Queenstown (Māori: Tāhuna) is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island. It has an urban population of 14,300 (June 2016), making it the 27th largest urban area in New Zealand. In 2016, Queenstown overtook Oamaru to become the second largest urban area in Otago, behind Dunedin.

The town is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin Z-shaped lake formed by glacial processes, and has spectacular views of nearby mountains such as The Remarkables, Cecil Peak, Walter Peak and just above the town; Ben Lomond and Queenstown Hill.

The Queenstown-Lakes District has a land area of 8,704.97 square kilometres (3,361.01 sq mi) not counting its inland lakes (Lake Hāwea, Lake Wakatipu, and Lake Wanaka). The region has an estimated resident population of 34,700 (June 2016). Its neighbouring towns include Arrowtown, Glenorchy, Kingston, Wanaka, Alexandra, and Cromwell. The nearest cities are Dunedin and Invercargill. Queenstown is known for its commerce-oriented tourism, especially adventure and ski tourism.

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago region. It is named for the capital of Scotland, generally Anglicised as Edinburgh (with burgh being a literal translation of the Gaelicdùn, meaning fort). While Tauranga, Napier-Hastings and Hamilton have eclipsed the city in size of population since the 1980s to make it only the seventh-largest urban area in New Zealand, Dunedin is still considered one of the four main cities of New Zealand for historic, cultural and geographic reasons.

Dunedin was the largest New Zealand city by territorial land area until superseded by Auckland on the creation of the Auckland Council in November 2010. Dunedin was the largest city in New Zealand by population from the 1860s until about 1900. The city population at 5 March 2013 was 120,246. The Dunedin urban area lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour. The harbour and hills around Dunedin represent the remnants of an extinct volcano. The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.

The city’s most important activity in economic terms centers around tertiary education – Dunedin is home to the University of Otago, New Zealand’s first university (established 1869), and the Otago Polytechnic. Students account for a large proportion of the population; 21.6 percent of the city’s population was aged between 15 and 24 at the 2006 census, compared to the New Zealand average of 14.2 percent. In 2014 Dunedin was designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Literature.

Lake Tekapo is the second-largest of three roughly parallel lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island of New Zealand (the others are Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau). It covers an area of 83 square kilometres (32 sq mi), and is at an altitude of 710 metres (2,330 ft) above sea level.

The lake is fed at its northern end by the braided Godley River, which has its source in the Southern Alps to the north. The lake is a popular tourist destination, and several resort hotels are located at the township of Lake Tekapo at the lake’s southern end. The Lake Tekapo Regional Park, administered by Environment Canterbury, is located on the southern shore of the lake.

An astronomical observatory is located at Mount John, which is to the north of the town, and south of the small Lake Alexandrina.

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Island’s east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula. It is home to 389,700 residents, making it New Zealand’s third most-populous city behind Auckland and Wellington.

The city was named by the Canterbury Association, which settled the surrounding province of Canterbury. The name of Christchurch was agreed on at the first meeting of the association on 27 March 1848. It was suggested by John Robert Godley, who had attended Christ Church, Oxford. Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.

The Avon River flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park located along its banks. At the request of the Deans brothers, the river was named after the River Avon in Scotland, which rises in the Ayrshire hills near to where their grandfather’s farm was located.

The usual Māori name for Christchurch is Ōtautahi (“the place of Tautahi”), originally the name of a specific site by the Avon River near present-day Kilmore Street and the Christchurch Central Fire Station. The site was a seasonal dwelling of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi, whose main home was Port Levy on Banks Peninsula. The Ōtautahi name was adopted in the 1930s. Prior to that the Ngāi Tahu generally referred to the Christchurch area as Karaitiana, a transliteration of the English word Christian.

The city suffered a devastating series of earthquakes between September 2010 and early 2012, with the worst of them soon after midday on 22 February 2011, in which 185 people were killed and hundreds of buildings across the city collapsed or suffered severe damage. By late 2013 1500 buildings in the city had been demolished, leading to an ongoing recovery and rebuilding project.

Kaikoura /kaɪˈkɔːrə/ (Māori: Te Ahi Kaikōura a Tama ki te Rangi) is a town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 1, 180 km north of Christchurch.

Kaikoura became the first local authority in the Southern Hemisphere to achieve recognition by the EarthCheck Community Standard.

The town has an estimated permanent resident population of 2,080 (as of June 2016).^[1] The town is the governmental seat of the territorial authority of the Kaikoura District, which is politically a part of the Canterbury region.^[3] The District has a land area of 2,046.41 km² (790.12 sq mi) and an estimated population of 3,740 inhabitants; which includes other settlements within the district such as Kekerengu, Clarence, Rakautara, Hapuku, Ocean Ridge, The Elms, Peketa, Goose Bay, Omihi and Oaro.

The infrastructure of Kaikoura was heavily damaged in the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, which also caused two deaths in the area. The sea level of the bay and surrounding region was lifted by as much as 2 meters.