Takahe Drive in the suburb of Cashmere, Christchurch

Takahe Drive in Cashmere – Named because it is near the Sign of the Takahe. Developed by Michael John Wood Davis, a surveyor and chairman of Cannon Estate Ltd. in 1959. First appears in street directories in 1964.

A small amount of information from the library website and I can’t find any link of the Cannon Estate to the Cashmere subdivision. The Cannon Estate was in the St Andrews Hill and Mt Pleasant area. I thoroughly searched Papers Past for this information.

Most entries in Papers Past involved ads for selling sections. In 1959 it is described as a new road stretching from Hackthorne Rd for 15 chains. In 1963 there were plans to extend Kidson Tce to connect to Takahe Drive. Still talking about it in 1966 and it obviously eventually happened as the two streets now connect up. In 1979 there was 5 hectares available for subdividing. Another ad describes 12 acres divided into 5 sections. In 1960 there is mention of developing Takahe Reserve and it is mentioned again in 1976.

Most houses on the street were built in the 1960s and 1970s with one house at the Hackthorne Rd end dating from 1950. I managed to miss seeing the reserve but did see a signpost which I thought was for a walkway. I was on the other side of the road because that was where the footpath was. I looked at google maps and the latest street view is dated 2019 and the reserve is fairly obvious and hard to miss. I suspect that it was because of tree growth that I missed it today. Walking narrow hill streets on bin day isn’t easy and I frequently had to go onto the road but this street wasn’t as bad as some of the others that I walked today. Great views and the houses are built to take advantage of this. At the end where the the street meets Kidson Tce a dog decided to object to me walking past and the owner had to call it home. This was actually good luck for me as she was able to direct me to a short cut to Longhurst Tce. The short cut was steep but a pleasant walk in bush up to Longhurst Tce. There is usually another part of the track that leads direct to Holliss Track but that is now closed because of a new house being built on Iles Lane. There is a sign about this on the Holliss Track which I saw the other day so I knew to walk straight up to Longhurst Tce.