1.
Christchurch
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Christchurch 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 Islands east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula and it is home to 389,700 residents, making it New Zealands third most-populous urban area behind Auckland and Wellington. The city was named by the Canterbury Association, which settled the province of Canterbury. The name of Christchurch was agreed on at the first meeting of the association on 27 March 1848 and it was suggested by John Robert Godley, who had attended Christ Church, Oxford. Some early writers called the town Christ Church, but it was recorded as Christchurch in the minutes of the management committee of the association, Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand. The Avon River flows through the centre of the city, with a park located along its banks. At the request of the Deans brothers, the river was named after the River Avon in Scotland, the usual Māori name for Christchurch is Ōtautahi. This was originally the name of a site by the Avon River near present-day Kilmore Street. The site was a dwelling of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi. The Ōtautahi name was adopted in the 1930s, prior to that the Ngāi Tahu generally referred to the Christchurch area as Karaitiana, a transliteration of the English word Christian. The citys name is abbreviated by New Zealanders to Chch. In New Zealand Sign Language, the name is the fingerspelled letter C signed twice, with the second to the right of the first. 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 followed by the Waitaha tribe. Following tribal warfare, the Waitaha were dispossessed by the Ngati Mamoe tribe and they were in turn subjugated by the Ngāi Tahu tribe, who remained in control until the arrival of European settlers. Their abandoned holdings were taken over by the Deans brothers in 1843 who stayed, the First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton Harbour. These sailing vessels were the Randolph, Charlotte Jane, Sir George Seymour, the Charlotte Jane was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850. The Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, the name Christ Church was decided prior to the ships arrival, at the Associations first meeting, on 27 March 1848
2.
Avonhead
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The suburb of Avonhead is located in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Avonhead has two primary schools (Avonhead Primary School and Merrin School, a mall, and several parks. The area itself was referred to as Avonwood in early records, but Avonhead became the common term, major parks include Avonhead Park, Crosbie Park, Hyde Park, Ferrier Park and Burnside Park. There are various smaller reserves such as Stewarts Bush, Cricklewood Reserve, Westgrove Park, Avonhead School is a primary school in Avonhead, Christchurch. The school has typically between 500 and 600 students and is a decile 7 school and it has students from years 1 -8, therefore covers intermediate schooling. Most students from Avonhead School go on to secondary schooling at Riccarton High School or Burnside High School, the school has 22 classrooms and built a new school hall in 2010/2011
3.
River mouth
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A river mouth is the part of a river where the river flows into a larger river, a lake, a reservoir or an ocean. The water from a river can enter the body in a variety of different ways. The motion of the river mainly depends on the density of the river compared to the receiving water and any ambient motion in the receiving water. If the river water is denser than the surface of the receiving water, the river water will then either form an underflow or an interflow within the lake. Alongside these advective transports, inflowing water will also diffuse, at the mouth of a river, the change in flow condition can cause the river to drop any sediment it is carrying. This sediment deposition can generate a variety of landforms, such as deltas, sand bars, spits, many places in England take their names from their positions at the mouths of rivers, for example Plymouth, Sidmouth and Great Yarmouth. Confluence River delta Estuary Liman Aber and Inver
4.
Pegasus Bay
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Pegasus Bay, earlier known as Cooks Mistake, is a bay on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The bay has a beach and runs from Banks Peninsula to the Waipara River mouth. The city of Christchurch is at the end of the bay. Other than dolphins including the endemic, endangered Hectors Dolphins that regularly live or visit into the waters, whales such as southern right, the first mate of the brig Pegasus, William Stewart, gave Pegasus Bay its name. The captain of the ship, Captain Samuel Chase, lays claim to correcting James Cooks charts by determining that Banks Island was in fact a peninsula, as late as 1843, the bay was referred to as Cooks Mistake. The MV Pegasus Bay was also the name of a container ship that operated with a variety of owners from 1978 to 2002. It was made into a Triang model ship under another name, MV City of Durban
5.
Avon Heathcote Estuary
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The Estuary of the Heathcote and Avon Rivers / Ihutai is the largest semi-enclosed shallow estuary in Canterbury and remains one of New Zealand’s most important coastal wetlands. It is well known as an important habitat for migratory birds. It was once valued for mahinga kai. The Avon River enters the estuary from the northwest, and the Heathcote River from the south-west, the most prominent features of the inlet are the single deep channel between Rapanui Rock and Brighton Spit. The estuarys official name became Estuary of the Heathcote and Avon Rivers / Ihutai as a result of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust was formed in 2002. This resulted from requests from the community to act in the estuary’s long-term interests. The members of the Trust include representatives from the community, existing groups, representatives from Christchurch City Council, Environment Canterbury, tāngata whenua and other agencies
6.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
7.
Heathcote River
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The Heathcote River lies within the city boundaries of Christchurch, New Zealand, and is fed from springs near Templetons Road and also receives wet weather flows from as far west as Pound Road. It meanders around the base of the Port Hills from west to south-east, the catchment of the Heathcote River extends to the suburb of Yaldhurst. It drains an area of approximately 100 square kilometres, with the Cashmere Stream the largest tributary and it flows through Wigram, Hillmorton, Hoon Hay, Spreydon, Cracroft, Cashmere, Beckenham, St Martins, Opawa, Woolston and Ferrymead. It drains into the Avon Heathcote Estuary before draining into Pegasus Bay, the original name of this river, Ō-pa-waho means The Place of the Outward Pā, or The Outpost and refers to this pā being an outpost of Kaiapoi. The pā was built in a location just downstream of the present Opawa Road Bridge. It was a place for Ngāi Tahu travelling between Kaiapoi and Horomaka. The surrounding area was an important mahinga kai, a source of food, especially tuere. The river historically meandered through extensive wetlands prior to urbanisation, historic survey maps from the mid-19th century indicate that the habitat that the river passed through was abundant in flax, toetoe, raupo, tutu and ferns and was dotted with ti kouka. The river corridor was low-lying and very wet, when the Waimakariri River rose and flowed across the plains, even higher ground was prone to flooding. Over many centuries of using the river as a source and transport corridor. The swamp forest around the river provided gathering grounds for water fowl, traps were regularly set for inanga, pātiki, and tuna. The Heathcote River is named after Sir William Heathcote, secretary of the Canterbury Association, the Heathcote River provided Woolston plentiful water for industries like wool scouring. In 1966 the Woolston industrial sewer was built, and up until that time the river had become increasingly polluted. Flooding had also become a problem and in 1986 the Woolston Cut began to flood waters to bypass a long loop of the river. The 510-metre long project, which cost NZ$2m, had as a consequence that the trees on the riverbank died as far upstream as the Opawa bridge, and that banks collapsed. As a mitigating measure, the Woolston Tidal Barrage was built at the end of the cut. During normal flow regimes, the Heathcote remains to flow through the Woolston Loop, but despite the Woolston Cut, parts of the Heathcote River flood about annually. During 2008, Christchurch City Council consulted on a management plan for the section of river located between Colombo Street and Opawa Road, which was adopted on 9 April 2009
8.
Riccarton, New Zealand
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Riccarton is a suburb of Christchurch. It is due west of the city centre, separated from it by Hagley Park, upper Riccarton is to the west of Riccarton. Vicki Buck is the Councillor for Riccarton, on 12 April 1840, the ship Sarah and Elizabeth lands Herriot, McGillivray, Ellis, Shaw and McKinnon who establish a farm at Riccarton. They are the first European settlers on the plains, in January 1841, they abandon their attempt to farm in the area. Riccarton House was the commissioned by Jane Deans in circa 1855. The Deans brothers, who along with the Gebbies and the Mansons were the group of Europeans to settle in Christchurch on the same site as the first group in 1843. A replica of their original cob cottage is on the grounds, Riccarton House is now a restaurant and function centre, and conducts regular tours. The Deans brothers, John and William, named the suburb after the parish in Ayrshire, Scotland and they were also responsible for naming the River Avon after the river of the same name in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Antonio Hall is located on Riccarton Road, a large property with 279 rooms and once described as one of the finest in Christchurch and vicinity, it has been left to decay despite a Category II listing with Heritage New Zealand. Adjacent to Riccarton House is Riccarton Bush, a prominent feature also known as Deans Bush, the Māori word Pūtaringamotu means either the place of an echo or the severed ear(ref Pūtaringamotu means either ‘the place of an echo’ or ‘the severed ear’. The latter is an expression referring to ‘bush isolated from the rest’. It was one of only two remnants of the original forest that covered the Canterbury plains, escaping the huge fires swept across the province during the moa hunter period. The other remnant, at Papanui, was cut down in the 1850s and it is dominated by kahikatea trees. A predator-proof perimeter fence has now been erected, with the hope of reintroducing kiwi to the reserve, in 1848, Scots brothers John and William Deans signed an agreement with the New Zealand Company to protect what was originally about 22 hectares of the kahikatea forest at Pūtaringamotu. In 1914, the 6.4 hectares that remained of Deans Bush was formally protected, spearheaded by prominent citizens of Christchurch, including Harry Ell and botanist Dr. Leonard Cockayne. Riccarton Bush has played an important role in the history of New Zealand entomology, one of the first collections was of a plume moth Pterophorus monospilalis in 1859 which is now in the Fereday collection held in the Canterbury Museum. Thirty nine families of Lepidoptera are found in New Zealand,27 of these occur in Riccarton Bush, the moths of Riccarton Bush represent the majority of these families. The bag moth Mallobathra metrosema is only known to occur in Riccarton Bush, the Riccarton Racecourse Hotel is considered to be one of the most haunted places in New Zealand
