Birthday Girl

Saturday 25 December 2005; Vanessa's birthday. She had a really cool birthday and enjoyed opening presents from friends and family from near and afar.

A trip to Godley Head... sounds great, eh lads! This is a headland that extends from the Port Hills below Christchurch. The entrance to Lyttleton Harbour is south of this headland, which is the main sea freight terminal serving Chch.

The road from Sumner leads to Summit Road, a great winding road through the Port Hills, and leads to Godley Head.

Also north of Godley Head is a beach called 'Taylor's Mistake', the name is said to have been given when Captain Taylor of the US ship Vulga mistook the bay for the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour and ran aground! And so his folly is remembered forever for eternity, perhaps Taylor wasn't married and that was his penance?

Lyttleton Harbour, from Godley Head.

Godley Head was an important military position in WW2. The rapid advancement of the Japanese forces in early 1942 placed New Zealand under direct threat of invasion. In short, they put up a battery of 3 gun emplacements.

Sumner seen in the foreground, New Brighton in the Nth/Sth spit and Pegasus Bay as the coast curves north. Pines Beach, Kaiapoi, is roughly where the yellow blob is.