Christchurch: Gateway to Antarctica, rich in heritage, recovering from crises

WITH an abundance of gothic stone architecture and a large pedestrianised area downtown, Christchurch is more like a quaint old city in Europe than a brash colonial metropolis.‍

The Christchurch Botanic Gardens, where I’m standing in the photograph above, are next to the Canterbury Museum, founded in 1870, and also on the edge of the vast, downtown, Hagley Park and across the road from the old university buildings, now the Arts Centre.‍

The museum portico

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Part of the Arts Centre from the Museum side of Rolleston Street (above), and a view from inside one of the Arts Centre buildings toward an interior courtyard (below)

‍This older part of Christchurch has long impressed visitors, such as the French intellectual André Siegfried, who wrote after a visit to Christchurch in 1904 that:

The first impression of the new arrival at Christchurch is, “This is England.” And in fact the resemblance is striking. The houses are not…