Ryan Weir was born the son of a policeman in
Invercargill, New Zealand, but likely remembers nothing of his first year
there, as it was his only year. Ryan Weir
father, Milton Weir, was promoted to the position of detective in the police
force of Christchurch, New Zealand, and Ryan Weir spent his first 8 years of life as
a resident of Christchurch. As the
largest city on the South Island of New Zealand, Christchurch boasts 389,700
residents, elevating it to the third most populous city behind Auckland and
Wellington in New Zealand. It is the
oldest chartered city in New Zealand.
But Christchurch, New Zealand’s population of
European and Maori residents is by no means the region’s first. The child Ryan Weir may have been aware of caves
in an area called Redcliffs, which have yielded archaeological evidence that
moa-hunting tribes had lived in the area in about 1250AD. The Waitaha tribe migrated to the area from
the North Island sometime in the 16th century, where tribal warfare drove them
and other tribes out in favour of the Ngati Mamoe, who were in turn enslaved by
the Ngai Tahu. Whalers from Otago and
Sydney, arrived and purchased land near today’s Riccarton, followed by European
settlers in 1840 who took up brief residence in what became Christchurch. The Deans brothers took over that abandoned
settlement in 1843, and the Canterbury Association brought the first 792 of
what was called the Canterbury Pilgrims, who dreamed of establishing a
cathedral and a college resembling those of Christ Church in Oxford, England.
