Canterbury Plains

Asburton (population 21,000) is on the Canterbury Plains - vaste (by our standards) alluvial plains, created by and still being added to by the braided rivers that sweep down off the Soutgern Alps carrying rocks and silt, and the dust of countless dry nor'west winds.

The wind blows in from the Tasman sea damp, moisture laden.  It hits the western side of  the mountains that form the backbone of our island (north/south, more or less the entire 500 miles), rises, cools, dumps its rain on the west coast and the mountain tops with just enough flowing down the east to feed the rivers and build the plains. Why no plains on the West Coast? I have no idea actually and should find out. They get the bulk of the water.

On our side of the mountains the winds are dry and hot and, at the height of nor'wester season, howl day and night, whistling through power lines, burning vegetation, turning farmland to dust and generally driving the human inhabitants slighty loopy.

These days the plains are irrigated and not subject to the debilitating droughts we experienced in my childhood., and despite being what we cally bony (lots of rocks and gravel and not much soil) with the application of fertilizer and lots of lime to sweeten it most of the plain is rich and fertile. Some parts even have deep rich silty soils where ancient estuaries and swamps laid down plenty of silt and organic material (great spud growing land😁). (Translation: spuds = potatoes)

In summary, Ashburton is more or less flat (hence the bikes for new families), has plenty of water from deep aquifers, is positioned at the main crossing on the Ashburton River since colonial times, has really wide streets (2 lanes of traffic, a bike lane each way, parking both sides, footpaths and grass verges both sides.  Some streets even have a double line of trees along the middle. The original town layout was square(ish) bounded by these tree lined avenues - Oak Grove, Walnut Avenue, Chalmers Avenue and River Terrace.

Big trees are a big deal here.

The Domain (Walnut Avenue)

Walnut Avenue - looking east

Oak Grove

Harrison Street (the continuation of Walnut Avenue) - looking west. Squint and you can see the mountains in the distance. Mt Somers. My paternal family started its New Zealnd story at Mt Sommers

A 100 (or so) year old house style

Wide suburban streets (this is a side street somewhere - not unusual for here)

Lots of trees and still big views of open sky.  The light can be brutal here.

Early colonial home. 2 storeyed houses are very rare here.

Bungalows are usual.

I haven't added lots of house photos but there is a distinctive developments of styles through the decades - weather boards, red brick and rough-casting, coloured concrete blocks, limestone blocks, ...different roof styles, mostly quite low angles as snow is generally not an issue here on the plains.  Our houses are wooden framed (unless you have some engineered architectural wonder with steel frames) for reasons to do with earthquakes. All that brick and stone on the outside is just cladding and prettification. It isn't structural.

Next week I'll try to post a video of the garden and house where i am living with Bro's family.  I am no movie maker and will use only phone so although I have planned the route in my head it is bound to be a bit confusing. The building here, house and sheds, are all clad in corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) because Bro wanted to replicate the look of the earliest colonial farm buildings here in Canterbury, which was not blessed as other parts of the country were with forests of big trees from which to cut weatherboards.

Watch this space, as they say.