area, which killed 185 people. On 13 June 2011 Christchurch was again rocked by two more large aftershocks. This resulted in more liquefaction and building damage, but no more lives were lost.

There were further earthquakes on 23 December 2011; the first, of magnitude 5.8, 26 km (16 mi) north-east of the city at a shallow depth at 1:58 pm, followed by several aftershocks and another earthquake of magnitude 5.9 and similar location 80 minutes later.

Many heritage buildings have been demolished since the earthquakes, and so have most of the city's high-rise buildings. Over 8,000 homes in the residential red zones—areas deemed infeasible to rebuild on due to land damage—were either demolished or relocated. Several churches have also been demolished. The temporary replacement of Christ Church Cathedral, known as Cardboard Cathedral, opened in August 2013. Repair work of Christ Church Cathedral has been on hold since 2024.

On 13 February 2017, two bush fires started on the Port Hills. These later merged and the single large wildfire extended down both sides of the Port Hill almost reaching Governors Bay in the south-west. Eleven houses were destroyed by fire and over 2,076 hectares (5,130 acres) of land was burned.

On 15 March 2019, fifty-one people were killed in a partially livestreamed mass shooting targeting two mosques. Just days after the attacks, the live-streamed footage became classified as objectionable by the Chief Censor, making the footage illegal to possess and distribute within New Zealand. On 2 June 2020, the attacker pleaded guilty to multiple charges of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism. On 27 August, he was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole, the first time such a sentence was handed down in New Zealand.

In 2024, a second fire on the Port Hills burned 700 hectares (1,700 acres). The fire was also started under similarly suspicious circumstances. Lessons from the 2017 fire contributed to a more effective emergency response.

Urban area

Christchurch urban area covers 294.43 km2 (113.68 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 407,800 as of June 2025, with a population density of 1,385 people per km2.

The urban area had a population of 380,079 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 22,011 people (6.1%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 49,434 people (15.0%) since the 2013 census. There were 187,086 males, 190,911 females and 2,082 people of other genders in 146,055 dwellings. 4.5% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 37.1 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 63,138 people (16.6%) aged under 15 years, 83,217 (21.9%) aged 15 to 29, 172,314 (45.3%) aged 30 to 64, and 61,413 (16.2%) aged 65 or older.

People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 75.4% European (Pākehā); 11.3% Māori; 4.4% Pasifika; 17.5% Asian; 1.9% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 2.2% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 95.7%, Māori language by 2.4%, Samoan by 1.3% and other languages by 17.0%. No language could be spoken by 2.1% (e.g. too young to talk). New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.6%. The percentage of people born overseas was 27.9, compared with 28.8% nationally.

Religious affiliations were 31.8% Christian, 2.2% Hindu, 1.3% Islam, 0.4% Māori religious beliefs, 1.0% Buddhist, 0.5% New Age, 0.1% Jewish, and 2.0% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 54.6%, and 6.3% of people did not answer the census question.

Of those at least 15 years old, 68,472 (21.6%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 155,583 (49.1%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 71,943 (22.7%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $40,400, compared with $41,500 nationally. 33,714 people (10.6%) earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 158,859 (50.1%) people were employed full-time, 45,678 (14.4%) were part-time, and 8,727 (2.8%) were unemployed.

Economic profile in 2023

In 2023, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Christchurch City was $31.5 billion, representing 8.4% of New Zealand's total GDP. The sector with the largest contribution to the Christchurch City GDP was professional, scientific and technical services, at 12%. This is higher than the 9.6% contribution that these services make to the national economy. The next highest contribution to the city GDP was from healthcare and social assistance at 8.8%, versus 6.5% in the national economy. Manufacturing contributed 8.1%, compared with 8.2% in the national economy.

Christchurch City provides a diverse range of services for the Canterbury Region, but there are significant differences in the ranking of the sectors with the greatest contribution to GDP, when comparing the city GDP with the Canterbury Region GDP. Manufacturing and construction are the top two ranked sectors for the Canterbury region, but these two sectors are ranked third and fourth for the contribution to the city GDP. Conversely, professional, scientific and technical services are top ranked for the city, but third in the Canterbury Region GDP. Healthcare and social assistance is ranked second in the city GDP, but only seventh in the Canterbury Region GDP. Agriculture remains a significant contributor to the Canterbury Region GDP (sixth placed at $3.3 billion).

The four largest industries in the city, based on the percentage of filled jobs were healthcare and social assistance, professional scientific and technical services, construction, and retail trade. Christchurch City had a higher proportion of people in employed in healthcare and social assistance (12.9%) than the national average (10.3%), but the proportions employed in professional, scientific and technical services, construction and retail trade were close to the national averages.

A number of nationally and internationally recognised brands and companies were founded and have their headquarters in Christchurch including Macpac, Kathmandu, PGG Wrightson, Tait Communications, Cookie Time, Hamilton Jet, ANZCO Foods and Smiths City.

Industry

Christchurch is the second-largest manufacturing centre in New Zealand behind Auckland, the sector being the second-largest contributor to the local economy, with firms such as Anderson's making steel work for bridges, tunnels, and hydroelectric dams in the early days of infrastructure work. Now manufacturing is mainly of light products and the key market is Australia, with firms such as those pioneered by the Stewart family among the larger employers. Before clothing manufacture largely moved to Asia, Christchurch was the centre of the New Zealand clothing industry, with firms such as LWR Industries. The firms that remain mostly design and market, and manufacture in Asia. The city also had five footwear manufacturers, but these have been replaced by imports.

In the last few decades, technology-based industries have sprung up in Christchurch. Angus Tait founded Tait Electronics, a mobile-radio manufacturer, and other firms spun off from this, such as Dennis Chapman's Swichtec. In software, Cantabrian Gil Simpson founded a company that made LINC and Jade programming languages, and a management buyout spawned local firm Wynyard Group.

There have also been spin-offs from the electrical department of the University of Canterbury engineering school. These included Pulse Data, which became Human Ware (making reading devices and computers for blind people and those with limited vision) and CES Communications (encryption). The Pulse Data founders had moved from the Canterbury University engineering school to work for Wormald Inc. when they set up Pulse Data through a Management buyout of their division. Spin-off company Invert Robotics developed the world's first climbing robot capable of climbing on stainless steel, aimed at the dairy tank inspection market.

In recent times, the University of Canterbury engineering school and computer science department play an important role in supplying staff and research for the technology industries, and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology provides a flow of trained technicians and engineers. Locally and nationally, the IT sector is known not for its size (the third largest in New Zealand) but for producing innovative and entrepreneurial solutions, products and concepts.

Services for agriculture

The agricultural industry was originally the economic core of Christchurch. Its surrounding farming countryside was originally the basis of its industry, part of the original "package" sold to New Zealand immigrants. PGG Wrightson, New Zealand's leading agribusiness, is based in Christchurch. Its local roots go back to Pyne Gould Guinness, an old stock and station agency serving the South Island.

Other agribusinesses in Christchurch have included malting, seed development and dressing, wool and meat processing, and small biotechnology operations using by-products from meat works. Dairying has grown strongly in the surrounding areas, with high world prices for milk products and the use of irrigation to lift grass growth on dry land. With its higher labour use, this has helped stop declines in rural population. Many cropping and sheep farms have been converted to dairying. Conversions have been by agribusiness companies as well as by farmers, many of whom have moved south from North Island dairying strongholds such as Taranaki and the Waikato.

Cropping has always been important in the Canterbury Region. Wheat and barley and various strains of clover and other grasses for seed exporting have been the main crops. These have all created processing businesses in Christchurch. Agriculture in the region has diversified, with a wine industry developing at Waipara, and the beginnings of new horticulture industries such as olive production and processing. Deer farming has led to new processing using antlers for Asian medicine and aphrodisiacs. The high-quality local wine in particular has increased the appeal of Canterbury and Christchurch to tourists.

An important component of the regions agricultural calendar is the Canterbury A&P Show. The first show took place in Christchurch on 22 October 1862 and is now the largest agricultural and pastoral show in New Zealand featuring a combination of agriculture presentations, trade stalls, competitions and entertainment over three days. The Friday of the A&P Show had since at least 1918 been the People's Day or Show Day, and sometime between 1955 and 1958, Christchurch City Council moved the anniversary day to coincide with Show Day, as this allowed banks and businesses to close and people to attend the A&P Show.

Sport

Sport in Christchurch has developed from the time of the initial settlement of Canterbury by British migrants, and remains an important part of community life. Cricket and rugby union have been popular team sports since the early years of settlement, with the first cricket club established in the city in 1851, and the first rugby club in 1863. Interest in organised sports has diversified and now includes a wide range of codes. In 2022, the top five sporting codes in Canterbury based on club membership were netball, touch rugby, rugby union, golf and cricket.

There are about 1,200 sports clubs and associations, and in 2022 there were 140,000 affiliated members. Most of the sporting codes remain amateur, and rely upon volunteers as administrators and officials. However, there are some professional teams. Notable teams representing Christchurch or the Canterbury region include the Mainland Tactix (netball), Crusaders (rugby), Canterbury Kings (cricket), and South Island United (football) who operate in Christchurch as the professional extension of Christchurch United.

The city has hosted many international competitions including championship events. A particularly notable international event held in Christchurch was the 1974 Commonwealth Games.

There are many outdoor sportsgrounds and a variety of indoor venues. Christchurch City Council maintains 110 sportsgrounds across Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula. A large indoor sports, exhibition and entertainment venue was constructed adjacent to the Addington Raceway in 1998. As of 2025 the venue is named Wolfbrook Arena. The sports venues Lancaster Park and Queen Elizabeth II Park were damaged beyond repair in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and were demolished. New facilities built to replace those damaged in the earthquake include the Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub, the Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre — an aquatic and indoor sports venue which opened in December 2025, and a multi–purpose covered stadium Te Kaha seating 30,000 spectators, which opened in April 2026.

Transport

Private cars are the dominant form of transport in Christchurch, with 62% of commuter journeys utilising a private car, as of 2020. Historically, decisions on land use and infrastructure investment in Christchurch have tended to favour car travel, resulting in high adoption of cars. As of 2022, Christchurch has almost 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) of roads. The city is served by State Highways 1, 73, 74, 74A, 75 and 76. Christchurch has three motorways consisting of the Christchurch Northern Motorway (includes the Western Belfast Bypass), Christchurch Southern Motorway and the Christchurch-Lyttelton Motorway.

Christchurch has an extensive bus network, with bus routes serving most areas of the city and satellite towns. The local bus service, marketed as Metro, is provided by Environment Canterbury. The topology of the network broadly follow a spoke–hub distribution paradigm, with major routes intersecting the city and crossing at the central Christchurch Bus Interchange. Less-frequent 'connector' and 'link' services provide journeys between suburbs not on the major routes. Additionally, a service called the Orbiter connects the suburban mall hubs by running in a ring around the outside of the central city. Before the 2011 earthquakes, in addition to normal bus services, Christchurch also had a zero-fare hybrid bus service, the Shuttle, in the inner city. The service was suspended following the earthquakes. As of 2023 public transport mode share in the Greater Christchurch area was 2.8%, with daily journeys still well-below pre-earthquake levels.

Historically, Christchurch has been known as New Zealand's cycling city, even earning the nickname "Cyclopolis" around the turn of the 20th century. Mark Twain described Christchurch in 1895 as a place "where half the people ride bicycles and the other half are kept busy dodging them". The central city has very flat terrain and the Christchurch City Council has established a network of cycling infrastructure in the form of both dedicated and shared paths, such as the major Northern Line Cycleway. Post-quake public consultation on rebuilding the city expressed a strong desire for a more sustainable transport system, particularly greater use of cycling; this was reflected in the council's 2012–42 strategic transport plan. The number of cycle paths across the city has continued to increase since the earthquakes, with the roll-out of the Major Cycle Route initiative intending to create 100 kilometres (62 mi) of cycle paths in the city. This has contributed to a 30% increase in bicycle journeys between 2016 and 2023, with over 3.6 million cyclists detected at counting stations in a 12-month period. Data from the 2023 census revealed Christchurch as a national leader in the adoption of cycling as commuter transport. Nearly 25% of all bicycle commuters in New Zealand live in Christchurch, with the highest levels of adoption in suburbs with robust cycle infrastructure.

Trams were running as public transport in Christchurch as early as 1880, with the system mostly electrified beginning in 1905. Routes mostly centred around Cathedral Square connecting out as far as Papanui, New Brighton and Sumner, but all had ceased operating by 1954. In 1995, the Christchurch tramway system was re-established as a tourist attraction. The tram follows a short loop around central city streets, with stops at Cathedral Square, the Arts Centre, Canterbury Museum, Victoria Square and Cathedral Junction, which is also the location of the depot. The tram tracks are owned by the Christchurch City Council, with the trams supplied, maintained and operated by the Tramways Historical Society. In 2022 the tram tracks were extended south down High Street at a cost of NZ$3,600,000, though due to an engineering issue they derailed a tram and had to be relaid.

There is a cable car system called the Christchurch Gondola which operates as a tourist attraction, providing transport from the Heathcote Valley to the top of Mount Cavendish in the city's south-east.

Rail services, both long-distance and commuter, used to focus on the former railway station on Moorhouse avenue. Commuter trains were progressively cancelled in the 1960s and 1970s. The last such service, between Christchurch and Rangiora, ceased in 1976. After the reduction in services, a new Christchurch railway station was established at Addington Junction. The Main North Line railway travels northwards via Kaikōura to Picton and is served by the Coastal Pacific scheduled passenger train while the Main South Line heads to Invercargill via Dunedin and was used by the Southerner until its cancellation in 2002.

The most famous train to depart Christchurch is the TranzAlpine, which travels along the Main South Line to Rolleston and then turns onto the Midland Line, passes through the Southern Alps via the Otira Tunnel, and terminates in Greymouth on the West Coast. This trip is often regarded as one of the ten great train journeys in the world for the remarkable scenery through which it passes. The TranzAlpine service is primarily a tourist service and carries no significant commuter traffic.

Christchurch Airport is located in Harewood, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) to the north-west of the city centre. The airport is the second-busiest airport in New Zealand, with regular passenger services from Christchurch to sixteen New Zealand and seven international destinations. The airport serves as the major base for the New Zealand, South Korean, Italian and United States Antarctic programs.

About Christchurch

About Christchurch

Article

Notable quotes

Related journals

Live room · 1 here

Notable quotes

Article

Toponymy

History

Pre-city Māori activity

Early European presence and establishment of the city, 1830–1853

Period of the Canterbury Province, 1853–1876

City growth, 1876–2010

Earthquakes and beyond, 2010–present

Geography

Location

Geology

Aquifer and spring-fed streams

Central City

Suburbs

Satellite towns

Climate

Demographics

Culture and identity

Urban area

Economy

Economic profile in 2023

Industry

Services for agriculture

Tourism

Gateway to the Antarctic

Government

Local government

Central government

Culture and entertainment

Cinema

Parks and nature

Theatre

Music

Venues

Festivals

Architecture

Sport

Education

Secondary schools

Tertiary institutions

Transport

Utilities

Water supply

Wastewater

Electricity

Telecommunications

Media

Sister cities

Related journals