Christchurch is a modern city with a reputation for combining a culture of innovation with an excellent quality of life, a highly skilled workforce and comprehensive world class infrastructure.

In it’s formative years Christchurch’s economy was been built on it’s relationship with the large rural economy of the surrounding Canterbury province, Christchurch has now emerged in the latter part of the 21st century with strengths in high technology and smart manufacturing. It is New Zealand’s leading location for electronics, telecommunications and software development.  The city is serviced by four top class tertiary education providers.

The University of Canterbury in the suburb of Ilam caters for approximately 12,500 students, 1,530 of which are carrying out postgraduate study. The University offers a wide variety of subjects, including degrees in arts, commerce, education, engineering, fine arts, forestry, law, music and science. The University attracts a significant proportion of state research funding and has extensive international links.

In 1996, Christchurch was acknowledged as the outstanding garden city from 620 international entries and in 1997, was judged Overall Winner of Major Cities in the Nations in Bloom International Competition to become ‘Garden City of the World’!

History

Maori oral history suggests that people first inhabited the Canterbury area about a thousand years ago.

These first inhabitants were moa-hunting tribes and these 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 European landed in Canterbury in 1815, 45 years after Captain James Cook sighted what he named "Banks Island", later found to be a peninsula.

In 1840 the first Europeans settled on the plains and whaling ships were operating out of Lyttelton by 1850.

During 1850-1851 the first organised groups of English settlers, the founders of Christchurch, arrived on the 'first four ships' into Lyttelton Harbour. Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on July 31, 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand. Canterbury's economy was built on primary products and 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.