
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Many of our Christchurch family and friends have moved house in recent years.
Some, like my father and step-mother, have downsized into a property with a garden the fraction of the size (and upkeep), others got sick of the cracks and myriad of small damage in their old places and opted for something newer, better insulated and doesn’t have a thick file of insurance claims on it.
The more than six thousand homes that have been demolished in the Red Zones have needed to replaced for the occupants elsewhere.
Subdivisions have sprung up in and around the north west corner of the city, Rangiora has doubled in size, so have areas along the Main South Road /State Highway One to the south of the city.
The area around Marshlands towards the old QEII Stadium has also been redeveloped, and whilst visiting friends in this area, we were taken for a tour of the new neighbourhood. One of the things they pointed out had been recently installed and dedicated by the Polish Ambassador: a memorial lamp post in memory of the Polish settlers here. The street nearby is also named “Polish Settlers Street” in honor of the people who worked to drain the land here. Like our friends who moved here and found this, I had no idea that Polish people had been living and working here in Christchurch as early as 1872. It just goes to show that even a brand new subdivision can hold hidden secrets about a city that you think you know well, but really only know a tiny amount about.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)