Christchurch is the largest city on New Zealand's South Island and the country's most English-feeling place — the founding settlers in the 1850s explicitly set out to build a model Anglican city on the Canterbury Plains, and for 150 years they largely succeeded. Then, on 22 February 2011, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit directly beneath the central city, killed 185 people, and destroyed or damaged more than 80 percent of the buildings in the CBD.
Rebuilding has been slow, but the Christchurch you will visit now is one of the most interesting cities in Australasia precisely because of what it has been through. The central city is a patchwork of old stone survivors, gleaming new architecture, empty lots, street art, and ambitious projects like the Cardboard Cathedral (a transitional church by Shigeru Ban, built from cardboard tubes), the 185 Empty Chairs memorial, and the Riverside Market food hall. The Canterbury Museum holds a strong Antarctic exploration collection, and the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park cover 164 hectares in the city centre.
Christchurch is the main base for exploring the South Island. Akaroa on Banks Peninsula is ninety minutes away, the TranzAlpine train to the West Coast through Arthur's Pass is one of the world's great rail journeys, and Queenstown is five hours south-west.