Driving directions from Christchurch airport to Lake Tekapo

Learn which roads you should follow and what you will see or encounter when driving from Christchurch airport to Lake Tekapo on the South Island of New Zealand.

Driving from Christchurch airport is pretty easy, because the airport is situated on the north-western edge of Christchurch city, so you won’t have to deal with too much traffic, busy city roads, or one-way streets.

You can consider the road going to and coming from Christchurch airport as one big roundabout, meaning that all traffic moves in only one direction. So driving from the airport is a breeze.

If you pick up a rental car at Christchurch airport, when you drive off the car rental parking lot where most of the car rental companies have their cars, you go must go right.

At the end of the road, there is a roundabout. Go straight ahead at the roundabout onto Memorial Avenue and drive until you reach the next roundabout, which will be a junction with State Highway 1.

At the roundabout, go right onto Russley Road, which is part of State Highway 1. If you are looking at signs, follow the signs that lead to cities south of Christchurch, such as for example Timaru, Alexandra, and Dunedin.

Once you are on Russley Road, continue driving on it. You will pass a couple of traffic lights on the way. After passing a Shell gas station on your left, you will drive over a couple of railway tracks, see a small shopping mall on your right, and then come onto a set of traffic lights at a large intersection. You must go right at the intersection onto State Highway 1.

Once you are on this section of State Highway 1, you will drive through Templeton on your way to Rolleston. Just keep driving on State Highway 1 until you can start following the directions for driving from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo.