UPDATED 3.33pm A driver who fled police during a 50km rampage across North Canterbury and Christchurch today has been charged.

A pursuit began in Amberley, north of Christchurch, this morning after reports of a stolen quad bike from a farm property.

It finished almost two hours later in the suburb of Woolston, after a male driver allegedly ploughed past police roadblocks, through roadworks at high speed, through private suburban properties and out their back fences, along river banks and even over a golf course.

A police dog tracked him to a roof space in Cob Crescent in Woolston where he was arrested.

Police this afternoon charged a 23-year-old man and remanded him in custody to appear at Christchurch District Court tomorrow morning.

He faces charges of burglary, unlawful taking, unlawfully on property, aggravated failing to stop, driving while forbidden and a number of other charges.

After police were alerted to the alleged Amberley theft, the man is then said to have headed south and police began a pursuit, with the man at the wheel of a green 4WD Nissan Patrol vehicle with a large, metal A-frame tow bar on its front.

Sue Gdanitz was working at BP service station in Woodend and saw the drama unfold at about 8.45am.

As traffic was backed up for a school crossing across the busy Main North Rd, a 4WD passed the traffic on the wrong side of the road "going flat out", she said.

"I was pretty concerned because my kids go there and they would've been due to go across the crossing about then," she said.

"[The 4WD] went to go around School Rd corner, around the backed-up traffic, smashed into a woman's car with a couple of kids in it."

She said the woman was "shaken" but there were no reported injuries.

The speeding vehicle then took off down School Rd, being chased by police.

It's understood that the driver then headed towards Rangiora, before turning around and going back south towards Christchurch.

He's then allegedly gone through a police roadblock and down the wrong way on a motorway exit ramp.

"The driver of the 4x4 just about took myself and my children out as he came up the motorway on-ramp the wrong way. Terrified my kids," one woman wrote on Facebook.

Ascot TV employee Vaughan McGill was driving along the Northern Motorway on his way to work, when he was forced to take evasive action to avoid a head-on collision.

"He came flying towards me . . . All I could think of was me trying not to get hit so I swerved away . . . he was going for it," he said.

It's believed he then went into the city, heading east, through Parklands and into New Brighton.

He allegedly went over riverbanks, through a golf course and road works in his attempts to evade police.

Police called off the chase several times due to the dangerous manner of his driving.

At Cob Crescent he ditched the vehicle.

He ran up the driveway of a block of two adjoining flats.

Nicole Tainui saw a man go past her flat.

Her neighbour in the rear flat, Barry Hunt, then heard police approaching. He saw a police dog handler and his dog which was "barking its head off" and was very interested in the garage.

Hunt said more police officers were flooding the scene and one of them saw a man in the garage roof space.

"[A police officer] was shouting to get down, 'Come down, come down', and the dog was going bananas," Hunt said.

"They asked me to shut the door so they could get at him. The next minute there was an almighty crash and he came down. And then he was dragged off in cuffs."

Woodend school principal Graeme Barber said his pupils were all okay.

Staff on road patrol had "sensed something wasn't right" with the sirens and noise, and kept the kids from crossing.

"The car's went through really quickly and it was over. There was no danger for our kids, they weren't in the middle of the road, and they allowed the incident to pass quite quickly." 

If anyone witnessed the event or had property damaged, they are encouraged to contact their local police or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

* Police say a 23-year-old man has been remanded in custody and will appear in the Christchurch District Court tomorrow.

- NZ Herald