Avoca Valley Rd in Heathcote – Named after The Vale of Avoca, a poem by Thomas Moore (1780-1852). Formed from land owned by William Robinson and named by him. His farm was subdivided from 1918 and the road formed. First mentioned in The Press in 1921. First appears in street directories in 1921.
A small amount of information from the library website. I searched Ancestry, cemetery database and Papers Past and the only entry for this William Robinson that I could find was census / land records for 1875. There were so many men with this same name.
A few entries in Papers Past and when the road was being formed in 1920 the only name mentioned was Mr Scott. The Avoca Valley Run / farm was looked after by a farm manager J S Weir. In 1933 a turning place was to be provided at the top of the road and sections were available in 1934 and in the 1950s. In the 1940s and 1950s there were ads for fruit pickers wanted. In 1969 the sewer was extended. In 1983 and 1985 there were fires in the Port Hills that threatened houses here. There was a very accident prone man A C Ascott lived on this road and he got several mentions. In 1967 he is described as a 30 year old watersider who suffered head injuries and shock by being hit by a length of dunnage. In 1968 he fell off his motorbike on Evans Pass Road. In 1971 he fell from his motorbike in Opawa Rd. I can’t remember which year his car caught fire. He died in 1994 aged 57.
There are only about 36 houses here dating from 1930 to 2018 and most were on fairly large sections. Some lovely gardens and there is a cattery near the end of the road. Right at the end there was a gate saying private property and a sign saying Tussock Hill Farm. I googled and found an article from 2018 which says that the Summit Road Society purchased this farm for 1.6 million dollars. The society was hoping to get permission to use red zoned land on this road for a car park and public access. I looked at street view from before the earthquakes and there were a lot more houses on this road. Almost all the houses on one side of the road were demolished. There were lots of horses on this side of the road. The road was flatter than I was expecting and it was an easy walk. I certainly can’t count it as one of my monthly hill walks as I was intending to do. I quite liked this road but a bit too far from the central city for my liking. I like being able to walk to the city from where I live in Addington.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 