until recently, halswell was completely separated from the city geographically, but in recent years many new subdivisions have been created to the north of the suburb, creating the new suburbs of oaklands and westlake. these have effectively joined halswell to the christchurch urban area. the halswell area is growing rapidly with subdivisions expanding the residential areas of aidanfield to the north east, and the rocks at the top of kennedy's bush road to the south, which is on a hill, with the rest of halswell on the flat ground of the canterbury plains.