BECKENHAM LOOP – Otautahi, Ihutai and Opawawaho

The Beckenham Loop is a part of the Heathcote River that sits south of Fisher Ave and east of Colombo Street.  It once was known as the intersection between three ancient Maori areas – Otautahi, Ihutai and Opawawaho. Otautahi is now known as Governor’s Bay and means ‘The place of one daughter’.  Over 300 years …

Guy Fawkes, King James & A Whole Lot Of Gunpowder

*ghastly content lay within – read on at ye own peril* King James I had no problem admitting to others that he greatly admired Guy Fawkes.  He was stubbornly steadfast, dedicated, passionate and brutally honest – even in the face of death.  These were values that demanded respect from all that met him, even from …

Christchurch’s First Puffing Billy

Do you think they could have fitted anymore people on? Referred to as a ‘Puffing Billy’, pictured here is Christchurch’s first, leaving Cathedral Square and heading to the Addington Railway Station – where the Tower Junction shopping centre is now situated.  This route through the city was opened on the 5th January 1882, though trams …

William Pratt – Hut, Tent, and Whare…

“…ships arrived so quickly after each other that the hillside near the barracks became dotted over with every conceivable kind of hut, tent, and whare, not omitting the Irish cabin built of sods”. William Pratt ~ 1900 *Lyttelton’s first storekeeper and baker ~ 1849 *Member of the Christchurch City Council *Co-founder of Ballantynes *image courtesy …