Christchurch

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• Bahía Blanca
• Songpa District
• Wuhan
• Adelaide
• Seattle
• Christchurch
• Kurashiki
• Lanzhou

History

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. 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 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. 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.…

Geography

Christchurch is halfway along the east coast of the South Island, facing the South Pacific Ocean. With the exception of the Port Hills on Banks Peninsula to its south, the city sits on flat land, on average about above sea level. The present land mass of New Zealand split from the super continent of Gondwana about 85 million years ago. Prior to that time, mudstone and hardened sandstones commonly known as greywacke was deposited and deformed by tectonic movement. Following the split from Gondwana, during the period between 80 and 23 million years ago, the land became eroded and subsided below sea level. Marine and terrestrial sediments were deposited, leaving the greywacke as the oldest and deepest layers (basement rock). About 11–6 million years ago, volcanic eruptions created the Banks Peninsula volcanic complex. Over the last two million years as the Southern Alps were rising, there were multiple periods of glaciation. Rivers flowing from the mountains carried alluvial gravels over the area that is now the Canterbury Plains, covering the underlying rock to depths of between 200 and 600 metres. Continuing tectonic movement created faults that penetrate from the greywacke rock into the layers above. These faults remain beneath Canterbury and Christchurch. The glacial/interglacial cycles of the Quaternary Period led to multiple rises and falls in sea level. These sea level changes occurred over a period when there was also slow subsidence in the eastern coastal plains of Canterbury and Christchurch. The result has been the deposition of sequences of mostly fluvial gravel (occurring during periods of low sea level and glaciation), and fine deposits of silt, sand and clay, with some peat, shells and wood (occurring during interglacial periods when the sea level was…

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2025-11-21
  34 km SSW of Leeston, New Zealand
• M 2.6 — 2025-10-16
  5 km SE of Kennedys Bush, New Zealand
• M 3 — 2025-08-30
  0 km N of Mairehau, New Zealand
• M 4.4 — 2025-03-05
  39 km NW of Amberley, New Zealand
• M 3 — 2024-03-14
  3 km ENE of Southshore, New Zealand
• M 3.2 — 2024-01-10
  14 km ENE of New Brighton, New Zealand