The last sailing of the Rangatira brought to an end more than 80 years of regular passenger ferry services between Lyttelton and Wellington.
Lyttelton
Events In History
13 September 1933
The Labour Party’s Elizabeth McCombs became New Zealand’s first female Member of Parliament, winning a by-election in the Lyttelton seat caused by the death of her husband, James McCombs.
9 December 1867
After 6½ years of construction, it took just 6½ minutes for the first trainload of passengers to speed through the 2.6- km tunnel linking the Canterbury plains to the port of Lyttelton.
Articles
Antarctica and New Zealand
NZ and Antarctica share a long and rich history. From Tuati in 1840 to Edmund Hillary in the 1950s and more recent scientists, Kiwis have explored, examined and endured the frozen continent. Read the full article
Page 4 - Sites of significance
There are connections between places in Antarctica and New Zealand, and between places in New Zealand and
The 1913 Great Strike
The Great Strike of 1913 was in fact a series of strikes between mid-October 1913 and mid-January 1914. It was one of New Zealand’s most violent and disruptive industrial confrontations. Read the full article
Page 6 - The 1913 strike in the South Island
Although the 1913 strike had its biggest impact on Auckland and Wellington, the South Island's cities and mining towns were also
Biographies
Forty years after women in New Zealand received the right to vote, Elizabeth McCombs became the first female Member of Parliament.
Town picturesquely sited on the steep sides of an extinct volcano, above the port at Lyttelton Harbour. It is 12 km south-east of Cathedral Square in central Christchurch, via the road tunnel through the Port Hills, opened in 1964. In 1850 Lyttelton was a town of about 300 when the site of Christchurch was still bare plain, but Christchurch overtook it during the 1850s. The town’s role as the region’s port was assured with the opening of a rail tunnel in 1867. Large reclamations, for petroleum storage tanks in the 1920s and the Cashin Quay container berth in 1965, ensured the port’s importance. A new container terminal was opened in 1977. Lyttelton was close to the epicentre of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that devastated Christchurch on 22 February 2011.
Meaning of place name
After European settlement the township and harbour had several names bestowed on them until the final decision to honour Lord Lyttelton, a staunch supporter of the Canterbury Association.
