We’re at the airport ready to board! While we’re flying here are some facts about Christchurch to familiarise yourselves with where we’re headed:
- Christchurch is the third largest city in New Zealand.
- It’s official Maori name is Ōtautahi.
- The area of Christchurch was first settled by moa-hunting tribes in 1250AD.
- Christchurch became the first official city of New Zealand in 1856.
- The city has a population of 367,700 and covers a land mass of 550 sqm.
- 4,423 earthquakes were recorded in the Canterbury region above a magnitude 3.0 between 2010 and 2012.
- As a result of the earthquakes, around 50,000 new homes are expected to be built in Christchurch by 2028, with the total cost of rebuilding estimated at NZ$20-30 billion.
- There are 71 Anglican parishes in the Christchurch Diocese.
- Explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton used Christchurch as their departure point for Antarctic explorations.
- If you dug straight through the centre of the earth from Christchurch you’d end up in A Coruna, Spain, making it one of only a dozen antipodal cities in the world.
Please keep our team in your prayers, look forward to blogging during the week!
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