Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association director Des Smith said the earthquake had disrupted a busy sports programme in Christchurch.
One event that is being brought to Otago is the national schools triathlon championships, to be hosted at Jacks Point in Queenstown on March 31.
It was decided that Christchurch and the surrounding region would not be ready to host such a large event, given the continued focus on recovery following the earthquake last week.
Triathlon New Zealand said the decision was made to move the event from Pegasus (20km north of Christchurch) because the wider infrastructure and support was simply not available. Pegasus itself was unaffected by the earthquake.
Tri NZ event manager Haidee Stratford said "our first priority was to stay in the South Island if at all possible. Jacks Point was one of the original bidders."
Dunedin offered to host the South Island volleyball tournament that was to be held at Cowles Stadium in Chistchurch this weekend.
"We wanted to give Canterbury pupils the chance the get away from the devastation of Christchurch and offered to billet all the teams," Smith said.
But officials in the sport decided to cancel the event.
Smith said Athletics Otago had been asked to provide some officials for the South Island secondary schools championships in Timaru on April 2-3 because most of the Canterbury officials would still be involved in clean-up work after the earthquake.
There is a possibility that some of the events still to be relocated could be transferred to an Otago venue.
AFFECTED SCHOOL EVENTS
• South Island volleyball (cancelled)'
• New Zealand tennis (to Auckland).
• South Island dragonboat championships (will be relocated)
• South Island athletics (to Timaru)
• South Island water polo (will be relocated)
• New Zealand triathlon to Queenstown
• New Zealand water polo (will be relocated)
• South Island touch (cancelled)
• New Zealand softball (will be relocated)
