Focus | Living Springs
Alive and living In May this year the Living Springs event, function and activity centre will celebrate 40 years of giving the children of Canterbury and beyond a camping and adventure experience to remember for the rest of their lives. From humble beginnings in 1973 Living Springs, set in the hills above Governors Bay with spectacular views down Lyttelton Harbour to Godley Head, has grown from a place where young people gathered to celebrate their Christian fellowship, to a nationally recognised centre for everything from school and holiday camps, to a venue for weddings, conferences and musical events, through to a centre for corporate retreats and team building. The Living Springs site has grown from a small, farm size setting, to a mini regional park stretching from the peaks of the Port Hills to the shores of Lyttelton Harbour, with activities from horse riding and mountain biking through to off-road go karts and sea kayaking. The challenges set by the wide variety of activities available at Living Springs give both children and adults who spend time at the idyllic retreat time out from the hustle and bustle of daily life and an escape from the repetitive and mundane aspects of life - and for many from Christchurch, a break from the energy sapping life of living in a city still recovering from a major natural event. The story of Living Springs is in many ways the story of two couples; Peter and Anne Morrow and David and Eddi Down separately shared a vision and were brought together in a series of remarkable coincidences in the early 1970s.
The Living Springs mission To create high quality environments where people have experiences that enrich them as human beings, enable them to grow stronger together and inspire them to live their life to the full.
The Peter and Anne Morrow story In 1971 Peter and Anne Morrow were leading a growing church in Christchurch and were finding it difficult to find suitable sites for the camps they ran. Peter asked a friend, Roger Roxburgh, to look for a property around the Port Hills which the church could develop into a quality camping facility for its use. In November of that year Roxburgh came across a site in Allandale on the outskirts of Governors Bay. At that time Peter was in India, but on his return immediately drove up to the property. As he walked over the land surrounded by the Port Hills on one side and Lyttelton Harbour on the other, Peter was said to have felt a sense of peace that confirmed to him it would be a place where people could experience a sense of God.
Peter again met with the church leadership to seek their support for the purchase. The meeting ran late into the night however, one elder still would not back the project and, requiring the support of all elders, the Morrow’s dream of opening the campsite looked like foundering. On the very day of this unsuccessful meeting Peter Morrow received a phone call from David Down and arranged to meet the following day in February 1972.
In late November 1971 Peter Morrow signed a conditional contract to purchase the property beginning a two year labour of love, full of disappointments and heartache, but ultimately joy. The purchase of the Allandale property first ran into difficulties when Peter and Anne were not unanimously supported by the church leadership in buying the land. However, the couple felt strongly that the property was God’s intended place for a campsite and continued to seek to close the deal on the land. They placed a small advertisement in The Press to sell their only asset, the family home in St Albans. To their surprise the house was sold within two days and they used the proceeds to make their first installment on the Allandale property.
80 | April/May 2013 www.canterburytoday.co.nz
facility close to Christchurch. As George shared this idea David and Eddi say they felt a “warm sensation in their hearts” and wondered if God was prompting them to get directly involved. Immediately after Christmas 1971 David and Eddi agreed to be leaders at a youth camp at Raglan in the North Island. They found the camp was located in a breathtaking setting, situated on a hill over looking the sea and the couple felt a strong impression that the campsite God wanted them to be involved in would be in a similar setting. The impression was so strong that on returning to Christchurch in early 1972 David and Eddi engaged two real estate agents to start searching for a campsite fitting their description. To their disappointment nothing they were shown fitted what they had been inspired to imagine and the couple were stumped as to what to do next.
The David and Eddi Down story David and Eddi Down came to New Zealand as a young married couple in 1958. After arriving in Christchurch the couple became involved in Youth for Christ, which was then led by George and Flora Johansson. In 1971 George shared with David and Eddi the vision he had of a Christian youth camp
During his lunch break on a day in February 1972 David drove to Victoria Park to pray and find clarity over the project. While contemplating the issue it came to him to seek the advice of Peter Morrow and to share what God had seemed to be saying to him and Eddi about developing a campsite. Although they knew the Morrows, the two couples were not close acquaintances, but that very day David rang Peter and the two arranged to meet the following day.