Port Levy


Port Levy is a long, sheltered bay and settlement on Banks Peninsula in Canterbury, New Zealand. The current population is under 100, but in the mid-19th century it was the largest Māori settlement in Canterbury with a population of about 400 people. It is named after Solomon Levey, an Australian merchant and ship owner who sent a number of trading vessels to the Banks Peninsula area during the 1820s.
The bay was settled by the Ngai Tūāhuriri sub-tribe of Ngāi Tahu, and the chief Moki named the bay "Koukourarata" after a stream in Wellington that recalls the birth of his father, Tu Ahuriri. It was also the home of Tautahi, the chief after whom the swampland area Ōtautahi was named now the site of the city of Christchurch.
Koukourarata marae, a marae of Ngāi Tahu and its Te Rūnanga o Koukourarata branch, is located at Port Levy. It includes the Tūtehuarewa wharenui. The first Māori Anglican church was built at Port Levy and a stone memorial marks the site.
Portions of the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures were shot in Port Levy — specifically the scenes where Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, two 16-year-old girls from Christchurch, saw their imaginary Fourth World.