Canterbury / Christchurch

Canterbury stretches from the Conway River in the north, south of Kaikoura, down to the Waitaki River, its flat plains running from the Pacific coast inland to the Southern Alps. The volcanic Banks Peninsula breaks up an otherwise uniform landscape with crater bays and steep green hills just outside Christchurch. We find the contrast between the plains’ openness and the peninsula’s folded coastline is what makes this region worth lingering in rather than passing through.