Hi Dawn! For context, I'm a 22 year old uni graduate working in the field of marketing 
Also, I migrated here with my family from Singapore and I'm ethnically mixed.
I don't know about extra points for choosing Christchurch, but I can say for sure that life has more or less returned to normal on my side of town (west of the city centre) as we weren't that badly affected in the first place. Things are different in the eastern suburbs, and of course driving around town you will see that physically, Christchurch is still rebuilding. However, the nightlife, cafes/restaurants, and art/music/culture scene have come a long way in recent years. It's also not far to some really beautiful coastal walks and beaches, as well as hills and mountains!
Other day-to-day things: Traffic can be a bit of a pain at rush hour, but nowhere near as bad as the bigger cities in the north island. Public transport isn't great compared to some European cities I've been in, but again it's not terrible either. As in any city, there is a variety of leisure activities, clubs, etc to entertain yourself with, as well as the nature side of things as I mentioned before. There's a great community vibe once you integrate yourself into a few groups! One thing that may require a bit of adjusting is the cost of living - as a migrant myself and having had a lot of exchange students as friends, I would say food, clothing, other retail goods are more expensive here (because we're so far away!!)
Hopefully that helps a bit! Please do feel free to ask more
