Ihaka Cate dunks the ball in the new $16m Upper West at Christ's College. Photo / George Heard
The oldest private school in New Zealand has just opened a new $16m gym. The state-of-the-art facility was totally privately funded. Mike Thorpe took a look through and spoke to the old boy who backed it.
Entering Christ’s College off Rolleston Ave in central Christchurch has been described as like walking into Hogwarts, the maze of stone buildings and archways giving it a Harry Potter-esque feel.
The first stone building on this site was erected in 1863, bordered by the Avon River and what is now Hagley Park and the Botanical Gardens. That building, “Big School”, is still in use.
New Zealand’s oldest private school will celebrate 175 years next year, 174 years after it held its first class (the school was established in Lyttelton in 1850).
The venue for that celebration of history will be its newest building and latest drawcard — Upper West, the Hickman Gymnasium.
Upper West is a state-of-the-art facility that has magically appeared at the far end of the school’s sports field. Magic — because of the constructional wizardry required to access a notoriously inaccessible site.
“We had to put a bailey bridge in and come over the [Avon] River, which was quite a unique thing,” says Oliver Hickman, an old boy of Christ’s College and a key figure in Upper West’s funding.
The completed build is appropriately spellbinding, despite a suggestion there were compromises.
“It’s hard to have everything, especially with a budget, and we are budget constrained as well, like everybody is, building something like this,” says Hickman.
The “budget” was raised from hundreds of donations and the sale of a 5620sq m central city property — 32 Armagh St, sold to the Carter Group in 2021.
“What we can say is that overall, building came to $16 million ... and we tried to be as economic and spend that as wisely as we could whilst building something that’s still state of the art,” says Hickman.
Hickman’s name sits proudly on the western wall of the main gym in bold black letters. He is a managing director of property development company Brooksfield and a relative of the late Kevin Hickman, rich-lister and founder of Ryman Healthcare.
Oliver Hickman is also on the board of governance at Christ’s College and sees his role as driving the philanthropy of his fellow old boys. There’s no doubt he and his family have contributed a significant amount to the significant cost of the project. Putting his name on the gym is effectively putting his money where his mouth is.
“One thing we’ve really been working on within our college community is to get our old boys contributing back to the school because the reality of a school like this is that we can’t run just on school fees alone. And we certainly can’t build things like this,” says Hickman.
The motto at Christ’s College is Each boy at his best. Upper West stands to make the best better.
“This is essentially the beating heart of the sports programme and the PE programme at college,” says director of sport Benn McBrearty.
It certainly has the blood pumping for aspiring athletes like Ihaka Cate.
“The first time the public sort of walked into this gym they looked around like, ‘holy heck’!” says Cate, recalling his team’s first home game of the basketball season.
The Year 12 student is among New Zealand’s best young basketballers and has his eye on a US college scholarship.
“Going over to the States, which is most of our dreams as we move on after high school, this is what it’s gonna be like. It’s good to have this exposure to the newer, modern, sort of the real-deal stuff,” says Cate.
It was estimated the previous gym and basketball court was built in the 1970s, and had one inescapable flaw. The floor. More importantly, the size of it.
“We were playing in a gym that was probably three-quarters the size of a real court. You couldn’t really shoot any corner threes [3-point shots] because then you’d be standing outside [of the court], and for us tall fellas that have big feet, it’s just not very handy, you know?” says Cate from a height of 198cm.
But Upper West is about more than a basketball court. Or its ability to be divided into two full-size basketball courts. Or the retractable seating for a capacity crowd of 250. Or its flawless floors.
This is a facility that could drive Christ’s sporting ambitions to a new level and look to improve their already impressive results across a wide range of sporting fields.
“We’re standing in the strength and conditioning part of the building and that’s a large component of our sports programme,” says McBrearty.
The room is packed with rowing machines — the early preparations have already begun for next year’s Maadi Cup (national rowing regatta). The eastern side of the building looks out to the perfectly manicured field known as Upper. It has been out of commission since early 2021 to allow for construction of the new gym. After a separate funding campaign, Upper now looks fit for an All Blacks test match. It’ll host the school’s version of that next year, the annual clash with cross-town rivals Christchurch Boys’ High School.
The south-facing end of the gym features floor-to-ceiling windows that light the court — and look out to a brand-new, Olympic-level long jump track and pit.
“It’s hard to have everything,” Hickman said earlier.
It’s hard to think what more Upper West could offer.
Mike Thorpe is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist in television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.
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