This site is for the Heathcote, Horotane or Avoca Valleys and is written up by the people who live here. Feel free to look around and see what is happening at the moment, find out what we have for sale and catch up on the local news.
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St Mary's Village Hall
Heathcote's St. Mary's Village Hall has a varied programme of events for you to try. The hall is located on the corner of Martindales Road and Trustcotts Road. Click the link to find out what is happening.
Coming soon...
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You write in and we update it. That means the news you read here is always changing. So come on Heathcote, be sure to send your story now and come back soon to see it in print!
Our new gallery is open.
The Heathcote Photo Gallery is worth a visit. It's full of interesting photos of our valley from past to present. Our gallery never shuts!
[Phillips & King Publishers have published a fully revised and updated edition of The Port Hills Of Christchurch by Gordon Ogilvie. Publication date: 8 October 2009. Info at bpbooks at xtra.co.nz.]
In the 30 years since The Port Hills of Christchurch was first published it has become a collector's item - a prized resource for all those in Christchurch, and beyond, who cherish the hills that dominate the city's southern skyline.
Gordon Ogilvie, himself a child of Horotane Valley, has proved a deeply knowledgeable, approachable and articulate guide to the history, people and topography of this endlessly interesting area, which stretches from Godley Head to Gebbies Pass.
To many people the life of a missionary must seem rather a pleasant one. After all they are usually stationed in
countries with warm climates, luscious fruit and fragrant flowers. Their days are spent acting as pastor, doctor and
teacher to a grateful populace who have not had the benefits (?) of much of the technology that the modern world
has to offer.
Sound idyllic? Think again. Collin and Janet Harrington who now live in Heathcote Valley, previously spent a lot of their time overseas as
missionaries. Much of it in warm climates with luscious fruit and fragrant flowers, but idyllic? I don't think so.
Here, Collin tells his own story of just another day in the jungle.
By now we hope that most of the residents of Heathcote, Horotane and Avoca Valleys will have visited the St Mary's Village Hall to admire the completed Stage 1 renovation work. If you haven’t, now that the days are longer and warmer, take a wander past and have a look in the windows.
Chances are there will be a group there as the hall is used on every week day, and they will no doubt be happy for you to take a look around. The new facility looks amazing and after a number of larger events, we know that the kitchen, with the updated oven and dishwasher, works exceptionally well. On these lovely warmer days most groups are also maximizing the use of the large deck.
The Heathcote Valley Community Association's efforts to secure pedestrian safety at the Tunnel Road/Port Hills Road interchange are proving to be a struggle. It seems our letter to our Mayor, Bob Parker, landed on the right desk however.
A meeting was set up at the Linwood offices, attended by Mark Miller, and Steve Hughes, Christchurch City Council traffic planners, Bob Todd and Jo Daly from the Community Board, and Ian McLeod and Drina Sisarich from the Association. But will the community get any results?
The wee shop on the corner of Station Road and Flavell Street has had almost as many lives as a cat. Some of its past uses have been as a general store, a Four Square Grocery, a dairy, and shops selling hardware, sandwiches and pies.
Bits have been added on to its structure and bits taken away but basically it is the same building that has sat and watched several generations of villagers grow up. Today it operates as a tofu factory, ‘Bean Me Up’, run by its owners, Ruth and Bernie McLean, who live conveniently close in the big old brick house behind it.
[Local lad Timothy Mostert, and his school friends, recently made a memorable visit to Europe. Highlights were visits to areas with famous ANZAC connections.
In
the last of our three part series, they write about their impressions
of the First World War battlefield of Gallipoli. The initial landings are commemorated by the date of our Anzac Day. Among the dead were 2721 young New Zealanders, about a quarter of those who had landed on the peninsula.]
Amongst our stops were Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair and the museum (featuring the coolest shrapnel we have ever seen; bullets that had hit each other in mid flight and melted together).
Chunuk Bair seemed peaceful. From hearing tales on the bus of the battle for the hill that took place there 94 years ago, to seeing both the New Zealand and the Turkish Memorials standing proudly on top of the hill was moving.
[The combined contributions of several members of the New Zealand Railway Research Yahoo group, and Ferrymead archivist John Robb, have enabled Peter Ross to prepare the following notes. Readers are invited to correct him if he has erred in any way in his observations or in interpreting the various comments.]
Currently labelled Bridge 3 Main South Line, but originally referred to as Bridge No.1 (see alteration to drawing 1531), the Martindales Rd railway underpass is quite possibly the oldest extant railway bridge in the country, depending on how much original material remains of the up Opawa Bridge. It is also rare if not unique in having brick abutments.
A sharp eyed Heathcote Valley resident was on hand recently to photograph Ferrymead Heritage Park's latest arrival. A 21.3 metre, 26 tonne railway turntable has been delivered and will eventually form part of the new National Railway Museum. This coincides with the Christchurch City Council recently voting $50,000 towards the cost of its establishment.
Construction of the museum is expected to begin at the end of next year
and is due for completion by 2013. When installed in the museum's
central display area, the turntable will play a major role in showing
off the collection of rolling stock due to its ability to turn the largest locomotives.
