The Crosses Of The Holy Trinity of Avonside

The sadness of the loss of The Holy Trinity of Avonside was displayed perfectly in the pile of saved masonry from the ruins.  The crosses made a quite a statement. *photo taken by Annette Bulovic*  

First Ground Broken For Streets

Thanks to what has been stolen by the earthquakes, it is really hard to recognise where this photo (top left) was taken…trust me, I was standing there and couldn’t believe the changes all around me and I knew the street well. Embedded into the very pavement is a plaque acknowledging the spot where the very …

Samuel Butler – I Thought It Very Beautiful

“I thought it [The Port Hills] very beautiful.  It is volcanic, brown and dry – intervals of crumbling soil, then wiry tussock of the very hardest grass.  Then perhaps a flax bush, more crumbly dry soil mixed with fine grass, then more tussock.  Volcanic Rock everywhere cropped out sometimes red and soft, sometimes black and …

The First Settler Spots

Over 700 settlers flooded into Lyttelton between the 16th and the 27th of December 1850 from our First Four Ships.  Although many public works had occurred to get the port as ready as it could be, the new immigration barracks would in no way be able to house everybody.  It was so bad, some took …

HOON HAY – Captain Wickham Talbot Harvey (1829 – 1889)

The 50 acres that Captain Harvey took up on the Port Hills in 1852 was considered one of Christchurch’s most beautiful spots.  Heavy lush woodlands swept up the nearby valley and like most men of the new settlement, the Captain looked over his new source of timber with dollar signs in his eyes. He named …

Jane Manson (1846 – 1901)

Jane Manson was the wife of John Manson, son of Samuel and Jean Manson who had accompanied William Deans to New Zealand from Scotland in 1840. After two years as employees of the Deans brothers at Riccarton (the first 3 years were in Wellington), the Mansons and another family named the Gebbies, moved onto their …