Canterbury Region

Canterbury is New Zealand's largest region by land area (44,504 km²) and its second-largest by regional GDP ($44.03 billion, 2021), with a population of 698,200 (June 2025). Christchurch city has its own dedicated Navaroa location -- this is about the rest of the region around it.

Selwyn district -- Rolleston, Lincoln and Prebbleton -- is genuinely New Zealand's fastest-growing district. Rolleston alone grew from about 1,500 residents in the 1990s to over 34,000 by 2025, a 1,246% increase since 2000, driven almost entirely by people relocating out of Christchurch city for larger sections and newer housing, and enabled by the Southern Motorway's 2012 opening cutting the commute time in. Around 80% of Selwyn's growth has come from people moving from elsewhere within New Zealand, not overseas migration. Rangiora, in Waimakariri District about 30 minutes north of central Christchurch, is a smaller but similarly growing commuter town.

If you're choosing between Christchurch city itself and somewhere like Rolleston or Rangiora, the trade-off is consistent with any commuter-belt move: larger sections and newer housing stock further out, against a longer and motorway-dependent commute in.