Distance between Christchurch and Wellington (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Christchurch and Wellington, both in New Zealand, is 305 km (190 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
305 km
190 miles · straight line
Heading from Christchurch
36° (northeast)
initial compass bearing to Wellington
Flight time estimate, not a booking
~25 min
at about 800 km/h, in the air only
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
ChristchurchWellingtonThe 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 Wellington at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 305 km (190 miles), as the crow flies
- Heading from Christchurch
- 36° (northeast) to Wellington
- Heading from Wellington
- 214° (southwest) to Christchurch
- Midpoint
- 42.4150° S, 173.7236° E, halfway along the straight line
- Flight time estimate, not a booking
- About 25 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)
- Wellington, New Zealand
- 41.2866° S, 174.7756° E (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Christchurch
- Christchurch to Dunedin310 km
- Christchurch to Hamilton677 km
- Christchurch to Tauranga715 km
- Christchurch to Auckland765 km
Other distances from Wellington
- Wellington to Hamilton392 km
- Wellington to Tauranga418 km
- Wellington to Auckland493 km
- Wellington to Dunedin615 km
Questions
Is 305 km (190 miles) the driving distance from Christchurch to Wellington?
No. 305 km (190 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 Wellington measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Christchurch's centre (43.5333° S, 172.6333° E) to Wellington's (41.2866° S, 174.7756° 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.