The region of Canterbury consists of four distinct districts; North Canterbury, Mid Canterbury, the city of Christchurch, and South Canterbury.  Each region has dramatically contrasting scenery, with the jagged peaks of the magnificent Southern Alps rising sharply from the vast flat expanse of the Canterbury plains.

Maori oral history suggests that people first inhabited the Canterbury area about a thousand years ago.  These first inhabitants were moa-hunting tribes and were followed by the Waitaha who are thought to have migrated from the east coast of the North Island in the 16th century.  This migration was joined by the Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu and continued until about 1830.

The first Europeans landed in Canterbury in 1815, 45 years after Captain James Cook sighted what he named "Banks Island", later found to be a peninsula.  Banks Peninsula drew flax traders in the 1820’s, whalers in the 1830’s and a party of French settlers in 1840. The Peninsula itself has many sites and buildings of historic interest.

Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on July 31, 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.
The site of Christchurch, now the largest city in the South Island, was swampy in pre-European times, when small Maori settlements dotted the area.  The city was founded in 1850 when a body of European settlers arrived in Lyttelton Harbour on the first four of many immigrant ships.  Earliest Christchurch was wooden, but it is renowned today for its nineteenth century stone Gothic buildings. The city is described by many as "The most English city outside England".

Canterbury's economy was built on primary products and Canterbury has long been recognised as living "off the sheep's back". Although its economic beginnings were in refrigerated sheep and dairy meats and in other dairy products, Canterbury now has a diversified regional economy with growth across a range of "new economy" sectors.

Canterbury is dotted throughout with grand homesteads, fine churches and the evidence of early industry, and traces of Maori presence can also be seen. Ask anyone who lives in Christchurch it is a great place to live!