Southern View: May 14, 2019

14
• By Louis Day
PRIME MINISTER Jacinda
Ardern says she will “do
everything she can” to be at the
opening of Redcliffs School next
year.
Pupils sent Ms Ardern several
letters inviting her to the school
opening in June
2020.
In her
response, Ms
Ardern thanked
the pupils for
their letters and
vowed to do
Jacinda
Ardern
Tuesday May 14 2019
News
EMOTION:
Jacinda Ardern
may attend the
new Redcliffs
School opening
after the old
school was
demolished
last year due
to earthquake
damage.
Ardern may make it to
Redcliffs School opening
everything she
can to be at the
opening.
Principal
Rose McInerney is confident Ms
Ardern would be there.
“We are pretty sure that she
will be there, we are really
excited that she wants to come.
She knows that we have been on
the biggest journey to get here,”
she said.
After the community
campaigned to keep the school
open, then-Education Minister
Hekia Parata reversed her
decision to close it in November
2016.
It was
decided the
school would
relocate to
Redcliffs Park,
sparking a
separate,
unsuccessful
campaign by
the Friends of
Redcliffs Park
to keep the
school on its Main Rd site.
Rose
McInerney
The school has been operating
out of the van Asch Deaf
Education Centre since the 2011
earthquake.
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Rāpaki marks 150 years
RĀPAKI CHURCH celebrated
its 150th anniversary last week.
More than 200 people
gathered for a special service
to commemorate the historic
church, which opened in
1869.
Matua Douglas Couch, who
grew up in Rāpaki during the
1930s and 40s, said the church
was a central meeting point for
the community in those days.
“We used to go there when
the church bell rang. Sometimes
we were down on the beach and
wouldn’t hear the bell and if you
got home at dinner and hadn’t
been to church, you’d be in
trouble,” he said.
The small weatherboard
church, which can hold 80
people, has recently undergone a
significant restoration.
The church was closed
following the earthquakes
and the restoration work began
last year after funding was
received.
The restoration included
repairs to the south sanctuary
wall as well as the replacement of
the rotten main window
with a replica of an earlier
window based on an old
photograph.
The steeple was rebuilt
with a shingle finish, which is
likely to be what the original
CELEBRATION: A procession of visitors make their way to
Rāpaki Church for a morning service last week.
PHOTO: DEAN MACKENZIE
steeple was clad in.
The surrounding fence has
been built in a style based on an
1871 painting of the church with
posts made from the old Quail
Island jetty.
The restoration work was
completed with an emphasis
SOUTHERN VIEW
Local
News
Now
Fire rages, homes at risk
on “minimum intervention”
to ensure the cultural heritage
value of the building has been left
intact.
This means details, such as
names scratched into the wooden
pews decades earlier, have been
left untouched.
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