the road in from Ashburton(and Rakaia) is straight and fast. You should know that kiwis don't drive fast and the vast majority round here stick pretty well to the speed limit most of the time, so 50 mins from Ashburton is realistic (equivalent to 60mph).
I can't remember how long it takes to get to Rakaia as we cut accross country from where we are to get there, but less than Ashburton.
The area around Lincoln and Dunsandel are pretty nice and you can feel in the middle of nowhere, but only 20 mins from Christchurch. You also aren't too far from Rivers, and Lake Elesmere.
We commute in on the Akaroa State highway, it take between 40 mins to an hour for me to get to work on the opposite side of the CBD, depending on the traffic in chch. You will probably find that what slows you up is chch traffic rather than the road you drive to get to chch
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