Ferrymead Heritage Park, Christchurch NZ

Written by Paul Sweeney.

It was the last morning of a short break on New Zealand's South Island for my birthday and we needed something to do for an hour or so before returning our hire car and heading to the airport for our flight home.

We'd done the whale watching trip that was planned to be the centrepiece of the trip, so I Googled, "Things to do near me" expecting the usual results, but found this place: the Ferrymead Heritage Park right there in the city of Christchurch. The blurb read, "Ferrymead Heritage Park is a museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, housing groups with historical themes, mainly transport related. Formerly known as Ferrymead Historic Park, it was founded in 1964 by groups, local government bodies and other interested parties." My interest piqued, I checked out the photos online:

Luckily Billy had no better ideas, so off we went to the park which was a mere 20 minute drive away. Here is the park's own description of itself:

Ferrymead owes its importance in history to the hills dividing Christchurch from the port of Lyttelton.  Pioneers transported their goods over the steep Bridle Path from Lyttelton to Heathcote, where punts were used to cross the river into early Christchurch. Later traffic came by sea up the estuary. In 1863, the first railway in New Zealand was opened, running from Ferrymead into central Christchurch. This railway line was the inspiration for Ferrymead Heritage Park and the restored railway line follows part of the route today. 

​Ferrymead Park features an early 1900s (Edwardian) township and the park has a variety of restored cottages plus a school house, church and businesses which reflect the period and allow visitors to experience life for the early residents of Christchurch including the smell of a coal range and the sounds of a tram rattling past the door. 

​There are a large array of heritage exhibitions and displays that are open for viewing, particularly on Sundays. These displays are owned and operated by individual societies and manned by their volunteers. They have restored and displayed their collections for you to enjoy and these include tractors, fire engines, aeroplanes, trams, trains, cars, printing, post and telegraph, model railway, photography and much much more. If you are interested in a particular society's display, please contact the society in advance of your visit, to ensure that volunteers will be on site. 

In the end we had only an hour or so to explore, so I focussed on the historic motoring displays and skipped everything else - so there is definitely plenty to see on any future return visit. I took plenty of photos and some video clips which I afterwards decided to put together in the video below for our YouTube channel followers to enjoy. Unfortunately I didn't have my Go Pro camera with me, so the video isn't of quite the quality I would have liked, but you can at least see some of the display.

For more information, please visit the park's website by clicking here.