Thanks to a tip from GEB reader ‘Anthony’, we see that Christchurch, New Zealand is now shown in full 3D thanks to Google’s “3D Imagery“.
As with all 3D cities (a list of which can be found on Wikipedia), things look awesome from the air, but get a bit melted when you get in close. That said, the streets (for the most part) are flat and smooth, as compared to some past cities that are quite lumpy. In all, it seems that Google is continuing to refine their process for adding 3D imagery and each new city looks a bit better than the previous one.
I’m still holding out hope that they eventually integrate 3d imagery with their street view imagery. They did it four years ago on the old-style 3d buildings, and it looked amazing. I’m sure the technical hurdles are much higher when working with 3d imagery, but I’m guessing they’ll get there eventually.