Opawa

This is Opawa, about 3.5 kilometers southeast of Christchurch city center. Before Europeans arrived, this area was mostly marshlands and mixed vegetation. By the 1850s, a few settlers were here, and it became a dairying spot, with many early settlers being farmers of English descent. For a while, Opawa didn't develop much as it started to become a residential area.

One of the first signs of a European community was when Rev. William Willock arrived. He built a cottage he called "Opawaha Cottage," which was a nod to the Māori name for the area. Another early settler, Joshua Strange Williams, called his property "Opawa Farm," and that's how "Opawa" eventually became the recognized name for this place. As Woolston became an industrial hub nearby, Opawa grew into an upscale residential area, home to factory workers and businesspeople. This suburb, along with Hillsborough, also had several brickmaking and clay industries. Now, it's mostly residential and sits within a U-shaped bend of the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River. Opawa became part of Greater Christchurch in October 1916.

The name "Opawa" is an anglicized, shorter version of the Māori name Ōpāwaho, which is also the name of the river. Ōpāwaho can mean 'a part of,' 'outer,' or 'outside a defined area,' or even 'the seawards pā' or 'an outpost pā.' Māori settled in the Christchurch area starting around 1250 AD, and there was a kāinga, or settlement, near where Vincent Place and Judge Street meet today. It was also a stopping point for travelers between Kaiapoi Pā and the Banks Peninsula. The land here was marshy, with raupō and tussock, and Māori used the surrounding swamplands, creeks, and river for food like duck, lamprey, and eels.

The name of that Māori kāinga was Poho-Areare, which means 'pigeon-breasted.' It was also the name of an early chief and an old Māori walking track that went from the village over the sandhills to a kāinga in South New Brighton. Later, Tūrakipō was the chief here. A hapū of Ngāi Tahu, called Ō-Roto-Repo or 'swamp dwellers,' built the Poho-Areare village in the 18th century. In 1927, a local resident named Mr. Rees found a skull and bones, believed to be Māori, along with a piece of greenstone near the Poho-Areare settlement by the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River. This discovery might mean the area was a sacred burial site.