NZ's South Island as seen from SQ 777 (21562497615)

The Canterbury Plains () are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

in the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

region. Their northern extremes are at the foot of the

Hundalee Hills The Hundalee Hills are located close to the borders of Hurunui District and Kaikoura District in Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. Located 40 kilometres (24.85 mi) to the south of Kaikoura, Hundalee Hills are known largely for ...

in the

Hurunui District Hurunui District is a territorial local government district within the Canterbury Region on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, north of Christchurch. It stretches from the east coast to the Main Divide. Its land area is . Local gove ...

, and in the south they merge into the plains of

North Otago North Otago in New Zealand covers the area of Otago between Shag Point and the Waitaki River, and extends inland to the west as far as the village of Omarama (which has experienced rapid growth as a developing centre for astronomy and for gli ...

beyond the Waitaki River. The smaller Amuri Plain forms a northern extension of the plains.

Geology

The Canterbury Plains were formed from

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...

gravels transported from the Southern Alps and deposited here during glacial periods in the late Pleistocene approximately 3 million to 10,000 years ago. The

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

gravels were then reworked as shingle fans of several of the larger rivers, notably the Waimakariri, the Rakaia, the Selwyn / Waikirikiri, and the Rangitata. Part of the Canterbury-Otago tussock grasslands, the land is suitable for moderately intensive livestock farming but is prone to droughts, especially when the prevailing wind is from the northwest. At these times, the weather phenomenon known as the '' Nor'west arch'' can be seen across much of the plain. A major earthquake on 4 September 2010 revealed a previously unknown

geological fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectoni ...

beneath the Canterbury Plains and created a surface rift that offset features by as much as four metres in places.

Rivers

The rivers of the Canterbury Plains have a distinctive

braided Braided is a musical group consisting of Casey LeBlanc, Ashley Leitão, and Amber Fleury, who all competed on the third season of ''Canadian Idol'' in 2005. They are the third music group to come from an Idol show in the world, after Young Divas ...

appearance, which differentiates this area from the plains of North Otago to the south – beyond the Waitaki, the rivers typically have narrower, well-formed channels, rather than spreading across wide shingle depressions, as in Canterbury. Most of the population of Canterbury lives in a series of large and small towns arranged northeast to southwest along the plains, connected by State Highway 1 and the Main South railway line. These include

, Ashburton and Timaru, and the smaller Kaiapoi, Dunsandel, Rakaia, Temuka, and

Glenavy Glenavy () is a village and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, 17 kilometres north west of Lisburn on the banks of the Glenavy River. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 5,697 people. In early documents it was known as Len ...

. Other towns on the plains include

Rangiora Rangiora is the largest town and seat of the Waimakariri District, in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is north of Christchurch, and is part of the Christchurch metropolitan area. With an estimated population of Rangiora is the 30th largest urb ...

, Leeston, Lincoln, Darfield, Geraldine, Methven and Waimate.

Fauna

The extremely rare weevil ''

Hadramphus tuberculatus ''Hadramphus tuberculatus'' (known as the Canterbury knobbled weevil, Spaniard weevil or Banks Peninsula speargrass weevil) is a rare weevil endemic to Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. It was thought to be extinct in 1922 but was r ...

'' is endemic to the plains.

References

{{Coord, -43.64, 172.09, region:NZ-CAN_type:landmark_scale:300000, display=title Plains of New Zealand Wine regions of New Zealand Landforms of Canterbury, New Zealand