This month Van Outing had a trip to Christ's College where the College's three wise men, Cam Moore, Don Mackenzie, and David Murchison took three groups of us for a tour of the College grounds and buildings.

The Christ's College campus is a unique combination of heritage buildings alongside state-of-the-art modern facilities that are at the cutting edge of technological excellence.  Their library was built in 1863. It is the oldest educational building still in use in New Zealand. It is an amazing building and reminded me somewhat of Hogwarts from Harry Potter!

The buildings themselves are beautiful pieces of architecture and have over the years been added onto with a lot of care to remain faithful to their original design. 

The chapel is beautiful and large, with some lovely stained glass windows. Also a wall with all the names of the young men who had fallen during the past wars. A book in the chapel recorded all the names of the young men who had served in World War 2. Both Gillian Perano and Jeff Cotton found their father's names in the book.

Another book with all the names of those who served in the First World War was in the Grand Hall where each day at meal time the book's page is turned. That book had to be handled with white gloves.  The hall itself was an amazing room with portraits of past Bishops and apparently many people have said how much it reminds them of the dining hall from the Harry Potter movies.  

A new Gymnasium is being built on the other side of the rugby grounds which will boast two full-size basketball courts. 

The rain did not put a dampener on the afternoon's tour at all, and we all thoroughly enjoyed stepping into the wonderful buildings and learning about Christ's College's history, past pupils, and what is happening now in the college.  We also enjoyed a lovely Devonshire tea held in the library organised by Lizzie Dyer. 

We thank Cam, Don, and David for sharing their passion and knowledge of theír school!

If you are interested in finding out more about a tour of Christ's College, please click here