CHRISTCHURCH: CANTERBURY & OXFORD INFLUENCES

Visiting Christchurch, New Zealand

Yesterday, Tina Picotes and her friends visited Christchurch in the South Island.

After watching humpback whales, Tina and her friends decided to visit the New Zealand's third-most populous city behind Auckland and Wellington.

During the travel, The Grandma studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Grammar 24).

More info: Making comparisons I

 

Christchurch, in Māori Ōtautahi, is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula.

The Avon River flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park located along its banks. At the request of the Deans brothers, whose farm was the earliest settlement in the area, the river was named after the River Avon in Scotland, which rises in the Ayrshire hills near to where their grandfather's farm was located.

Joseph contemplates Cathedral's Square, Christchurch

Archaeological evidence has indicated that the Christchurch area was first settled by humans in about 1250.

Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand. The Canterbury Association, which settled the Canterbury Plains, named the city after Christ Church, Oxford. The new settlement was laid out in a grid pattern centred on Cathedral Square; during the 19th century there were few barriers to the rapid growth of the urban area, except for the Pacific to the east and the Port Hills to the south.

More information: Christchurch-New Zealand

Agriculture is the historic mainstay of Christchurch's economy. The early presence of the University of Canterbury and the heritage of the city's academic institutions in association with local businesses has fostered a number of technology-based industries.

The city suffered a series of earthquakes between September 2010 and early 2012, with the most destructive of them occurring on 22 February 2011 when thousands of buildings across the city collapsed or suffered severe damage. By late 2013, 1,500 buildings in the city had been demolished, leading to an ongoing recovery and rebuilding project.

More information: Christchurch City Council

The name of Christchurch was agreed on at the first meeting of the Canterbury Association on 27 March 1848. It was suggested by founder John Robert Godley, whose alma mater was Christ Church, Oxford.

The Grandma arrives to Christchurch Cathedral

The Māori name Ōtautahi, the place of Tautahi, was adopted in the 1930; originally it was the name of a specific site by the Avon River.

The site was a seasonal dwelling of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi, whose main home was Port Levy on Banks Peninsula. Prior to that the Ngāi Tahu generally referred to the Christchurch area as Karaitiana, a transliteration of the English word Christian. Archaeological evidence found in a cave at Redcliffs in 1876 has indicated that the Christchurch area was first settled by moa-hunting tribes about 1250 CE. These first inhabitants were thought to have been followed by the Waitaha tribe, who are said to have migrated from the East coast of the North Island in the 16th century. Following tribal warfare, the Waitaha, made of three peoples, were dispossessed by the Ngāti Māmoe tribe.

The name Christ Church was decided prior to the ships' arrival, at the Association's first meeting, on 27 March 1848. The exact basis for the name is not known. It has been suggested that it is named for Christchurch, in Dorset, England; for Canterbury Cathedral; or in honour of Christ Church, Oxford. The last explanation is the one generally accepted.

More information: New Zealand

I went to a state school in Christchurch, New Zealand,

and then straight on to the University of Canterbury.

But I worked part-time all the way through high school:

first with a paper round, then at a fast-food outlet, 

a video store and a hardware store.

Eleanor Catton