PlanetEye

The Christchurch Writers Festival is being held from 5 to 7 September at the Christchurch Town Hall. Three top writers -legendary war correspondent  Robert Fisk (Lebanon/UK), Xinran Xue (China /UK) and Kate Atkinson (UK) - are headlining the festival of over twenty international and forty New Zealand writers that will be participating in seminars, workshops, and panels.

Download the Full Writers Festival Programme here.

The Christchurch Art Gallery is host to a Laurence Aberhart exhibit until 12 October 2008. Laurence Aberhart is one of New Zealand's foremost photographers, creating images steeped in history. Using a 100 year old camera, Aberhart's photographs portray the monuments, facades, and interiors at the heart of New Zealand's landscape.

The annual Christchurch Primary Schools Cultural Festival is on from 18th August to 22nd August at the Christhchurch Town Hall. Featuring multicultural performances by over 60 primary and intermediate schools, the Cultural Festival hopes to celebrate cultural diversity. There's music, performances, a visual and Wearable Art Exhibition and Pageant.

The Cultural Festival has been running for the past twenty-seven years, with each year getting stronger, livelier and more colorful.  

Evening concerts run Monday 18 to Thursday 21 August at 7pm. Daytime matinees are on Wednesday 20, Thursday 21 and Friday 22 August at 12.30pm. Tickets are available at Ticketek.

I was walking along Worchester Boulevard the other day and spied a couple old Red Telephone boxes. I'd walked past them for years without thought, but having recently read an article by The Wizard of Christchurch about ‘The Telephone Wars' they caught my eye.

Very few of the old red telephone boxes still exist. But those that survived only did so through the determination and persistence of the Wizard. Back in 1988, Telecom (the country's only telecommunications service) decided to paint all the traditional red telephone boxes pale blue. There over 500 of them and by the time Telecom had painted 90 of them blue, the Wizard was seeing red and organized a campaign of ‘historic restoration by direct action'.

Targeting the now blue telephone box besides Captain Scott's statue opposite the then Christchurch Visitors Center, the Wizard repainted it red.

Telecom repainted it blue.

The Wizard repainted it red.

And so it went on...until Telecom backed down.

The telephone boxes remained red, but it turned out the Telecom was planning on removing all the boxes by the end of the year and replacing them with modern plastic boxes. So it was a bittersweet victory at best.

But the ‘Telephone Box Wars' have not been forgotten. Sitting alongside the tram stop outside the Christchurch Arts Center is a traditional Red Telephone Box.

Don't believe me ... come see for yourself.

Christchurch is a city made for walking. It's flat, compact, and full of interesting sights and places to visit.

You don't even really need a map. Just start walking. You really cannot get lost as all the central city streets have been laid out in a grid formation.

And if you want a little structure to your walk, there are plenty of options to choose from.

There is the Christchurch City Walking Tours, run by The Christchurch Personal Guiding Service. The walks start from the red and black kiosk in Cathedral Square. The walks happen twice a day in summertime (morning and afternoon) and once daily (afternoon) in the wintertime. It's a great way to get an indepth view of Christchurch, especially if you're on limited time.

The Christchurch City Council has put out a brochure detailing three different walks around Christchurch. Each walk is 45 minutes long and combined create a trip around all the highlights of the central city. This brochure can be downloaded or picked up from the Cathedral Square Visitors Center.

There also a couple of themed walks worth taking.

The Writers Trail brochure provides information and a detailed map for anyone interested in following the trail of notable Christchurch writers.

And the Antarctic Historic Trail walkway covers landmarks relating to Christchurch's relationship with the Antarctic and Captain Scott's expedition.

Happy walking...

With the cost of gas sky high, sometimes it's cheaper (and much more environmentally friendly) to stay at home and do your sightseeing on the internet.

You can easily explore Christchurch and it's surrounds by visiting Panoramic Earth Christchurch. Yo can even travel as far afield as Arthur's Pass, which at the moment is closed due to bad weather and snow.

Or you can head over to Lyttleton and check out the marina and the Lyttleton Timeball.  From there, it's a short trip to Governor's Bay, Diamond Harbour, and Akaroa.

And there are also great views of all the interesting sites in central Christchurch.

Once upon a time there was a house called the Paua Shell House. Located in Bluff, a small coastal Southland town, it was the creation of Fred and Myrtle Flutey. They had spent years lining the walls of their lounge with the shells of the Paua, a species of abalone found only in the waters around New Zealand.

But Bluff's iconic Paua Shell House is no more. Following the death of first Myrtle in 2000 and then Fred in 2001, their grandson Ross Bowen had bought the house and shell collection from the rest of the family. He then stripped the house of the shell collection (rumoured to be over 1000) and sold the house, angering the local community who thought the collection should be donated to the town of Bluff.

Now the famous paua shell collection has resurfaced in Christchurch, featured at the Canterbury Museum.

Fred & Myrtle's Paua Shell House at Canterbury Museum is open from 9.00am daily, with sessions running throughout the day. This is kiwiana at it's best. You can watch a short film that explains how this unassuming couple created such an amazing and unusual house that known throughout the country. Then step into their famous pauau shell lounge...