NZ - Christchurch

Well, we have just returned from 2 weeks holiday in New Zealand with Hannah, Rika's mum. and my parents. We did so much it will take some time to update the blog for it all.

First stop was Christchurch to visit Rachel, John and their children, William, Sophie and Claire. This is William holding Hannah with Claire, Rachel and Sophie in the background.



Sophie holding Hannah


Hannah, Rachel and William


On our first full day in Christchurch we had unusually heavy rain. So we visited the Canterbury Museum. It is especially good on maori and early settler history. This photo shows a reconstruction of early Maori hunting a moa, a large native flightless bird that is now extinct.



By an amazing coincidence, one of the early-settler exhibits included a copy of an newspaper advertisement from 1853 of our ancestor William Graham of Brenchley Farm, Lyttleton. WG was a turner who came out from London in 1851 with his wife and children, one of whom was our ancestor Hannah Graham.



This is my Mum with our Hannah at the Museum cafe.


On the second day we had glorious weather so we went for a drive with Rachel's family around the Port Hills. This is Dad with Hannah looking out south-west across the Canterbury Plains to the Southern Alps .



This is Rika's mum and Rachel.


Me, Dad, Hannah and William.


This is the view from the Port Hills looking north towards Lyttleton Harbour and the town of Lylttleton in the middle left.


Looking east from the same spot. The ring of hills you can see in these 2 photos is the rim of an old volcano. Lyttleton Harbour in the middle is the centre of the old crater.





The photo below is from later the same day. It looks south from Lyttleton towards the crater rim where the above 2 photos and video were taken. This spot is actually Brenchley Farm where William Graham lived 155 years ago. As you can see WG had a terrific view, although of course in those days it would have been all black-and-white. While we were in Lyttleton we had a picnic of the local delecacy 'fush n chups' in a park where a local pipe band was giving a display. Its strange to see men in woolen kilts playing pipes in the baking NZ sun.



After driving around the port hills we visited the Ferrymead heritage park, where Johns father has been helping out as a volunteer. Ferrymead has a collection of historic houses and also various collections of old technology including a working steam railway. We were able to ride the train a short distance.



They also have a working tram-line. This is everyone riding an old tram. I think this one used to be used in my home-town in Dunedin.