CITY AND PENINSULA provides a refreshing and fascinating look at the historic buildings and sites of Christchurch, Lyttelton, Akaroa and Banks Peninsula. Christchurch is the largest city on New Zealand’s South Island, with some of the country’s most historically significant and architecturally interesting old buildings.

This book celebrates the region’s rich and varied historical heritage, unfortunately much of which was demolished, often needlessly, in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes.

A local historian and two professional photographers have combined to create a generously illustrated book with an informative text covering the region’s history from the earliest years of Polynesian settlement through to the middle of the 20th century. This book shows the outstanding buildings and most significant sites in the area. It also features humbler buildings and places that tell of the daily lives of the region’s ordinary citizens in the past.

The Christchurch and Akaroa Civic Trusts have worked for more than four decades to ensure that demolition and decay do not further erode the historic characters of Christchurch, Lyttelton and Akaroa. The Trusts have fought to maintain the region’s sense of its past, sustained by heritage buildings and historic sites. They have now joined forces to publish this book, which celebrates the rich heritage they have helped to preserve.

Because many parts of that heritage remain threatened, the Trusts also wanted to stimulate public interest and increase understanding of its importance.

This book has been published to make the community better aware of the variety and value of the region’s historical heritage and to build widespread support for the Trusts’ efforts to preserve that heritage.