When I read about Captain James Cook and his men camped out at Mercury Bay, I romantically envisioned the mighty ‘Endeavor’ at anchor amidst a rumbling blue ocean, the beach littered with its rowboats and the setting sun glistening off the surrounding greenery of Pre-European Nova Zeelandia! What tipped me into my ‘know no limits’ …
“Port Cooper [Canterbury] is described by very person to be splendid place for a settlement and I have no doubt there will be one formed there in a few years by which time we will have a pretty extensive stock and be able to supply the settlers with butcher meat, working bullocks, vegetables and a …
Before discussing James Townsend, one must know the story of a young settler, who had just made his way down the Bridle Path in 1851 and made note of who had been the first real European settler (quite a noble title for a dead man!) in what would become Ferrymead. Jutting out of from the …
Also known as the 1st Baron Northcote, it appears from all my research that Henry had no direct contact with New Zealand at all, let alone Christchurch. He never set foot on our shores and was only a child when the Canterbury Association – which a few members are now acknowledged in the naming of …
Known by the locals as Aylesbury’s Bend, the intersection of Railway, Bealey, Aylesbury, West Coast (once known as Bealey’s Track) and Station Roads in Aylesbury, Canterbury used to be known as Bealey’s Crossing. Bealey Road begins here and ends in Hororata. As the West Coast Road was once known as Bealey’s Track, this would have …
