Christchurch, New Zealand Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Capital of the Canterbury region and the largest city on the South Island, CHRISTCHURCH (population just over 300,000) exudes a palpable air of gentility and a connectedness with the mother country. After all, it was perceived as an outpost of Anglicanism by its first settlers, was named after an Oxford college, and has some of the feel of a traditional English university town, with its neo-Gothic architecture and gently winding river. To some degree it pursues an archetype – the boys at Christ's College still wear striped blazers, and punts course along the Avon – but the Englishness is largely … more »