St Michael & All Angels was the first church built by the settlers of the Canterbury Association. The original built in 1851 was replaced by the present structure 20 years later. The cornerstone was laid in 29 September 1870, and the building - constructed from matai timber on rubble stone foundations - was completed over 19 months and opened on 2 May 1872. The separate belfry survives from the previous church building and dates from 1861. The bell it houses was brought out with the first four Canterbury Association ships in 1850, and was rung every hour of daylight to indicate time to the first settlers. St Michael & All Angels served as the Anglican pro-cathedral until the completion of ChristChurch Cathedral in 1881.
St Michael & All Angels is one of the largest timber Gothic Revival churches in the southern hemisphere. It still stands just as it has for 150 years whereas ChristChurch Cathedral was so severely damaged in the 2011 earthquakes that it is still under repair 11 years later, while the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament - a magnificent Catholic basilica acclaimed by George Bernard Shaw as the design of a "New Zealand Brunelleschi" - was so devastated in the 2010-2011 earthquakes that it was completely demolished in 2021. Timber construction is so widespread in New Zealand that stone, brick and concrete are described by real estate agents as "permanent materials". Ironically, in view of our fault lines, it is the timber that remains.
St Michael & All Angels has a family connection as it is here that the grandfather of one us, Percy, sang as a choir boy at the turn of the 20th century. His parents and maternal grandparents arrived in Christchurch in the 1880s but he was the first of our tīpuna to be born in Aotearoa. So much has changed since the 2010-2011 earthquakes that not much of downtown Christchurch remains as it did when Percy was a boy: the trees of Hagley Park grown much taller, some restored stone buildings like the Arts Centre, and his church. We are "placing" this virtual cache on Percy's birthday, 125 years later.
To claim this cache: At GZ you will see a small First World War memorial with a cross atop, to the side of the path under the large tree on the left as you face the church. There are inscriptions on three steps of the memorial.
- On the base step are six words from a prayer. Message the 6 word phrase to the CO. You may then log the cache without waiting for a reply, but you must send the message.
- On your log post a photo of yourself or your GPSr with the belfry or church as a background.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.