· A powerful story can be told of the establishment of Christchurch by reading the Avon River’s many layers of cultural, heritage and landscape features.
· The Avon River serves as both a time-line and a frame of reference for a trail of heritage sites extending from the city’s original Ngai Tahu food-gathering place, now the Avon Loop, to the city’s estuary.
· The sites are selected to demonstrate the development of gardens and villages, both Maori and Pakeha.
· Each site would have an information panel recording the local provenance and significance of the site.
· A heritage tourist attraction that can be marketed for both domestic use (school visits, community bus tours) and as a major commodity for in-bound tourist companies.
Considerations:
· Some of these sites will require the city’s urgent commitment to restore and protect architecture relating to the gardens and their history on the sites along the Avon.
· Some of the sites are in the residential red zone and require preservation by CERA and private insurance companies.
· Bus tours along the trail in association with Ellerslie Flower Show and the Spring River Festival have proved very popular.
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