Posted by Jerry on November 7th, 2007 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
The heart of Christchurch is the Anglican cathedral of ChristChurch. The cultural life of the city revolves around the Cathedral Square. The square is dominated by the Gothic-style cathedral designed by renowned English Gothic architect George Gilbert Scott and adapted by local architect Benjamin Mountford, and built between 1864 (foundation stone) and 1904 (completion). The cathedral was part of the central concept of Christchurch. The cathedral has just completed its biggest restoration in its 126 year history.
The story begins back in 1848 when a pro-colonization group called the Canterbury Association was established by Edward Gibbon Wakefield (of Adelaide fame) and John Robert Godley. The Canterbury Association decided to found a new settlement in New Zealand, built around a central cathedral and college along the lines of Christ college in Oxford. And the first four ships carrying about 750 pilgrims of the Canterbury Association arrived in Lyttelton harbour in December 1850. The ships were: the Randolph, the Cressy, Sir George Seymour and the Charlotte Jane.
Mountford had a huge influence on Victorian Christchurch and there are a number of Gothic-style buildings that show his influence, including the original Council Chambers, the museum and the old University (now the Arts Centre) built between 1876 and 1923. The Christchurch Arts Centre is a particularly fine example.
The Arts centre is well supported with over 40 specialty shops galleries and working studios. There is an arts market every weekend and it’s also worth visiting Rutherford’s Den – site of Earnest Rutherford’s early experiments which led to his theory of the atom. This is in the clock tower (built 1870) and is right opposite a boutique cafe.
And before you leave the Arts Centre, be sure to check out the Juggler statue – please leave a comment or drop me an email if you know the title and artist who produced this sculpture)
As you head back along Worcester Street across the bridge there is a statue of John Falcon Scott (of the Antarctic) sculpted from Carrara marble by his wife Kathleen in 1917. It bears the inscription of his last message:
I do not regret this journey, which shows that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.
Opposite is another neo-gothic building, the old municipal chambers now Our City O-Tautahi – a civic exhibition space.
The Christchurch Art Gallery is a stunning building unmatched by the rather conservative hang of its contents. The early material contains few landscapes – surprising given how the landscape has so shaped the place, instead there are a large number of English-style interiors, very few portraits of Maoris and the contemporary material is largely European-influenced ‘International Style’ – suggesting a strong tendency towards cultural cringe. But there are some good specialist exhibitions, including an Antarctic one, and regular floor talks and events are scheduled.
In the Cathedral Square, past the street performers and market, it’s worth checking out the information centre in this building – the people are really helpful and go out of their way to help you find out stuff about the city (but we managed to foil them with the writers walk, but more on that later). It also has a Starbucks on the corner and a fairly expensive Indian restaurant inside.
And the 18 metre high Chalice sculpture, by artist Neil Dawson (2001) commemorates the Millenium and the 150th anniversary of the founding of Christchurch and Canterbury. It dominates Cathedral square and its cone shape inversely mirrors the the Cathedral spire.
Is this a massive Spring Sale? No, just a well-resourced central library with a highly knowledgeable staff and excellent NZ and reference collection, free computer and internet access and free wifi. In fact all the arts and cultural institutions seemed well-resourced and as a consequence were well utilised by the local population and visitors alike.
But for some people, the alienation of modernist architecture can be so expressive…
More soon
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on November 6th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Travel
The online reviews were mixed, so we had no real idea what Cokers Backpackers hostel, located at 52 Manchester Street Christchurch NZ, would be like, so here is my take on it. I recommend it highly 🙂
One thing that became clear for me is that one’s experience of a backpacker’s hostel has much to do with the other guests.
Cokers is clean, comfortable and centrally located. The staff are friendly and knowledgable. There is internet access for a small fee, and there are two card-operated phones. There is no lock-out or curfew – the main desk is open 24 hours a day (handy for late night flights into Christchurch). The kitchen closes at 11.00pm each day for cleaning.
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The kitchen is well equipped with 3 stoves, microwave, 2 toasters, 4 sinks and a walk-in fridge. There is also a good supply of crockery and cutlery, and there are bag-sized pigeon-holes for your food (just mark it with your name, room and date of departure). The dining room has a book exchange and there are two TV rooms. And for the drinkers there is a pub in the same building – which has a folk club every Sunday.
The place is brightly painted with murals and NZ yellow, and the aphorisms written on the wall give positive messages.
The double room was clean and equipped with a basic but serviceable en-suite with a clean toilet and functional shower with good hot water. Towels and soap were provided and there is a cheap supermarket about 5 minutes walk away.
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We met people from Germany, the US, Singapore, Denmark and from the next suburb from us! Most were pretty considerate and everyone shared readily of their experiences in NZ. Talking with the other travelers is a great way to learn more about traveling on a budget.
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Posted by Jerry on November 5th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music, Travel
The tee-shirt read “I spend Tuesday nights in the Bog” But on closer inspection it turned out that The Bog is in fact an Irish bar located at the end of the City Mall in Christchurch New Zealand – and every Tuesday night there is a traditional Irish music session.
Traditional? Well if you count a guy playing trumpet while standing on a table traditional… but yes the music is mainly old-school Irish celtic.
So Eve, having made sure I brought the fiddle over, suggested we have a few tunes at the Bog. I was just going to sit in a corner somewhere unobtrusive and play odd tunes as I knew them – especially when they said they were recording that particular night for a live album.
I was directed over to where other fiddle players were seated. Eve introduced me around to a few of the main players and there was a kind of band all mic-ed up and they would lead the session.
Then this guy leans over and asks if I play anything other than Irish? So I said sure – how about some scottish? and started off a couple of tunes. Suddenly it became apparent that most of the place had gone quiet and everyone was watching me. The fiddle layer in the band then leant over and said “wanna swap places?” I declined, but a couple of the main players came over and complimented my playing.
Then the session got going and to my surprise I knew almost all the tunes.
At one point Neville – with the trumpet – dragged me out to play with him on the front microphone. And when Athol Highlanders March came on it was only natural that I should dance to the tune as I played. That seemed to get a few people going and soon there was another fiddle player out and dancing too. So I kind of turned reluctantly into a guest celebrity.
It was a grand session – very lively and a load of fun. And it’s on every Tuesday evening – so if you’re travelling through, why not pop in for a pint of the good stuff and have a few tunes yourself 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on November 1st, 2007 — Posted in History, Journal, Motorcycling, Travel
NZ Canterbury Musuem, Christchurch
This is a good regional museum – well equipped and laid out. The collection is arranged chronologically from the first peoples – Iwi tawhito- whenua hou (Ancient peoples – new lands) covering first settlment artifacts, including stone axxes and adzes and a form of bow drill. There was an interesting note that there s little evidence of tribal warfare until the Moa (flightless bird) was hunted to extinction, with the speculation that resource pressures brought competition and conflict.
Decorative arts from early European settlement are well represented with glass and ceramics and furniture and costumes.
‘Christchurch Street’ – a recreated Victorian period street makes for a good immersive experience of life in the Victorian times.
But perhaps the most fascinating and unique exhibition is that devoted to Antarctic exploration. I was particularly taken by the steampunk looking dome used at Hallett Station. The dome was made from fibreglass and assembled in place by US Navy Seabees in 1957. The dome has a tongue and groove wooden floor and was assembled using brass bolts to ensure that there were no magnetic components. It was used as a weather observation post and housed a sensitive variograph which recorded tiny changes in the Earth’s magnetic field. The observatory was kept free of magnetic contamination by ensuring that it contained no metal furniture or other items.
The dome was recovered from the base in 2004 when the Station was closed and the base site cleaned up.
Another interesting exhibit was Ivan Mauger’s 1970 winning speedway motorcycle. He had won the 1968 and 1969 World speedway championships, and undertook a US tour, during which an American industrialist told him that if he won the championship a record third time running he would gold plate the motorcycle. After the 1970 win, the bike was shipped to the US where it was dismantled and every component was gold plated over the succeeding 18 months at a cost of US$500,000 – even the pistons and valves are gold plated. But otherwise the bike is in exactly the condition in which it fininished the last race – so in theory at least it is a fully functional motorcycle.
That bike can be seen today in Canterbury museum as a piece of motorcycling history.
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