Christchurch, largest city in the South Island, is situated on the coastal margins of the vast alluvial-built Canterbury Plains at the base of the Port Hills, which divide the city and the plains from Lyttelton Harbour and Banks Peninsula. The peninsula was once a group of volcanoes, which have since become extinct and have been intruded by the sea, forming many inlets, including Lyttelton Harbour and Akaroa Harbour. The great outpourings of gravel from the Southern Alps gradually linked up with this bastion to create a peninsula, on the neck of which Christchurch is built. Stretching away in a wide sweep to the north are the sandy Pacific beaches along Pegasus Bay, while to the south shingly beaches extend for more than 100 miles. A backdrop to the city's environs is provided by the majestic Southern Alps, rising some 30 miles inland, which exert a strong influence on the climate of the Canterbury region.
Of the four main cities Christchurch has the least rainfall and the greatest range of temperature. Rainfall averages 26 in. per annum and falls on 129 days, including 62 days with at least 0.1 in. Rainfall is fairly evenly spread through the year, but is slightly lower in the period February to April, and also in the spring, than at other times. Once in 20 years a fall of 3.9 in. can be expected within 24 hours and 0.7 in. in one hour.
Highest temperatures are assöciated with the “Canterbury Nor'wester” which is a typical fohn wind, strong, gusty, and very dry. In summer it raises temperatures above 80°F and occasionally above 90°F, while relative humidity drops to 20 per cent or even less. Christchurch, on the average, has 17 days with temperature rising over 80°F. At the other extreme, it experiences 37 screen frosts and 90 ground frosts per annum, chiefly between April and October. The warmest month is January, with a mean temperature of 62°F and a mean daily maximum of 70°F and a mean daily minimum of 53°F. In July the mean is 42°F and the mean daily range extends from 50°F to 34°F. Sunshine averages 2,000 hours per annum, each month receiving about 45 per cent of the possible sunshine, except December which has only 41 per cent.
North-easterlies are the prevailing winds, but south-westerlies are almost as frequent. These are relatively cool winds and the north-easterlies at times bring low cloud or fog in over the city. Fog due to various causes is reported on 23 days per annum, chiefly between April and August. In winter, fog occasionally persists throughout the day, but most of the fogs clear within a few hours after sunrise.
Snowfalls are light and infrequent, though heavy falls have been known. On 14 July 1945 the depth of snow was about 1 ft over most of the city. This was the heaviest snowfall on record, with the possible exception of one in July 1867. Hail is reported on six days per annum and on very rare occasions has caused local damage to glasshouses and gardens in the district. Thunder is heard on about four days a year, chiefly in the summer.
Christchurch is the principal commercial centre of a great primary producing province, Canterbury. This province is the chief grain and grass-seed-growing area of New Zealand and has a large sheep population. It was on the wealth and associated economic activities of this agricultural and pastoral basis that Christchurch was dependent. In post-war years, however, there has been industrial expansion of a very diversified nature and today there are large engineering, clothing, fertiliser, rubber, electrical, footwear, and furniture industries there. Much of the city's light industry is located in the vicinity of the Christchurch railway station, Waltham, and Sydenham. This centre-city industry is of major importance, since it provides work for about 42 per cent of all industrial workers in Christchurch. The heavier industries – fertiliser, industrial machinery, cable, industrial gas, freezing works, tyre and box manufacturing – are strung out along the Main Trunk railway to the west and north of the city in the suburbs of Hornby, Islington, Sockburn, and Riccarton. Occupying as it does a central location on the east of the South Island, Christchurch is a natural junction for the north-south and east-west communications. Both the main north and south roads and the South Island Main Trunk railway pass through the city, which is also linked by rail to Lyttelton and the West Coast. Road traffic to the port of Lyttelton was once forced to cross the Port Hills (13 miles), but a road tunnel completed early in 1964 provides an easier route. As with the other main ports in New Zealand, petroleum products rank as the primary import (348,851 tons), followed by manures (77,825 tons), iron and steel (54,218 tons), and fresh fruit (20,844 tons). The total overseas imports amount to 741.918 tons. The importance of sheep to Canterbury is exemplified by the predominance of their products in the exports. Frozen meat (48,654 tons), wool (34,091 tons), and tallow (10,837 tons) were the three major exports from a total of 143,261 tons. During the year ended 31 December 1963, 516 overseas vessels used the port, accounting for a shipping tonnage of 2,178,191 tons, while 824 coastal and intercolonial vessels totalled some 1,361,200 tons.
There are two airports in close proximity to Christchurch, the Royal New Zealand Air Force Station at Wigram, 5 miles south of the city, and Christchurch International Airport at Harewood, 6 miles to the north-west. For the year ended 31 December 1964, 43,629 overseas and 441,581 domestic passengers used the airport, while the total number of aircraft movements was 81,724. Some 35,762,153 lb of freight and 1,689,555 lb of mail were handled at the airport. Operating from this airport each summer are the United States “Operation Deep Freeze” aircraft which make regular flights to and from the Antarctic base at McMurdo Sound. The “Deep Freeze” 1964 season commenced on 30 September 1963 and concluded on 1 March 1964. The traffic figures were: 1,603 outward passengers and 1,590 inward passengers; 994,125 lb outward cargo and 168,084 lb inward cargo.
The nucleus of the educational facilities of Christchurch is the University of Canterbury, situated in the heart of the city. Comprising six faculties – arts, science, commerce, engineering, music, fine arts, and law-and 24 departments, Canterbury University has the major engineering school in the country. Due to the rapid expansion in university education, the present buildings are becoming inadequate. The University is therefore being rebuilt on a site at Ilam, well out of town. Because emphasis was placed by the founders of the province on education, Christchurch is well endowed with secondary schools, not only public, but private ones as well. At the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, across Rolleston Avenue from the University, is the Canterbury Museum, whose special features include the Stead Collection of birds and a fine reconstruction of a Christchurch street, together with shops and houses, as it appeared in the early days of the settlement. Backing on to the museum is the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which has a comprehensive range of the work of artists of the Canterbury school.
The idea of a church settlement was first proposed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield in 1843, but it was not until 1848 that the scheme finally took shape with the formation of the Canterbury Association under the leadership of Lord Lyttelton and John Robert Godley. The site of the settlement was selected by the Association's surveyor, Captain Joseph Thomas, who was impressed by the proximity of a deep-water port, the availability of an immense tract of level country, and its accessibility by several routes. The Anglican character of the settlement was determined largely by the members of the Association. Canterbury was to be a Church of England settlement (as Otago had been Presbyterian), with generous provision for church, education, and other amenities such as the huge area of park land of which Christchurch is justly proud. The city was named Christchurch by Godley, after his Oxford College, Christ Church. The “First Four Ships” the Charlotte Jane, Randolph, Sir George Seymour, and Cressy arrived at Lyttelton between 16 and 27 December 1850 with 782 settlers. At first housed in barracks previously erected for them, the immigrants soon made their way across the Bridle Path over the Port Hills to the site of Christchurch. The Association's surveyor, Edward Jollie, laid out the city between four broad avenues in a grid pattern, leaving a wide open space in the centre for the erection of the Anglican Cathedral. This Gothic-style stone building was commenced in 1864 and finally completed in 1901. It is the Cathedral which completes the very English appearance of Christchurch, with its wide streets, spacious parks, trees, and gardens. Included in the city's wide sweep of park land are the Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park (497 acres), set aside by the early planners. Of historical interest is the Riccarton Bush Reserve, originally owned by the Deans Brothers, who settled in the area in 1843. They named the place Riccarton, after the parish on the outskirts of Kilmarnock, where their father's home was situated, and the river (the Otakaro) they called the Avon, after the Scottish stream of that name.
Christchurch's rectangular street pattern is as much a result of its flat topography as of the intentions of its early surveyors. At first the city was bounded by Salisbury, Barbadoes, St Asaph, and Antigua Streets, but soon after it extended to the four broad avenues – Bealey, FitzGerald, Moorhouse, and Rolleston Avenues. The symmetry of this rectangular pattern is broken by the sinuous bends of the Avon River with its parallel Oxford and Cambridge Terraces, and the diagonal Victoria and High Streets, which were added to the original plan as access ways to Papanui and Sumner. The city has now outgrown its original size, and suburbs of varying ages and types surround the city, such as Sumner, New Brighton, Cashmere, Fendalton, Papanui, and semi-industrial Addington.
To perpetuate the memory and achievements of Canterbury's founders, there are statues to James Edward FitzGerald, Superintendent, 1853–57; William Sefton Moorhouse, Superintendent, 1857–63, 1866–68; William Rolleston, Superintendent, 1868–76; and John Robert Godley, Founder of Canterbury. There are also statues of Queen Victoria, Captain James Cook, and Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
| Census of 1951 | Census of 1956 | Census of 1961 | |
| Christchurch City | 123,548 | 142,711 | 151,671 |
| Riccarton borough | 8,016 | 7,914 | 7,372 |
| Lyttelton borough | 3,681 | 3,589 | 3,400 |
| Heathcote County | 7,092 | 5,228 | 6,070 |
| Remainder of urban area | 31,884 | 33,925 | 51,997 |
| Total | 174,221 | 193,367 | 220,510 |
by Richard Gregory Heerdegen, M.A., L.R.S.M., Junior Lecturer in Geography, Massey University of Manawatu.