Welcome to Canterbury

BLINK ONCE AND CANTERBURY’S PLAINS WILL ROLL OUT BEFORE YOU; BLINK TWICE AND MOUNTAINS WILL ARISE OUT OF NOWHERE.

Absurdly beautiful and incredibly diverse, Canterbury transforms its terrain much like a kaleidoscope switches patterns. Vineyards swap for coastal roads as swiftly as they do for vast lengths of empty plains. One moment you’re swimming in turquoise waters to rival Tahiti, and the next you’ll be shadowed by New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki Mt Cook. And while the ever-changing landscape is a given, the way in which you see it needn’t be assumed.

You could soar over the region’s patchworked plains by hot air balloon, ski its snowy peaks, or tramp across the vast expanse of Arthur’s Pass National Park on a multi-day hike. Choose to boat across the glacier-fed lakes of Mackenzie country, or simply fall into one of the Waipara Valley’s many vineyards, picking at cheese platters in a sun-drenched garden. There are thermal spas begging to dissolve all your niggles, night skies erupting with stars and just when you thought transformation existed only in nature, you’ll arrive in Christchurch: a city always on the pursuit of renewal.

Hanmer Springs countryside © Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa