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christchurch: general info
· city links
· history
things to do
· hostels
· tours
· photos
· trivia
· read reviews
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Early Maori history suggest that the first inhabitants of the Canterbury area were the Maori tribes Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu. The Maori named Christchurch Otautahi, "the place of Tuatahi" (a Maori chief of around 1750).
European settlement began in the 1820s with a few British families farming on
the Canterbury Plains and Banks Peninsula.
Nearly 800 English settlers arrived on the "first four ships" (the Randolf, the Charlotte Jane, the Cressy and the Sir George Seymour) at Lyttelton Harbour. Four oak trees are planted in Cathedral Square to commemorate their arrival with settler's stories displayed on plaques below the trees.
The new arrivals set out on their journey across the Bridal Path (Port Hills)
to a newly founded city named after Godley's University College at Oxford, Christ
Church.
Throughout the 1850s European settlement progressed and with 50 years of their
arrival, settlers had built a Cathedral, a number of churches, schools, and a
university. The Christchurch economy was initially built on primary products and
export trade but today Christchurch is the business hub for the South Island with
a strong industrial, manufacturing and agricultural focus.
Christchurch has the only full scale international airport in the South Island and has played a dramatic part in the research and exploration of Antarctic.
If you know of a great destination we're missing,
review it for us!!
If you're gonna travel abroad, make sure you are prepared... take it from us, travel insurance is an absolute must!
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