Christchurch City is sited on the Canterbury Plains between the Southern Alps and the Pacific Ocean and has a population approaching 400,000 people. The surrounds offer beach suburbs, protected bays, and snow-capped mountain ranges for skiing, hiking, mountain biking and climbing. The city itself has a relaxed and cosmopolitan centre with historic trams rattling along several streets, a great bar and restaurant scene, theatres, street buskers, museums and art galleries.

Christchurch, named after Christ Church College in Oxford University, is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and is often referred to as the most English of New Zealand’s cities and the gateway to the South Island. The atmosphere is reminiscent of an English university town, offering punting on the River Avon, a grand Anglican cathedral dominating the central square, elegant Victorian architecture and numerous parks and exquisite gardens. Christchurch City is recognised as New Zealand’s ‘Garden City’ with over 740 parks and an extensive system of rivers, streams and wetlands. It offers a temperate climate and knows all four seasons, often in the one day.

Christchurch Hospital located within a 10 minute walk from the central city and is surrounded by the Avon River, Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park. Hagley Park is renowned for its extensive area of 165 hectares (407 acres) containing a golf course, tennis courts, numerous sports grounds, tree-lined walking and cycling tracks and artificial lakes. Hagley Park is also the location for Christchurch Hospital emergency helipad.