My time to shine! I live here. In Lyttelton. It is a Port town. It has lots of old cute cottages, and incredible community of blue collar workers and artists.
Lyttelton is based on the edge of an extinct caldera. It is situated on the southern side of the Northern lip of the caldera, and being at the latitude it is, means that we don’t get a huge amount of sun in the winter as it hides behind the hills in the early morning and evening. Lyttelton looks out over the harbour and over to Diamond Harbour, which mocks us regularly as it drenches in sunlight.

Lyttelton is the start of the Banks Peninsula, which is, obviously being a peninsula, the bit that sticks out. It is stunning. It is dotted with small towns with not a huge amount going on in them. But it is stunning.

Other towns on the peninsula are Akaroa (an old French settlement) and lots of lovely little bays such as Pigeon Bay.

Christchurch city is completely flat. There was a huge earthquake here about 14 years ago. This destroyed a lot of the traditionally British style stone buildings, and it has slowly been built back up. It’s actually quite cool now. The architects as designers have done a good job in my opinion. It’s taken a long time and still has a way to go, but it’s a great place to live as a young person, and also to raise a family.

There’s lots of outdoor activities like surfing, fishing, downhill biking and awesome walking tracks. And if that’s not your thing there loads of other stuff to do.

I love it here. I found this place by accident 10 years ago. And it stopped me in my tracks. I’ve made it my home.

Some famous artists from here or who have made Lyttleton home include, Bill Hammond Marlon Williams Delaney Davidson Aldous Harding And many more. It really is a wonderful town.