They don’t do frenetic in Christchurch. Nor rush, as in hour. Congestion, crime, pollution are not words that figure regularly in the inhabitants’ vocabulary.

It has the reputation of being the most English city in New Zealand. But to describe the South Island city as being stuck in time, somewhere around 1950, would be unfair. There is nothing backward about Christchurch, just a happy mix of today and yesterday with the past preserved by a strict eye for conservation.