Mid and South Canterbury is the heart of the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand's South Island. This is wide open country: long straight roads, broad braided rivers with bridges that seem a mile long. The plains look like a giant's patchwork quilt, whilst the high country gives one a sense of deja vu.

Cities

• 1 Ashburton
• 2 Fairlie
• 3 Geraldine
• 4 Methven
• 5 Pleasant Point
• 6 Temuka
• 7 Timaru
• 8 Waimate

Other destinations

• 1 Arthur's Pass National Park

Understand

The region is where the Canterbury Plains rise up into the highest parts of the Southern Alps. It is bounded by the Ashley River in the north, the Waitaki River in the south, the Mackenzie Country to the west and the Southern Alps in the northwest.

See

• Richard Pearse Memorial at Pleasant Point.
• McAtamney Gallery, 47-49 Talbot St, Geraldine, ☏ +64 3 693 7292. 10.00am - 4.30pm daily. Modern and contemporary art gallery featuring New Zealand artists. Free entry. 

Do

• Ski at Mount Hutt.

Go next

• Christchurch and Banks Peninsula – to the north
• Mackenzie Country – inland
• Otago – to the south