Opawaho River Stories
a journey with many twists and turns
Welcome back to this newsletter. It has been a long time between posts, as seems to happen more than I’d like. Between work and kids there just hasn’t been much time to sit down and think, let alone turn that thinking into words. But the kids are getting bigger, as kids tend to do, and that means that I have a little bit more time to focus on some of my hobbies. Two of these are running along the Ōpāwaho (Heathcote) River, and writing about the Ōpāwaho River. The river ran along the boundary of the house I grew up in, and I’ve lived in other riverside suburbs, including Beckenham and Woolston. From where we now live in Somerfield, the Ōpāwaho is just a block away, and walks, runs, bike rides, and working bees on its banks are a regular occurrence.
There are local histories of some of the suburbs along the river, including Beckenham and Opawa, which are valuable records of those specific areas. Gordon Ogilvie, who has written extensively about Banks Peninsula, includes a number of the suburbs that abut the river in his history of the Port Hills, but there isn’t yet a history of the river itself - an analog of Robert Lamb’s “From The Banks of the Avon”. The Avon, perhaps due to its meandering course through the central city, with the images of punters in boater hats ducking under weeping willows, is part of Christchurch’s image - or at least the one it portrays to tourists. I’d argue that the Ōpāwaho, while maybe less picturesque, has played as important a role in the development of the city as the Avon. I’m hoping to collect and share some of those stories here.
I can’t make any promises as to how regular or how long each post will be. Hopefully regular enough. If you, or someone you know, has stories or memories of the river, then I’m always interested to hear them. If you can think of someone who must just want to read about it, then do send them a link. If you were hoping for more … I dunno, angry blogs about stadia or local politics then I’m sorry. I might get back to that later, you never know.