Distance between Christchurch and Hamilton (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Christchurch and Hamilton, both in New Zealand, is 677 km (421 miles), as the crow flies, measured from one city centre to the other. It is the shortest path over the Earth's surface; any road between them is longer.
Straight-line distance
677 km
421 miles · straight line
Heading from Christchurch
20° (north-northeast)
initial compass bearing to Hamilton
Flight time estimate, not a booking
~50 min
at about 800 km/h, in the air only
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
ChristchurchHamiltonThe line is the great circle: straight over the globe, curved on a flat map.
Measure your own two places
Pick any two cities, addresses or coordinates in the calculator, or start from where you are standing. It gives the same straight-line distance, in miles and kilometres.
Christchurch to Hamilton at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 677 km (421 miles), as the crow flies
- Heading from Christchurch
- 20° (north-northeast) to Hamilton
- Heading from Hamilton
- 198° (south-southwest) to Christchurch
- Midpoint
- 40.6659° S, 174.0155° E, halfway along the straight line
- Flight time estimate, not a booking
- About 50 min in the air at a cruising speed of 800 km/h along the straight line. Take-off, landing, the real flight path and any stops add more.
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- 43.5333° S, 172.6333° E (city centre)
- Hamilton, New Zealand
- 37.7833° S, 175.2833° E (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Christchurch
Other distances from Hamilton
- Hamilton to Tauranga78 km
- Hamilton to Auckland114 km
- Hamilton to Wellington392 km
- Hamilton to Dunedin982 km
Questions
Is 677 km (421 miles) the driving distance from Christchurch to Hamilton?
No. 677 km (421 miles) is the straight-line distance between the two city centres, as the crow flies. A road route is always longer, because roads bend around terrain and water, and MapGO does not measure driving distance or travel time.
How is the distance between Christchurch and Hamilton measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Christchurch's centre (43.5333° S, 172.6333° E) to Hamilton's (37.7833° S, 175.2833° E). This is what "straight-line distance" and "as the crow flies" mean on a globe. On a flat map the line can look curved.
How accurate is this distance?
Within about 0.5% for the two centre points. The figure treats the Earth as a sphere (the haversine formula), while the real Earth is slightly flattened, which shifts a long straight-line distance by up to about 0.5%. Measuring from another part of either city changes it more, since a large city can be tens of kilometres across.
Computed by MapGO from each city's centre point (GeoNames) with the haversine formula. All distances on this page are straight lines over the Earth's surface, not road distances.