Punting on the Avon refloated

Press, 1 April 1989, Page 8

Punting on the Avon refloated

By

TOM METCALFE

The sun came out and a band played as a flotilla of four punts glided along the Avon River yesterday to celebrate the launching of Christchurch’s latest punting venture.

Yesterday’s rain cleared just before lunch, to the relief of the Red and Black Jazz Band and the corporate sponsors of the Canterbury Promotion Council’s effort to revive punting on the river.

They floated from the Worcester Street bridge to the punt landing beside the Thomas Edmonds band rotunda.

The promotion council started looking after

the punts in April last year, after the Christchurch Punting Company, which introduced the punts to Christchurch, went into receivership.

The council arranged with the receivers to keep some of the punts on the river until a buyer was found, but in November it decided to take over and buy all four. They are valued about $450 each. The promotion council’s chief executive, Mr Bruce Dunstan, said the council was committed to running the punts seven days a week throughout the year. Two would be based at Mona Vale, and two in the city.

Mr Dunston said a lot of work had been put into restoring and promoting the punts, and the initial cost had been defrayed by sponsorship from the Parkroyal Hotel, G. L. Bowron Lambskins, and the Westpac Bank. He was confident that the punts would return a profit to the council once the cost of buying and promoting them had been dealt with. The punts were extremely popular, particularly with Japanese tourists, and some tour operators had arranged regular weekly bookings, he said. A “Punting on the Avon” leaflet had been printed in both Japanese and English.