“I was quite determined to see the plains if possible and we found a very good, though steep path to the top. The view was very fine, on one side the harbour, as smooth as a lake and quite encircled with high hills and down below, on the other side, the vast plains, as level as the water and nearly as innocent of anything like cultivation or habitation and reaching away to a very fine range of snowy mountains. A river (the Avon) runs through them, close to which is the site of Christchurch and near it are 150 acres of woods (possibly Papanui or Rangiora Bush)”
Charlotte Griffith Godley ~ 8th April 1850
*wife of John Robert Godley – the Founder of Canterbury*
*first European women to venture west from Riccarton*
