GODLEY HEAD – Captain Joseph Thomas (1803 – ?)

What actually inspired me to do the story of Godley Head was the old Maori term for the place, ‘Otokitoki’ which means ‘a place of axes’. My imagination was instantly stirred, but it proved to be one of the biggest anticlimaxes since I began to peel back Canterbury’s history almost 3 years ago. Standing like …

WWII Arrived Just Five Kilometres From Our Coast – 25th June 1941

On 25 June 1941, a German minelayer named ‘Adjutant’ (pictured) successfully laid 10 mines at the entrance of Lyttelton Harbour without anyone knowing. We only found out through captured German papers four years later. They were buried between 16 to 22 metres deep and the nearest was just 5km from the coast line, near Godley …