WHAT’S THE POINT?

leasant Point’s a Canterbury town with a population of about 1300. While there’s no doubt about its pleasant aspect and its avenue of trees leading in from the south, no one seems quite sure of why ‘Point’ is part of its name. It’s referred to as simply ‘Point’ or ‘The Point’ by locals and has held this name since early pioneering days. South Canterbury’s worst flooding occurred at Pleasant Point in 1986, causing mass evacuations and costing millions of dollars, but more recently its claim to fame has been its unorthodox non-politically-correct, totally fun Christmas parades. Floats generally reference topical subjects of the time. In the past they’ve included a mock Tui ad featuring a well-known bishop on a float that proclaims that “gays and sinners cause earthquakes – yeah, right”, a Tiger ‘Cheetah’ Woods float, and a 2018 effort that made national news by renaming NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) to “No Idea What’s