Van Asch College

Richmond Hill is a hillside suburb above Sumner in Christchurch, New Zealand. Richmond Hill is a volcanic spur extending from Tauhinukorokio / Mount Pleasant. The first European owner was Edward Dobson, who had a cottage in Nayland Street and whose 50 acres (20 ha) ran up the hill. Dobson kept 2 acres (0.81 ha) around his house and sold the remainder of his land to George Day. Upon Day's death, the land passed to his daughter, who sold it to the Morton brothers (Arthur and R. M. D.), and who in turn sold it to George Humphreys. The latter subdivided the land and had a road up the hill built by 1909. Walter de Thier managed Humphreys' farm on the hill and his favourite song was "The Lass of Richmond Hill", and with Humphreys' consent, the property was called Richmond Hill.Humphreys was a leading businessman who lived at Daresbury in Fendalton. He was also a member of the Christchurch Golf Club and took pity of a group of men who regularly met in Sumner on an empty section for an improvised game of golf using hockey sticks, tennis balls, and tin cans sank into the ground as holes. He offered them 40 acres (16 ha) of his undulating land, on which the 12-hole Richmond Hill Golf Course opened in April 1910.Due to the steepness of the road up from Nayland Street, the subdivision was slow to develop. There were just ten houses on Richmond Hill by 1930, and activity only picked up after the end of World War II. One of the early residents included the architect Cecil Wood. The golf course closed in December 1997 and some of the land was further subdivided.

Sumner is a coastal seaside suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand and was surveyed and named in 1849 in honour of John Bird Sumner, the then newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and president of the Canterbury Association. Originally a separate borough, it was amalgamated with the city of Christchurch as communications improved and the economies of scale made small town boroughs uneconomic to operate.

The Spur is a collection of interconnected Arts and Crafts bungalows in Clifton, Christchurch. The bungalows and layout of the site were both designed by Samuel Hurst Seager between 1902 and 1912. Seager purchased the site for the subdivision in 1902 and lived at No. 1 the Spur from 1902 until around 1912. Seager's original section was subdivided into eight bungalows, of his design, and four empty lots. The twelve plots were advertised as The Spur when sold by auction on 14 March 1914.

Cave Rock (Māori: Tuawera) is a volcanic rock formation in Sumner, New Zealand. The prominent rock outcrop is a visual landmark on Sumner Beach, with a signalling mast built on top.

Scarborough is a hillside suburb above Sumner in Christchurch, New Zealand. Scarborough is located between Sumner and Te Onepoto / Taylors Mistake. It was named for the seaside resort in North Yorkshire, England. The first European owner of most of the land was Major Alfred Hornbrook, whose Mount Pleasant run stretched as far east as Godley Head. A small land parcel of 25 acres (10 ha) near present-day Nicholson Park belonged to Charles Church Haslewood, who died in May 1858 when his hunting gun discharged while he looked down the barrel.The land was purchased by R. M. Morten, and after his death, his sons had Scarborough subdivided into 65 sections by July 1911. The first person who built in the area was Donald Patterson, a civil engineer. Patterson purchased all the land in the triangle formed by Scarborough Road and Flowers Track, and had it resurveyed into 41 sections, twice the number of the Morten brother survey.Nicholson Park has views from a number of vantage points in this 4 hectares (0.040 km2) location, with views of Sumner and the Canterbury coastline. Flowers Track can be descended from here, and it was the main start point of the walking track along the cliff tops that formed an early connection between Sumner and Taylors Mistake. The track went past Whitewash Head and Sumner Head; the former name was first recorded by Thomas Potts in his book Out in the Open in 1882 and it is presumed that it refers to the white appearance from shag droppings. The walkway was destroyed in the two earthquakes that hit on 13 June 2011; the first had its epicentre in Taylor's Mistake, and the second had its epicentre in Sumner. Much of the cliff faces collapsed into the sea below.Some of the land near the cliffs has been red zoned and purchased by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. Houses on those properties are to be demolished, and the land is so unstable that drones are used to survey the land for establishing the best demolition method.

Te Onepoto / Taylors Mistake is a locality in New Zealand's South Island, at the southeastern extremity of the city of Christchurch Taylors Mistake is a bay adjacent to the locality, on the north side of Awaroa / Godley Head, on the northern edge of Banks Peninsula.The name Te Onepoto / Taylors Mistake is one of New Zealand's dual placenames. The Māori portion, Te Onepoto, means short or little beach. For the English portion, the Lyttelton Times in 1865 said it was "originally called Vincent's Bay, and more recently Taylors Mistake, owing to the master of a vessel running in here during the night-time, thinking he was about to pass over the Sumner Bar."There are almost 50 small century-old seaside baches remaining on the coastal strip between Hobsons Bay to the north, and Boulder Bay to the south. Some were cave baches, with Whare Moki being considered the oldest surviving example in NZ. Most of the baches were in 1995 or 2016 recognised as heritage assets by either Heritage NZ or by the Christchurch City Council under the resource management act. The baches appear in vernacular works of art and poetry, including a 1956 painting by Bill Sutton (artist) held at the Christchurch Art GalleryThe beach is popular with swimmers and surfers, and a livecam operated by some of the bach-holders allows conditions to be checked in advance. The Taylors Mistake Surf Life Saving Club was established at the beach, by bach-holders and others, in 1916. During World War II, hills above the beach were fortified with two machine gun posts, to guard the Godley Head coastal defence battery.

Shag Rock, also known as Rapanui, is a notable sea stack that marks the entrance of the Avon Heathcote Estuary near Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a prominent landmark for navigators at sea as well as travelers on the road to Sumner. The rock stands close to the southern shore just above the low tide level. In the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake it shattered and the remains, which are still easily seen from the road, have, with dark humour by some locals, been called "Shag Pile" (a pun referencing the style of carpet). Although no longer used by shipping, the estuary is accessible as far as Ferrymead using shallow draught vessels up to about 30 tons if the bar is crossed in favourable wind, sea and tidal conditions. The shipping channel into the estuary lies to the northern side of the rock.

Whitewash Head is the name of the seaward clifftop on Scarborough Hill in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. Taylors Mistake Walkway between Sumner and Taylors Mistake goes past Whitewash Head. There is a spotted shag colony in the cliff below Whitewash Head.

Moncks Bay is a south-eastern suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. The first European owner of 100 acres (40 ha) in Moncks Bay was George Heath, who arrived in Lyttelton in March 1851 on the Isabella Hercus. He also had 500 acres (200 ha) of land on the hills behind. Heath sold the land to William McCormack in 1860; McCormacks Bay in the adjacent suburb Mount Pleasant is named for his brother. Moncks Bay changed owner again in 1868, and was purchased in 1869 by John Stanley Monck, after whom the area was named. Monck increased his land holdings up the hill by purchasing adjacent property from Dr Alfred Charles Barker (50 acres or 20 hectares) and in 1882, he acquired land from the estate of Alfred Watson that brought his holdings in Redcliffs to a total of about 300 acres (120 ha).

Jollies Bush Scenic Reserve, usually known simply as Jollies Bush, is a public scenic reserve in the Port Hills southeast of Christchurch, New Zealand. It sits beside the Summit Road on the slopes of Mount Pleasant, above the suburb of Sumner. The reserve is one of the smallest remaining on the Port Hills, and contains a mixture of locally-native plants and species from other parts of New Zealand.

Moncks Cave is a cave located in Redcliffs, Christchurch. It is notable for the amount of wooden artefacts discovered there in 1889 by workmen while quarrying for road metal.

The June 2011 Christchurch earthquake was a shallow magnitude 6.0 Mw earthquake that occurred on 13 June 2011 at 14:20 NZST (02:20 UTC). It was centred at a depth of 7 km (4.3 mi), about 5 km (3 mi) south-east of Christchurch, which had previously been devastated by a magnitude 6.2 MW earthquake in February 2011. The June quake was preceded by a magnitude 5.9 ML tremor that struck the region at a slightly deeper 8.9 km (5.5 mi). The United States Geological Survey reported a magnitude of 6.0 Mw and a depth of 9 km (5.6 mi). The earthquake produced severe shaking, registering at VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli scale in and around Christchurch. It destroyed several structures and caused additional damage to many others which had been affected by previous earthquakes. The damaged tower of the historic Lyttelton Timeball Station collapsed before dismantling work could be completed. The earthquake downed phone lines and cut off power to 54,000 households. Restoration costs in Christchurch following the February earthquake were estimated to increase by NZ$6 billion (US$4.8 billion) because of the additional damage from this event. Forty-six people suffered injuries, two of which critical, and one elderly man died after being knocked unconscious.