Ali Adams: ChristchurchNZ CEO on the growing number of people moving to the South Island

Christchurch is acting as a magnet for thousands of Kiwis making the move down South. 

The latest Stats NZ census data shows 85,000 people moved to the South Island between 2018 and 2023. 

Around half of those have gone to the Canterbury region. 

ChristchurchNZ Chief Executive Ali Adams told Mike Hosking the Garden City's versatility is being recognized. 

She says people are realizing you can have a brilliant career and a great life. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
South Island is a magnet. New data twenty three from

(00:02):
twenty twenty three that census shift south is real and
it's big. Eighty five thousand people moved south. Of those
eighty five thousand, forty thousand moved to the Canterbury region alone.
Auckland net migration loss of fifty thousand people over five years,
So that's material. It's real. Ali Adams is the CEO

(00:23):
of christ Church and z and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Eli morning, good morning, How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm very well and it speaks volumes. Isn't it a
sort of christ Church is a build it and they
will come story, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Look it's remarkable. I think I feel very privileged to
be able to promote this brilliant city at this fantastic time.
We've got incredible assets and people are really realizing that
you really can have it all in christ Church. You
can have a brilliant career around a brilliant life.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
In christ Church. In the regency. The Education Minister was
in Selwyn the other day announcing new schools. Is it
sort of spread or are you going to have some
infrastructural issues there eventually?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Look that I'm not the best person to answer that
I'm fortunate enough to work in the christ Church City region.
Our infrastructure there obviously because of the challenges that came
from the earthquake and that was a terrible time, but
mean that our infrastructure actually is in pretty good shape,
particularly from a city attraction perspective. So we have obviously

(01:21):
the stadium coming online next year, but also we've got
incredible things like the new Padaciori Metro sports facility, We've
got the new Court Theater. We've got a pretty incredible
infrastructure that makes us a real magnet and able to
attract things like major events like supercars and things that
we just wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
At the risk of making a complete pret of myself,
are you a new immigrant or a new issue immigrant?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
You're not making you proud of yourself in it. I've
got probably one of those makeseduptacts. And I'm not Newish. No,
I came over in two thousand and three.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Okay. What I'm saying is you haven't been here your
whole life, so you're seeing the country from relatively new eyes.
What's your impression of it?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Look, I think christ Church is remarkable. I think that
I would call it a real Goldilock city. There's not
many places like it in the world where you know,
I mean to be twenty minutes from an international airport,
to be able to the old classic cliche surf in
the morning and ski in the afternoon. It is the
best place in the world to bring up kids, and
I brought my children up here. It is just an

(02:20):
incredible city. One of the things that is really worth mentioning.
I mean, I was not young when I came here,
but actually one of the things in this latest census
is that a lot of the people that are coming
down from the North Island are young. Forty three percent
of those coming from Auckland are in the fifteen to
twenty four age bracket. And for me, that's the most
exciting thing as an economic developer, because that means people
are coming down here to study and they're going to

(02:41):
stay here and really contribute to our ongoing economy. They're
either going to start businesses or get into our workforce,
and that to me is really exciting.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
So do you think this is a fed as in
for the next few years everyone goes, oh Christ, you're
so exciting, or do you think this is this is
long term this is a this is a a thing.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
I think this is the thing. I mean, cities do
go in cycles, we all know that, but actually I
think christ Church as unique assets are not going anywhere,
so we It's just a little bit like people have
discovered what the tourists have known for a long time,
which is that this place is pretty special.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
T is I can speak to from experience. Ellie Ellie
appreciated it. Ellie Adams, who's the cheap executive officer of
Christ Church in z not the whole place. It's not
like she's the mirror or the boss, and it's just
that's the name of the business. Mike, I think you
need to jump on the migration bend waging too. Christ
It's not sure if you've considered this, Colin, do you
not listen to the program and or regulizing. No one

(03:36):
has talked more often about moving to christ Church than
I have. And the interesting thing about those numbers when
they came out yesterday and I saw them, is I
was kind of embarrassed because I'm one of those people
who goes tell you what I'm doing, tell you what
I'm doing. I'm going to Christis here, no worries and
all you already have, and I'm still sitting in the
same place going I tell you what, I'm still considering
going to Christach and you're going to come on, mate,

(03:57):
stop talking about it, do something about it. There are
astonishing numbers when you think about it. Auckland should be embarrassed.
Fifty thousand people have got up and left. Numbers don't lie.
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