Vili Place – Named after the Reverend Tumama Vili and his wife, Elisapeta. The Vilis arrived from Samoa in December 1985. Under their leadership, the Samoan Congregational Christian Church purchased land on the corner of Linwood Avenue and Dyers Road and built all the church buildings. The church was opened in June 1998. The congregation wished to name the street after the Vilis so they would always be remembered. The cul de sac provides access to the church. Named in 2009.

That was a lot more information that what I was expecting from the library website. There looked like there was a school here as well as the church.I am assuming that the white stones in the photo are to stop people from parking on the grass.

Reserve Close – Named because the cul-de-sac leads to St Lukes Reserve. Developed at 66B St Johns Street. Named in 2002.
A wee bit of information from the library website. I walked from the reserve onto this street. Fairly modern houses and there was one house that I wanted to take a photo of but the owner was sitting at an open doorway looking at me. I didn’t manage any photos of houses here.

St Judes Lane – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. Developed off St Lukes Street. Named in 1999.
A wee bit of information from the library website. I didn’t actually manage to walk this private lane as I wasn’t comfortable doing this. Some private lanes give off a vibe of strangers not welcome. St Lukes Reserve ran along the back of the wee street and you will love the photo that I managed to get of someone’s backyard..

St Monica Lane – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. In the Cavendish Grove subdivision off St Lukes Street. Named in 2012.
A wee bit of information from the library website. A new subdivision and my photo is from the park like area. Brand new houses but the gardens were individual looking with flowers, shrubs and garden ornaments.

St Lukes Street – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. First appears in street directories in 1981.
The same wee bit of information from the library website as for the other streets I walked today. A mixture of older repaired houses and rebuilds. The rebuilds were

similar to houses that I have seen in new subdivisions especially Northwood. I don’t know if it is just the one architect or several but they have an obsession with columns at the entrances to the houses. There is a wee reserve here next to what used to be a Samoan church. At least I don’t think it is still being used as it had an abandoned look about it. The gardens were more individual here which I liked. Got some good ideas for my place when I can make the effort to tidy up my garden but not from the garden where I managed a photo.There was a huge older house on a huge section and my photo just doesn’t do it justice. I ended up speaking with a couple who were walking home from the shops. They didn’t know anything about this house but suspect that it could be the original house from before the land was sold off for housing. They lived practically next door to this huge property and didn’t know if anyone lived there or anything about it. This couple liked living in the area and their house was on a street that had been developed since the earthquakes. They said that the houses are lovely and warm as they are well insulated. The house and garden was easy to manage which was important at their age. I didn’t walk their street as that felt too much like stalking.

After a bit of research the older house that I liked was built in the 1990s so not as old as it looks. A lot of work has been done on this property as google from 2012 has the land in a very rough condition and no fences. Also some of the land is now a new street. House owned by a local engineer.

Note it was at this stage in July 2019 that a friend suggested that I use WordPress rather than limiting myself to friends on Facebook.

St Thomas Place – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. Developed off St Lukes Street. Named in 1997.

A wee bit of information from the library website. I only managed one photo here and it just doesn’t show the scale of the houses here. The houses looked brand new so I am assuming that they are rebuilds. I don’t mean to make a judgement or stereotype this suburb but the houses on this street were not what I was expecting in this area. I hope that my friends who live in Woolston will forgive me if I say that Merivale style of house is not what I expected. I don’t know if it was because it was a nice afternoon but so many people were out and about in their gardens or garages. There were at least houses that I wish I could have taken photos of as they were amazing. Not sure I liked them but we all know that I do have a preference for older style of houses.

St Marks St – Named to continue the street name theme begun by St Johns Street. Named on 21 May 1972. First appears in street directories in 1981.
A wee bit of information from the library website.This tiny street in Woolston had a big empty section at the end of it. The houses were a mixture of rebuilds and repaired houses. The house I took a photo of I am not sure if it is a rebuild or the original house that has been repaired.

Mollymawk Place – Named “to continue a theme already established in the Brookhaven subdivision”. In a subdivision by Enterprise Homes. Named in 1999.
Small amount of information on the library website. Modern houses of either tin looking weatherboard or cement fibre. I ended up chatting to a resident who told me that most of the houses were rebuilds after the earthquakes. One photo is of a stone cairn with the street name on it. Many of the surrounding streets had similar cairns. The second photo is of a huge house that was on the corner of Shearwater Drive and Mollyhawk Place. Note I loaded photos to my Facebook but I won’t always be loading photos here.

Ti Rakau Drive -The developer said he wanted the name Te Rakau Drive, meaning cabbage tree, but checks turned up several different meanings for “rakau”, none of which was “cabbage tree”. Named in 1995

That was interesting information from the library website. A quick google gave me the information that Ti Rakau means cabbage tree. When I was walking this street I noticed how many cabbage trees there were on the street. They were in gardens and on the grass verges plus on the wee traffic calming islands in the middle of the road. Again the houses were tin looking weatherboard or cement fibre. There was one Spanish looking house with orange roof tiles but couldn’t get a photo as the elderly owner was mowing his lawns. There was an entrance to the reserve on this street.

Shearwater Drive – nothing on library website about this street. Many of the streets in this area had bird names, Library website had this area as Woolston but it was closer to Ferrymead. The houses all looked new but I believe that many of them are rebuilds. Ti Rakau Reserve had an entrance on this street. Houses mostly made of tin looking weatherboard or cement fibre stuff.Lots of well kept lawns and hardly any flowers.