Originally a standard drive-through shopping area, during the 1960s New Brighton was Christchurch’s only Saturday shopping centre, which was then converted to a pedestrian mall in February 1978 [1]. By 2000 redevelopment plans were underway, and as part of this Christchurch City Council put out a press release calling for donated Phoenix palms [2]. The aim was for the palms ‘all to have 3 metre clear trunks before the crown’ [2]. The call for donations was successful, for by the end of 2000 the palms were in place, possibly already being 20 or so years old at transplant date. They have flourished ever since, even as many buildings in the mall were closed or demolished due to the Christchurch earthquakes (see photo below [3]). Then in 2022 a new plan arose for further redevelopment, by which time the Phoenix palms were well established, and the architectural plans incorporated their ‘exotic-beachy’ feel retaining all of them in the proposed new development, which may be complete by 2024 [4]. Timaru’s Caroline Bay group planting of Phoenix palms qualifies as the largest group furthest south, but this healthy group of 12 must be the next ‘furthest-south’.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Jo Zervos for viewing and photographing the palms.

References:
1. Christchurch City Council Libraries,
‘New Brighton Mall’
2. Christchurch City Council press release
‘Palm trees wanted for Brighton’
3. Gina Hubert, ‘McCormacks Café and Bar Demolition’, 31 July 2013; Canterburystories.nz: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 NZ
4. T. Gibbs & T. Law, ‘Work starts on long-awaited New Brighton project’, The Press, September 25, 2023.