Abstract The initial M w 7.1 Darfield earthquake sequence was centred west of Christchurch City in the South Island of New Zealand but aftershocks, including a highly destructive M w 6.3 event, eventually extended eastwards across the city to the coast. The mainshock gave rise to right-lateral strike-slip of up to 5 m along the segmented rupture trace of a subvertical fault trending 085±5° across the Canterbury Plains for c . 30 km, in agreement with teleseismic focal mechanisms. Near-field data however suggest that the mainshock was composite, initiating with reverse-slip north of the surface rupture. Stress determinations for the central South Island show maximum compressive stress σ 1 to be horizontal and oriented 115±5°. The principal dextral rupture therefore lies at c . 30° to regional σ 1 , the classic ‘Andersonian’ orientation for a low-displacement wrench fault. An aftershock lineament trending c . 145° possibly represents a conjugate left-lateral strike-slip structure. This stress field is also consistent with predominantly reverse-slip reactivation of NNE–NE faults along the Southern Alps range front. The main strike-slip fault appears to have a low cumulative displacement and may represent either a fairly newly formed fault in the regional stress field, or an existing subvertical fault that happens to be optimally oriented for frictional reactivation.