Jelly and Ice Cream, Anyone?

It’s official, Christchurch is 150 years old. So how does a city, or more to the point the city council, celebrate such an event? Of course, in time honoured fashion you throw a party and bake a birthday cake. Not just any old cake, mind you, but a 150m long carrot cake, weighing 2.6 tonnes. I don’t know how many eggs were used or if its length is a record but I’m sure Norris McWhirter would…if he was alive!

If you are interested in such things, Christchurch became New Zealand’s first city on 31st July, 1856 when Queen Victoria signed the Letters patent or Royal Charter. This enabled Christchurch to become a base for a bishop. Later in the year, on Christmas Day, Henry John Chitty Harper was enthroned as the first bishop of Christchurch, (Thanks to The Press for those facts).

Last Saturday, in between moving a few things into our new home (a soon to be published blog article) and playing hockey, we went along to the birthday bash in Cathedral Square. Sure enough, spread out - on what I’m sure were car boot sale tables - over the length of the square was the cake. Being dedicated athletes preparing for a hockey game and subscribing to the mantra: ‘my body is a temple’; we promptly scoffed a deliciously iced, large piece of cake. Mmmmmmmmmmmm! It certainly went down well and luckily did not come back up all over the hockey pitch, 30 minutes later.

Guardian of the Cake

For us the highlight of the celebrations was the cake, and to be honest it was the primary reason for going, but there were plenty of other things going on. There were also 150 flights to Sydney to win if you came in fancy dress. However, I’m not quite sure if the council was sending the right message by giving away Sydney flights, as part of Christchurch’s celebrations! The usual collection of annoying ‘entertainers’ that earn an income travelling the length and breadth of the country attending events like this were there: jugglers, stilt-walkers, clowns and face painters. A passing nod was given to maori culture by inviting a kappa haka cultural group and kids were entertained by The Wobbles (a cheesy, bunch of dancing idiots dressed in bright primary colours). Another activity was the “Tram Jam.” Maybe McWhirter also knew the record for the number of people squeezed into a tram but I can tell you Christchurch managed …Actually, I think I will let you work out the actual number of people. On a tangent here, but in Mozambique we were crammed in (actually some people were only half in) a Toyota Hi-Ace that contained 25 people, lots of bags and two buckets of fish. It was a very pungent journey, particularly when a bucket of fish tipped over, and certainly made me appreciate British Rail’s efforts better.

Luckily, the weather was good for the birthday bash in Cathedral Square, but overall, I thought the celebrations were somewhat unambitious and needed promoting better. After all, celebrating 150 years and being the oldest city in New Zealand is quite a big event! There are not even that many cities in the mother country older than that. But for me, the main disappointment was the fact that there was not any jelly and ice cream at the party!