Harry Ell – a Cantab lad, visionary and lover of the Port Hills – had visions of walkers and travellers enjoying a network of scenic reserves along the Port Hills connected by a road with rest-houses along the way – right through to Akaroa.He planned just under 20 rest-houses along what would start off as …
George Gatonby Stead was born in London, England. At the age of 9, his parents moved his life to South Africa where he lived until he was 24. During that time he became a excellent rider and good shot with a rifle. On returning to England in 1865, he soon decided to emigrate to Canterbury, …
I came across this by accident but was delighted! I so enjoyed researching and writing my post about this author – Samuel Butler. He spent a few years of his life living in Canterbury and always had fond memories of the region and the many friends he had here. The Canterbury Branch of the New …
Never been afraid to reach out and touch a bit of history :)Cabbage Trees or Ti Kouka have served the peoples of the Canterbury Plains for centuries! They once made great beacons to give a clue to where you were and where you were heading when travelling the vast sea of tussock and flax.For the …
“…nothing said about the Pilgrim mothers? Yet, they bore the same discomforts, hardships and privation and in addition had to put up with the Pilgrim fathers.” Mary Rolleston – Woman’s Division of the Farmer’s Union – Year Unknown As the bells of The Holy Trinity of Avonside tolled over the eastern side of Christchurch – …
On the 15th July 1915, the first wounded New Zealand World War I soldiers returned from Gallopoli and were greeted in a heroes welcome in Wellington, as their ship ‘Willochra’ came into harbour. Donald Simson looked over his fellow wounded soldiers thoughtfully and saw a great need. These boys were facing a different world now. …
You boys must really love camping to be heading off to the wilds on those things!!! At least you will scare the possums off. *image courtesy of http://www.zooweekly.com.au/*
As the citizens of Christchurch went about their business at the Land Office, upstairs in a very small room sat four of our founding fathers, squished in side by side behind a small table. They were John Robert Godley (founder of Canterbury), Mark Stoddart (first European to explore Lake Coleridge and whom also named Diamond …
The wind whipped waving tussock of the Canterbury Plains can’t have made the surveyor’s job very easy. I can’t say whether the surveyors pushed their pegs into the ground by the use of tools or whether they just crouched down amongst the flaxy marsh and pushed them in by hand.Whatever happened, Edward Jollie and his …
Robert Heaton Rhodes (1815 – 1884) arrived in Lyttelton just before the first four ships in 1850. Two of his brothers had already settled in New Zealand and were doing very well – William was in Wellington and George was in Purau on Banks Peninsula. Robert settles down at Purau with George and the two …
