Heritage New Zealand magazine, Summer 2019 issue

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Issue 155 Summer 2019

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

NZ $9.95 incl.GST

THE GRAND OLD DUKE

Iconic Russell hotel looks sharp

SAFE LANDING

The revival of Whitianga’s old stone wharf

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES Extraordinary voyaging stories in Northland

GROWING

TIES Former Chinese market garden recognised

100% Kiwiana. shop.heritage.org.nz Now open online

CONTENTS

Summer 2019 Features

Explore the List

12 Solving the puzzle

8 Seeking shelter

Steve Bielby is embracing a major challenge with the restoration of Auckland’s St James Theatre

The secluded bay of Meretoto/ Ship Cove is central to the first encounters that shaped our history

16 Safe landing Whitianga’s old stone wharf has been revived thanks to a wide-ranging community effort

20 The grand old Duke After a multi-million-dollar revamp, Russell’s iconic Duke of Marlborough Hotel is looking sharp

36

Journeys into the past 42 Little gems Restored Wairarapa heritage jewels are helping to swell visitor interest in the area

48 Living spaces

24 Pushing the boundaries Extraordinary voyaging stories in a small Northland bay are helping to tell a wider story

30 Growing ties

24

Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa changed the way the country looked at itself and its heritage

Columns

A former Chinese market garden in Ashburton has received exceptional archaeological recognition

3 Editorial

36 A perfect gentleman

The connections that bring history to life

New Zealand’s remaining gentlemen’s clubs, once a feature of many towns, are moving with the times

20

54

4 Noticeboard 52 Books

54 Heritage for kids An eBike ride out to Wellington’s Pencarrow Lighthouse could be just the ticket

42

Heritage New Zealand is printed with mineral oilfree, soy-based vegetable inks on New Silk paper.

This paper is Forestry Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified, manufactured from pulp from responsible sources under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Please recycle.

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Summer 2019 1

YOU MADE THIS POSSIBLE! Old St Paul’s is a nationally significant Category 1 historic place that holds a special place in the hearts of New Zealanders. Work is now underway to repair and strengthen the building.

THANK YOU Thanks to you, crucial work to repair and strengthen Old St Paul’s has begun.

Built in 1866, Old St Paul’s is one of New Zealand’s most important heritage places.

The building was damaged by recent earthquakes and was in urgent need of strengthening. At the same time, many other parts of the building needed upgrading and repairing.

We asked you to support #ForeverOSP - the name for the $3 million project to ensure the church is future-proofed and continues to create new memories for another 50, 100 and even 200 years.

And hundreds of you responded with donations to aid the work. Each and every one of those gifts has been directed to the work and is now helping to repair the timber joints and frames, restore the cracked beams and upgrade the building so it is safe and strong.

By the time the work is complete (currently expected to be May 2020) Old St Paul’s will be one of the safest buildings in Wellington.

Thanks to you Old St Paul's really will be '#ForeverOSP'.

We are very grateful to all those supporters who have recently made donations. While many are kindly acknowledged below, more have chosen to give anonymously.

Mrs Kate Parsonson Mr Rod Clough & Ms Sarah Macready Mr Kenneth Marsh Katherine De Courcy & Greg Smith Mr Graham & Mrs Virginia Ramsay Mr Paul & Mrs Jane Wright Miss Edith Tripp Mrs M Ulrich Mr Peter & Mrs Valerie Osborne Mrs C L Burbury Mr Bruce & Mrs Wendy Hadden Mr Kevin Tonks Ms E A Mallinson Ms Lynn Taylor Mr M & Mrs J Hunter-Walker Dr Kevin Hall & Ms Chris Lancaster M Burr Mrs Shena Adams

Mr A R & Mrs M L Turner Mrs E Leary-Taylor Mr Wade & Mrs Prem Armstrong Barbara Stewart Miss Mary Brown Mr Peter & Mrs Bridget Gerrie Rev Keith Hooker & Mrs Frances Hooker Mr Peter & Mrs Jill Watson Mr Anthony & Mrs Jennie Gainsford Mr Roy & Mrs Beverley Sharp Mrs Vicky Duncan Mrs Karen & Mr Connell Graham Mr T & Mrs D Reynolds Ms Janice Wilson Mr Philip & Mrs Mary Smith Mr Graeme McDonald

Mrs Louise Cornelissen & Mr Glenn Kimber Ms Sally Dunbier & Mr Brian Moss Mr Brian Sandell Mr Dereck & Mrs Avril Souter Mrs Virginia Gallagher & Mr Rodger Gallagher Mrs J Baylis & Mr G Baylis Mr Tom & Mrs Beryl Simpson Mrs E M Brady Mr & Mrs P B S Dickenson Mr Laurie Greig Mrs D W Wilson Mr Ian & Mrs Kay Taylor Mr Michel & Mrs Mary Donn Dr & Mrs N C Lambrechtsen Mr Dan & Mrs Brenda Oliver

Mr Philip & Mrs Eugenie McCabe Prof Diane Kenwright & Mr Andrew Sangster Dr A J Metge Mr R T Bain Mrs R J Carline Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary Hedge Mrs J A Scanlan Ms Marti Eller & Mr Colin McGregor Mr Alan & Mrs Pamela Holdt Mr David & Mrs Sally Graham Mrs M Gasquoine & Mr B D Parkes Miss G E Matthews Ms Helen Pearson & Ms Anna Pearson Mr J B & Mrs J A Stratmore Mr Timothy Hawley Mr J S Hollander Mr M M Barker Mrs M P Bentall

Mr K Vincent & Mrs L Lambert Vincent Dr R P Rothwell & Mrs M G Rothwell Mr F J Small Mary Ronnie Mr Spencer & Mrs Lois Morrison Mr G H Howell Mrs Bettina Brown Mr James & Mrs Eve Wallace Mr Grant & Mrs Claire Coppersmith Mr P J Wenley Mrs Anne Carpenter Mr Wilbur Dovey Mr P J & Mrs E Wreaks Mrs H F Reid Vida Wilson Mr Peter Woodroffe & Ms Krysia Shuker Mr S & Mrs R McIntyre Mr Stuart Perry & Ms Iona Anderson

Mr Peter & Mrs Glenda Berg Dr Amanda Lynn Mr Keith & Mrs Josephine Garwood Mr James A Cowie David Lane & Sue Lane Mr Neville & Mrs Christine Anderson Mrs Anne McLean Mrs C Aliaga-Kelly & Mr W Aliaga-Kelly Mrs Rosalind Bagley Mr F D & Mrs B Finlayson Milton Hollard & John Hoskins Dr Roderick J Bunce & Dr Elizabeth Eppel Mr Richard & Mrs Josephine Wilton Susan Price Mr John & Mrs Colleen Gahagan Ms Karen Roper & Mr Patrick Walsh

Ms Margaret Stewart & Mr Marcel Sward Mrs Fiona & Mr Petet Kirch Ms Catherine Van Paassen & Mr Glenn Crickett Mr Jeremy & Mrs Dianne Aubin Mr John & Mrs Bridget Hodgkinson Ms Natalie Marshall Rev N W & Mrs J Derbyshire Mrs Alison Werry Dr Murray Farrant Mr Rob & Mrs Mary Mouncey Mr B O & Mrs R Nicholson Mr Peter & Mrs Valerie Osborne Mr Ross & Mrs Lynley Spurdle Mrs Diana Thompson Miss D Pain

Mr David & Mrs Susan Hamp Mrs J M Thornton Mr Graham Mitchell & Diepmar Gsell Mrs Michelle Paterson Mr J G & Mrs J E Gilbert Mr D & Mrs J C Reith Mrs Marian Curtis Mr J & Mrs M Martin Ms C M Hubbard & Ms P Hubbard Mrs Lois Lyall Mr P R Barker & Ms J McCann Mr D & Mrs M Grayson Dr J M Elsby Mrs Noeline McQueen Mr Rhys & Mrs Margaret Richards Mr Paul & Mrs Kerry Heath

EDITORIAL

The squiggly line Heritage Issue 155 Summer 2019 ISSN 1175-9615 (Print) ISSN 2253-5330 (Online) Cover image: tbc by tbc Editorial Director Bette Flagler, Sugar Bag Publishing Editor Caitlin Sykes, Sugar Bag Publishing Sub-editor Trish Heketa, Sugar Bag Publishing Designer Amanda Trayes, Sugar Bag Publishing Publisher Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

Heritage New Zealand magazine is published quarterly by Heritage New Zealand. The magazine has an audited circulation of 11,512 as at 30 September 2018.

The views expressed in the articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Heritage New Zealand.

Advertising For advertising enquiries, please contact the Manager Publications.

Phone: (04) 470 8054 Email: advertising@heritage.org.nz Subscriptions/Membership Heritage New Zealand magazine is sent to all members of Heritage New Zealand.

Call 0800 802 010 to find out more.

Tell us your views At Heritage New Zealand magazine we enjoy feedback about any of the articles in this issue or heritage-related matters.

Email: The Editor at heritagenz@gmail.com Post: The Editor, c/- Heritage New Zealand National Office, PO Box 2629, Wellington 6140 Feature articles: Note that articles are usually commissioned, so please contact the Editor for guidance regarding a story proposal before proceeding. All manuscripts accepted for publication in Heritage New Zealand magazine are subject to editing at the discretion of the Editor and Heritage New Zealand.

Online: Subscription and advertising details can be found under the Resources section on the Heritage New Zealand website www.heritage.org.nz.

Heritage New Zealand

One of the most memorable people I’ve interviewed during my years as a journalist is the Kiwi digital entrepreneur and World Class New Zealander Claudia Batten. She’s one of those people who really make you wonder what you’ve been doing with your life: in her twenties she and her business partners sold their tech company to Microsoft for a reported $400 million; she then co-founded a venture that introduced the then-revolutionary idea of crowdsourcing to the advertising world.

She is unmistakably a high flyer and it would have been easy to write her story as a stellar trajectory. But to me what actually made her so memorable was her openness that her pathway had been far from linear.

Instead, she talked about her “squiggly line” to success: that making unconventional choices in her career had led to some of her greatest opportunities; that tackling challenging problems was inherent to success, but that a lot of the time the process felt damn uncomfortable; that the next step forwards wasn’t always obvious and sometimes you go round in circles, or even backwards for a while.

“What does this have to do with heritage?” I hear you ask. Well, I was reminded of Claudia’s “squiggly line” when profiling Steve Bielby for this issue. Steve is the driving force behind the restoration of the Category 1 St James Theatre in central Auckland, which we featured on our pages back in Spring 2015. At that point, work in progress on the restoration included the opening of the theatre’s lobby space as a café, and its strikingly colourful interiors being brought back to life.

Soon after, however, restoration work was halted when funding was pulled for the adjacent apartment building, which is

proposed to provide some key services to the theatre. When I visited the theatre with Steve in late 2019, all inside was quiet, with much work left to do.

Steve continues with efforts to kickstart the restoration back to life, but it’s an incredibly complex project and the path to progress is anything but straightforward.

“The hardest thing,” says Steve in the story, “is taking people on the journey; for people to fully understand all that’s involved in dealing with a site like the St James. People will say to me, ‘Have you thought of doing this?’ or ‘Have you thought of doing that?’ and the reality is at this stage we have pretty much thought of everything.

“But I still believe in the theatre project, absolutely, and I enjoy the challenge.”

Of course, we want to marvel at the beautiful end results of heritage projects.

But I think it’s important we also shine a light on the squiggly path that it more often than not takes to get there.

As Steve outlines, heritage projects are inherently challenging; they can be messy, complicated, expensive, time-consuming and convoluted. And as such, they require ambitious, hardworking, tenacious and deep-pocketed efforts to tackle them.

I’d like to say a huge thank-you to all the heritage lovers, like Steve, who have shared their stories with us on these pages throughout 2019. I think I can safely speak for readers when I say we salute all you do to stay on that squiggly line.

Ngā mihi nui Caitlin Sykes Editor

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Summer 2019 3

NOTICEBOARD

Letters to the editor Vivienne Haldane's article (Spring 2019) regarding the restored Ormondville Railway Station has prompted me to recall the experience that my wife and I had staying overnight in the station.

It was September and there was frost on the ground and snow on the Tararuas. Fortunately the firewood box in the original waiting room with its open fireplace had been well stocked with pinecones and by morning we had burned the lot in order to keep warm, despite a very efficient electric blanket on the bed. Several goods trains rumbled through during the night, causing the whole building to shake and reminding us that we were indeed sleeping in a railway station.

My grandfather, George Lay, had been stationmaster and postmaster at Ormondville throughout the World War I years and into the 1920s, so the collection of railway memorabilia and photographs was of great interest to me. He and my grandmother always spoke fondly of their Ormondville days, when it was a thriving rural community and a busy railway line for goods and passengers. It was here that he became a lifelong member of the Masonic Lodge and it was interesting to see the Masonic Temple still there in the village.

The Crown Hotel in nearby Norsewood has an excellent dinner menu and the station’s well-equipped kitchen enabled us to have a substantial breakfast.

The modernised ablution facilities are a significant improvement on what would have been the original amenities.

Overall, a memorable experience and one that I can thoroughly recommend.

Alan Lay Reading the Spring 2019 issue of your excellent and beautifully produced magazine, I came

4 Summer 2019

across an inaccuracy that I have also occasionally seen elsewhere and in other writings.

On page 47, following the article ‘Walking the talk’ by Jacqui Gibson, there is a timeline of significant dates and contributors to the Rangihoua story. Under 1830 there is reference to ‘The Christian Mission Society’.

This should read ‘The Church Missionary Society’, ie CMS. My credentials? I was General Secretary of the NZ Church Missionary Society through 1971-82, now in retirement as an Anglican Bishop.

Brian Carrell (abridged) I was very interested to read the article about military camps in Northland (Spring 2019) as aunts had mentioned their recollections from that time. My grandfather Jack Choat, of Puketona in the Bay of Islands, was stationed at Kerikeri. Daughter May recalls being terrified by the US Army tanks that were on the farm for a while, and she and siblings June and Des were also incensed when they levelled off some favourite humps that they played on in the paddock behind the house. The tanks were based at Waipapa.

Though the article was about World War II camps, I wondered if their research also found out anything about World War I camps? The reason I ask is that I have this photo (right) in which my great-uncle Henry Choat appears. On the back of the photo is written ‘Hui Hui Camp’.

I have asked the Waiouru Museum if this name meant anything to them and they were unable to help. I don't know if this was a camp in Northland or in France where he was in 1918-19.

Hazel Fletcher, née Choat

flax plant and the type of fences, but I have had a look through the normal sources and I can find no reference to Hui Hui. In terms of the Northland military camp research, the focus was World War II so that the researchers could talk to people associated with the camps.

I was delighted to open the latest Heritage New Zealand magazine and see the article on the Lyttelton Gaol. My grandfather William Wilson Goddard was a warder there from 1903 to 1912, after being invalided out of the 5th Contingent, which fought the Boers in the Cape Colony. 1904 saw him with prisoners planting trees in Hanmer Springs.

It was there one night in a snowstorm that he and other warders were sent out to find the Curtis family, who were lost in the forest. He found the daughter Hannah and four years later married her. He remained in Hanmer through till 1908, when he was moved to the Dunedin Gaol, and then in 1912 to the Terrace Gaol in Wellington.

Unfortunately in 1918 he contracted influenza, along with a handful of prisoners and several staff members. Our grandfather, by then a father of four, was the only person from the jail to die of the disease.

Hannah was left to bring her young family home to her parents in Christchurch.

1918 was a disastrous year for the family. William’s mother died in May, his sister in September, his nephew on 18 November and he himself on 22 November.

November 1918 saw the most deaths from influenza, the worst day in Wellington being the 21st.

Grandfather’s fellow warders paid for him to have a grave plus headstone, rather than being put in one of the mass graves many victims were buried in.

A few years ago I visited the jail in Dunedin on an Open Day. What a cold, concrete place it is inside, even though it is very attractive from the street, opposite the railway station.

Would you consider publishing a small article similar to the Lyttelton one in this magazine on Dunedin’s prison, or the Terrace Gaol? Your article this time has reminded me to visit the Lyttelton site again.

Julie Goddard I read with interest Jamie Douglas's story ‘Long train runnin’' in the Spring 2019 edition.

The Wairio Railway & Coal Company line was not the “longest-running private railway line” in the country. This honour goes to the Kaitangata Railway & Coal Company line. This was opened in June 1876; from 1956 it was controlled by the Mines Department and closed in December 1970, whereas

Bill Edwards, Heritage New Zealand Area Manager Northland, responds: The photo appears to be in New Zealand because of the

Heritage New Zealand

the Wairio line was opened to Tinkers in September 1920, Reeds in November 1930 and Birchwood in August 1934.

Reeds to Birchwood was closed in 1956.

David Cuthbert Thanks, David, and good spotting. We dropped the word ‘passenger’ out of the description of the Wairio line in the introduction to this story, but clarify its claim to fame in the story itself, which states the Wairio line was “the longest-running passenger and coal transport private line in New Zealand”. The Heritage New Zealand listing report on

the Ohai Railway Board (ORB) Offices and Depot explains the distinction a little further, stating: “Like the Wairio to Ohai line, the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company was built to get coal to the main trunk lines. In 1876 the Company built a short line to link their coal mine with the South Island Main Trunk line. Its sole purpose was to benefit the Kaitangata Coal Company and it did not offer a passenger service.

The railway was taken over by the Mines Department in 1956.

While the line was in operation slightly longer than the ORB’s, none of the supporting rail structures survive.”

Places

we visit Auckland, p12

Bay of Islands, p20, p24

Whitianga, p16 Whanganui, p36 Feilding, p36

SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT

... WITH BRENDON VEALE I’d like to start my update for you with some great news: work to strengthen and repair Old St Paul’s in Wellington is well underway. In fact, by the time you read this, a lot of the major strengthening work will have been completed. This is in no small way thanks to the many donations that were made by our members and supporters – many of whom are thanked elsewhere in the magazine.

As with previous appeals for support, one of the things I most enjoy is receiving the stories, accounts and tales of people’s love of and association with our unique historic places. Many of you have sent in wonderful notes

Heritage New Zealand

with your donations for Old St Paul’s, giving me insights into why it matters to you that it will be protected for the future.

I’m also pleased to say that we’ve got the go-ahead to host the long-awaited Open Day at Ruatuna to show off the roof replacement and other work that was enabled by you, our supporters. The time between writing for and printing the magazine means that the Open Day will have happened by the time you read this, but I hope to share photos and reports from the day and very much look forward to meeting some of the people who, through their donations, made the whole thing possible.

While we have numerous ways in which we generate income to protect the places that Heritage New Zealand cares for, some projects rely almost exclusively on your support. So please pat yourselves on the back for a job well done. Without you, this could not have happened.

Brendon Veale Manager Asset Funding 0800 HERITAGE (0800 437482)

Queen Charlotte Sound, p8

Pencarrow Head, p54

Carterton, p42 Wellington, p36

Christchurch, p6, p36

Ashburton, p30

LOCAL AUTHORITY MEMBERS Auckland Council Central Hawke’s Bay District Council Dunedin City Council Gore District Council Hamilton City Council Hauraki District Council Invercargill City Council Manawatū District Council Marlborough District Council Porirua City Council Rotorua Lakes Council South Taranaki District Council Timaru District Council Waitaki District Council

HERITAGE NEW ZEALAND DIRECTORY National Office PO Box 2629, Wellington 6140 Antrim House 63 Boulcott Street Wellington 6011 (04) 472 4341 (04) 499 0669 information@heritage.org.nz Go to www.heritage.org.nz for details of offices and historic places around New Zealand that are cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council

bveale@heritage.org.nz

Summer 2019 5

NOTICEBOARD SOCIAL HERITAGE

... WITH JAMIE DOUGLAS

IMAGE: ROB SUISTED

Heritage New Zealand Social Media Manager

THREE QUICK QUESTIONS WITH ...

MIKE JONES Mike Jones is an owner of Antigua Boatsheds, the Category 1 historic place that has been offering locals and visitors a central city launching point from which to get out onto Christchurch’s Avon River since 1882.

1

What changes do you see at the boatsheds as summer rolls around?

It’s very much a seasonal business, so as it gets warmer you notice more people using the river. The flowers are out, the leaves are back on the trees, and the ducks are paddling.

It’s just a beautiful part of the city – a real asset that we should all make more of.

2

What in particular do you love about working from the boatsheds building?

It’s not an office! There are things going on around us everywhere, and all the time. I really enjoy meeting all the different people who come here, and all their different nationalities. And I love the building, which is amazing. As it’s a heritage building, there’s always something to do on it, but they’re not arduous tasks. All the major restoration work was done back in 2006, and we were very fortunate to have Heritage New Zealand and Christchurch City Council come on board and help us with it.

3

How do you recommend people make the most of their time on the river?

The tourists who come here and go out on the boats and punts just can’t believe the beauty of the place. They’re in awe of how clean it is; anywhere else in the world, if you have a river going through a city you never see the bottom of it. It’s also very safe, as the water is only knee deep.

We all just have to look at what we can do to keep improving that water quality – for people to look after their own backyards and prevent things entering waterways that shouldn’t. We all need to do our bit to keep the river clean for everyone to continue to enjoy.

Mahuru Māori and Te Wiki o te Reo Māori were key promotions for Heritage New Zealand on Facebook during September. Mahuru, which is September in te reo Māori, featured a series of posts focusing on heritage words in te reo Māori and how they can be incorporated into everyday use.

With Te Wiki o te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week – also in Mahuru, our Facebook page featured videos of staff welcoming and supporting the week. It was a great and well-received opportunity to extend our knowledge of te reo Māori while learning of the world around us. Ka mau te wehi!

The government purchase of Kate Sheppard House in Christchurch on 19 September – Suffrage Day – struck a chord, with a reach of more than 11,000. The property in which Kate Sheppard and suffragist supporters spent much time working towards New Zealand becoming the first self-governing country in the world to grant women the vote will be fully open to the public by Suffrage Day 2020. It is managed by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

The heritage beauty of glasshouses received a warm reception on 24 August this year with the likes of the Domain Wintergardens in Auckland highlighted as a Category 1 listed place. With its heart of glass, places like this have a real touch of class about them. The post reached more than 9000 people and had strong engagements, with more than 1400 recorded.

It was the post about libraries, however, that, fittingly, was one of the best reads on Facebook. The 28 July post about two little Central Otago libraries dating from 1870 and 1893 racked up more than 18,000 in reach, and nearly 3000 engagements. The post made one person angry, but we’re not really sure why. Perhaps a book they wanted was already out on loan.

boatsheds.co.nz/

6 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

A LANDMARK EVENT From concerts to picnics to kōrero workshops, communities around the country will gather on 6 February to commemorate in their own ways the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi.

At the heart of activities is Te Pitowhenua/the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, which in June last year was named a National Historic Landmark in recognition of its many layers of history, and significance as the site at which the founding of Aotearoa/New Zealand was formalised.

This site was the first landmark to be named in the National Historic Landmarks/Ngā Manawhenua o Aotearoa me ōna Kōrero Tūturu programme, which adds another layer of recognition and protection to the country’s most valuable built and land-based taonga.

On Waitangi Day commemorations at the grounds start early, with a dawn service in Te Whare Rūnanga, the carved meeting house that stands on the upper grounds. And then, with the grounds’ buildings closed for the day, the area transforms for the Waitangi Day Festival, featuring entertainment, stalls, and activities for the kids.

IMAGE: AMANDA TRAYES

www.waitangi.org.nz/whats-on/waitangi-day/

OUR PICKS

FROM THE ONLINE SHOP

Summer holidays are always a chance to have a bit of a spruce-up around the place, so if you’re feeling keen to clean, here are our picks from the online shop: visit shop.heritage.org.nz.

Scrubbing brush

Alberton tea towel

Eco Brush dish brush

Sand soap

$31

$15

$17.50

$3.50

CORPORATE MEMBERS OF HERITAGE NEW ZEALAND We thank all members for their commitment to our work and acknowledge the following Corporate Members: Antigua Boatsheds • Aon New Zealand • Apt Design • DLA Architects • Resene Paints • Salmond Reed Architects • The Church Property Trustees • The Fletcher Trust • WT Partnership NZ (ChCh) •

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 7

EXPLORE THE LIST

Seeking shelter The secluded bay of Meretoto/Ship Cove is central to the first encounters that shaped our history WORDS: NAOMI ARNOLD • IMAGERY: ROB SUISTED

8 Summer 2019

The first paintings of Meretoto/Ship Cove, tucked into Tōtaranui/Queen Charlotte Sound, show how little it has changed in the 250 years since James Cook dropped anchor and went ashore.

Original forest still caps the upper reaches of the ranges, with lush second-generation growth lower down.

The cove still has aqua-blue water lapping silvery sand, and verdant vegetation jostling its way down to the sea.

Meretoto/Ship Cove has recently been recognised as a Category 1 Historic Place on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero. The listing report says the relationship between Māori and Pākehā that was forged there was complex, moving back and forth along a continuum from amicable to tense to violent.

Heritage New Zealand

It thus foreshadowed the challenges that followed organised European settlement in the 19th century.

But at 5pm every day, when all the boats and people have gone for the day, Meretoto returns to itself. If you look past the monuments, the information panels, the shelter and the jetty, you can imagine a tall ship sailing into the bay, and the first tentative introductions between those on HMB Endeavour and local Māori.

At the time of Cook’s arrival in 1770, Tōtaranui was home to settlements of Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne, which were dotted around the bays.

Shared descent from ancestors who arrived on the Kurahaupō waka and centuries of intermarriage meant that by the late 18th century the iwi/hapū of

Heritage New Zealand

Tōtaranui were akin to one people, according to ariki Eruera Pakauwera. It was also a favourite spot for Māori travelling between the islands.

A sheltered gateway at Te Tau Ihu, the top of the South Island, it was nestled on the main route between Te Ika-a-Māui/the North Island and Te Waipounamu/ the South Island, and had food, fresh water, fuel and other resources in abundance – qualities that attracted the area’s earlier inhabitants, such as Ngāti Māmoe.

This means that the sheltered bay was central to the history of first encounters of tangata whenua with visiting Europeans. It was here that the local iwi, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne, experienced the first interactions with the Europeans from the Endeavour.

Summer 2019 9

EXPLORE THE LIST 1

This continued well into the 19th century, as other expeditions continued to seek out Meretoto as a place of anchorage, later encountering the iwi of Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Rārua, and Ngāti Tama who conquered the region in the 1820s. Interesting records of life at Meretoto were produced by the Russian expedition of Fabian Bellingshausen of 1820, and the New Zealand Company’s voyage in 1839.

The bay became a favoured anchorage for Cook and the reason he enjoyed relatively peaceful encounters with local Māori was because of navigator and tohunga Tupaia of Ra’iātea, who had joined Cook’s voyage in Tahiti. Ra’iātea was one of the islands from which voyaging waka departed centuries earlier on their voyages of exploration and migration to Aotearoa, bringing the ancestors of iwi Māori to these shores.

Tupaia had shared ancestry, cultural origins, and a similar language to te reo Māori, which helped to smooth Cook’s passage with Māori everywhere he went in New Zealand. For Māori, this meeting with a great tohunga from Hawaiki, a traditional homeland, was momentous.

The people of Ngāti Kuia still view the Endeavour as Tupaia’s ship and Cook as just part of its crew.

Raymond Smith of Ngāti Kuia co-chairs the Tōtaranui 250 Trust, which is organising Tuia 250 commemorations in Marlborough this year. He says Ngāti Kuia is one of the oldest iwi to originate from Te Tau Ihu and their tīpuna were some of the initial explorers and settlers of the area.

The tīpuna were transient, moving around with the seasons, which meant they had large areas of interest, using pahi with nearby kāinga and pā to return to.

John Hellstrom, a Tōtaranui 250 trustee, lives four hours’ walk from Meretoto in Endeavour Inlet, on the Queen Charlotte Track. Apart from Fiordland’s Tamatea/Dusky Sound, he says, Meretoto is the only

10 Summer 2019

ariki: chief, noble iwi/hapū: tribal groups kāinga: villages kaitiaki: guardians, caretakers mana whenua: territorial rights pā: fortified villages pahi: camping grounds pou: carved posts tīpuna: ancestors tohunga: expert practitioner tuhanga: descendants wairua: spirituality wheke: octopus

1 Webber, John 1751-1793:

View in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand IMAGERY: ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

significant Cook site in New Zealand to remain virtually unchanged, and it is a place to which both Pākehā and Māori have strong attachments.

“The other thing I personally regard as an important part of Ship Cove is that it was the arrival of European science,” says John.

“So we have a whole lot of benchmark information about what it was like here in Tōtaranui 250 years ago because people like [botanists] Banks and Solander were very well educated and skilful observers.”

In 1896 Meretoto was made a public historic reserve, the country’s earliest, and a memorial to Cook was unveiled there in 1913. A redevelopment in 2006 properly recognised the area’s dual heritage.

For the site’s kaitiaki, says DOC Area Asset Planner/ Ranger Margot Ferrier, it’s a special place.

“They take huge pride in making that place look amazing and giving people the best experiences they can there,” she says.

“I think part of it is the wairua and overall feel of the site. Visitors who go there say, ‘Whoa, this place is amazing; we love the feel of it’.”

Heritage New Zealand

She says one commercial boat skipper will go and pick up rubbish and take driftwood off the beach whenever he does a drop-off. “It’s one of those places that makes people want to care for it.”

Margot says special care was taken in the 2006 upgrade to ensure that the resultant structures were accessible to everyone.

“If you’re a Captain Cook aficionado, you will see a longboat in the shape of the picnic tables, and if you’re from iwi, you’ll see a waka,” she says.

“The shelter is a whare to some and a tent to others ... there isn’t a lot of interpretation at the site and that was done on purpose so people could explore and have their own journeys through it.

“I think there has been a movement towards more appreciation of Māori history and culture in the last 10 years; it’s a pretty cool thing to hear.”

There may even be a little something extra during the Tuia 250 commemorations at the site.

Margot and John tell the story about the installation of a pou at Meretoto that depicts the story of legendary explorer Kupe fighting a giant wheke.

“On the day that the pou was due to be erected, a terrible storm arrived, and instead of the large crowd that was anticipated, only a handful of people was able to be at Meretoto.

“The concrete was ready to anchor the pou and, at the very moment it was poured into the earth, there was a huge clap of thunder and an earthquake – an actual small, localised earthquake.

“The gathered people all looked at each other and said, ‘Did you feel that?’

“It was like Kupe coming home, back to his tuhanga at Ship Cove.”

“I think part of [the experience] is the wairua and overall feel of the site.

Visitors who go there say, ‘Whoa, this place is amazing; we love the feel of it’”

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 11

PROFILE

SOLVING THE PUZZLE Steve Bielby loves a challenge – and he’s facing perhaps the biggest of them all with the restoration of Auckland’s St James Theatre

12 Summer 2019

WO RDS : CAIT LIN SYKE S • IMAG E RY: MARCE L TR OMP

Overlooking the interior of the St James Theatre from the impressive vantage point of the royal box, Steve Bielby gives an update on efforts to restore the iconic theatre.

Listening to him reel off the list of moving parts that need to come together to bring the project in Auckland’s CBD back to life, however, it quickly becomes clear that little about the project is straightforward.

The fate of the Category 1 theatre is currently entwined with that of a large commercial apartment development that is proposed to be built adjacent to the heritage building and provide it with key support services, such as access and toilets.

It’s an out-of-the-box model, but one that its backers – both private and public – could see as holding huge potential for funding the large-scale restoration when it was first mooted more than five years ago.

And all looked good with the deal to begin with. In the biggest-ever public grant to a privately owned heritage project, Auckland Council matched the $15 million in funding put up by the Auckland Notable Properties Trust (ANPT), of which Steve is a trustee, and its private partners for the restoration, and work began.

Among the milestones noted in a Heritage New Zealand magazine work-in-progress story on the theatre’s restoration back in 2015 was a newly opened

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 13

PROFILE

“We’re there to take on those really difficult projects that don’t really stack up, but we’ll take on and manage that risk”

café in the lobby, and its vivid interiors being brought back to life by a paint restoration expert.

Later that year, however, crucial bank funding for the apartment project was pulled and, without the assurance of that project’s future, the theatre restoration stalled.

Steve continues to helm efforts to restart the project, juggling dealing with potential investment partners for the apartment development, liaising with public bodies such as Auckland Council and government agencies, and keeping in touch with the wider group of dedicated St James lovers – of which there are many.

It’s telling that recently retired Auckland Council Principal Heritage Advisor George Farrant, who helmed the restoration of two other landmark CBD heritage sites – the Civic Theatre and Auckland Town Hall – says the St James project, with which he remains highly involved, “is more complicated than both those projects put together”.

14 Summer 2019

“The hardest thing,” admits Steve, “is taking people on the journey; for people to fully understand all that’s involved in dealing with a site like the St James. People will say to me, ‘Have you thought of doing this?’ or ‘Have you thought of doing that?’ and the reality is at this stage we have pretty much thought of everything.

“But I still believe in the theatre project, absolutely, and I enjoy the challenge.”

It’s the challenges posed by heritage projects that had Steve hooked on them from the beginning.

He had been involved in commercial property construction and fitouts developing retail sites for his family’s business, Target Furniture, and that experience led him into projects developing bars in the basement spaces of downtown Auckland heritage buildings.

“Those projects presented some really difficult issues, like how do we get disabled access to a basement that’s below sea level, where we can’t put in a lift, and in an area too small to install a ramp? That was my first taste of some of the challenges of developing spaces in old buildings, while still keeping in line with modern planning and building regulations.”

Out of those challenges, however, Steve also saw opportunity. Essentially believing in heritage spaces as key elements of a thriving city, but also aware of the risk inherent in developing them, he saw the opportunity to create an entity that could apply commercial nous and outside-the-box thinking to heritage projects that others were reluctant to take on.

“These sorts of projects have all sorts of tricky issues, and therefore risk, associated with them that means many traditional entities won’t take them on.

So around 2012 we set up [ANPT] with the intent of being a developer of last resort. We’re not there to battle it out with the commercial guys who can make a commercial development stack up; we’re there to take on those really difficult projects that don’t really stack up, but we’ll take on and manage that risk.”

It was around this time that George Farrant first met Steve, when ANPT took on the restoration of a pair of unloved, but extremely rare and early, examples of workers’ cottages on Airedale Street in the city.

“I thought, ‘This must be a brave or foolish buyer to take on the significant challenge of not only committing to securing their dodgy structure, restoring

Heritage New Zealand

Auckland War Memorial Museum

IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

I think I was initially drawn to the museum’s neoclassical design, and its elevated position and amazing outlook. I have memories of going on field trips there as a schoolboy and seeing dinosaur bones – and all the other weird and wonderful things 10-year-olds enjoy looking at!

I think it’s one of those rare places that people relate to in different ways: a place for a child to get hands-on learning outside the classroom; a memorial for the family of a fallen soldier to visit; a vantage point from which a tourist can get an impressive outlook of the city.

their much-altered character, but, most daunting, finding a practical end use for them’,” says George.

“Steve proved to be committed and adept, and ultimately, after spending more than $1 million, succeeded in meeting all three goals, finally leasing the handsomely restored and very livable cottages to a new adjacent boutique hotel – a courageous project but one with an exemplary outcome resulting from a passion and a dogged will to succeed.”

ANPT became involved in the St James restoration in 2014 – and it’s continuing to take every bit of that dogged determination to push the project over the line.

George notes that the St James situation highlights a major heritage quandary: that many important heritage places are privately owned, require costly restoration and will never generate income to justify huge investment, but are nonetheless places of great community heritage significance.

Heritage New Zealand

“There’s a disconnect,” agrees Steve, “between what the public thinks, and the reality. The public thinks these buildings are safe and protected; the reality is they’re not. At the moment you’ve got people who will buy heritage buildings on the basis of ‘I’ll just leave it for five years and it will fall over’, and that’s what we need to stem – demolition by neglect.”

While Steve describes the St James as “the ultimate challenge; what many see as the unsolvable piece of the New Zealand heritage puzzle”, for now he’s determined to keep trying to find a solution.

“There are a lot of people looking at this project because it’s a new model, and I think new models are really what’s required to save more of our heritage and get better outcomes for the future of our cities,” he says.

“There’s no roadmap for this project. I’m on its journey; it’s not on mine.”

Summer 2019 15

COMMUNITY On a cold Monday morning in early August, Whitianga ferry captain Eric Mair lifts three buckets of paint from the Whitianga wharf and places them neatly under the seating in his ferry.

A local tradesman hands him a roll of electrical tape and he tucks it alongside. Eric says the paint is not the most unusual cargo he’s transported in his 16 years of driving the vessel (he’s now retired but returns to do the occasional shift). There have been coffins (occupied) on their way to the cemetery at Ferry Landing, and raucous participants of hens’ parties or stag do’s.

He also used to take a farm worker from Whitianga across the estuary to Ferry Landing every day for work.

“That guy once brought back a wild pig he’d stuck. It had come down onto the farm he was working on. It left a right mess on the boat,” says Eric.

Black-and-white photos surrounding the ferry’s helm hint at the area’s history, but, says Eric, many who make the estuary crossing every year would have no idea of the importance of the old stone wharf on the other side.

The ferry’s new owners, former America’s Cup yachtie Jeremy Lomas and his wife Louise, only realised the wharf’s history after they bought the ferry business in 2018. It turned out that Louise’s great-great-greatgrandfather Captain Ranulph Dacre established the original wharf at Ferry Landing in the 1830s.

Back then it was the seat of the Coromandel’s kauri trade and gave rise to one of the earliest European settlements outside New Zealand’s Far North.

“The wharf was in a pretty bad state a few years ago,” says Eric. “It was literally falling into the sea.

It’s great they’ve saved it.”

Whitianga’s old stone wharf has been revived thanks to a wide-ranging community effort

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SAFE LANDING WORDS: NICOLA MARTIN • IMAGERY: VAUGHAN GRIGSBY

16 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

2

1 The stone wharf at Ferry

Landing in Whitianga is the oldest civil engineering project in New Zealand that is still working and serving its original purpose.

2 Retired ferry captain Eric

Mair fills in the odd shift for the service, which provides a vital link between the Whitianga and Ferry Landing communities.

Heritage New Zealand

It was the wharf’s history that captured retired engineer and Ferry Landing resident Bob Nicholls and spurred him on to create a local group to restore it.

Bob was four when his father, John, bought some of the first sections on offer at Ferry Landing in the late 1940s. Bob retired there in 2008 and now lives just up on the hill from where he used watch the ferry coming and going before the pōhutukawa trees grew too tall.

“It’s the oldest civil engineering project in New Zealand that’s still there and still serving its original purpose,” he says.

“I’d always admired its history, but things were falling off it and it was degrading. I knew we had to save it.”

Bob rallied a group of like-minded locals, including Toby Morcom and Alison Henry, to drive the project, and together they approached the ThamesCoromandel District Council (TCDC) and Engineering New Zealand.

“Everyone agreed it needed to be saved, but projects like this cost money and getting funding was challenging at first,” says Bob. In December 2014 a $187,845 grant from the Lottery Environment and Heritage Fund enabled work to begin. As support for the restoration grew, the group managed to raise a total of $660,000 – the lion’s share coming from TCDC. “At the time there were some who questioned why we should spend the money, but you see people come over to Ferry Landing now and they engage with the space,” says Bob.

“They see the signs and the artwork, and it helps unveil the uniqueness and importance of this area and our place in the world.”

Heritage New Zealand Senior Heritage Assessment Advisor Martin Jones says the Category 1 wharf is an important demonstration of the arrival of globalised trade in pre-colonial New Zealand.

Built in about 1836, the wharf was designed by Sydney timber merchant Gordon Davies Browne on behalf of Captain Dacre, who had established a timber milling and ship building business in Mercury Bay, exporting kauri products to overseas markets and trading imported goods with local iwi Ngāti Hei. The original structure was built with the help of Ngāti Hei. While parts of the original 1830s stone wharf remain, it has also been added to over the years. In 1864 it was expanded to include the timber mill, which eventually outgrew the site and was moved to Whitianga. Over time a raised loading platform, goods shed, cattle race, stone steps for ferry access and timber derrick for lifting cargo from ships were all added.

“It is believed to be the earliest stone wharf in New Zealand, so has high technological value in relation to that. But from a bigger picture perspective, it is a remnant of very early international commerce in New Zealand,” says Martin.

He says the wharf is also significant as it was operating well before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

“The activity of this wharf was operating in a Māori world. Often these stories are told from a Pākehā

Summer 2019 17

COMMUNITY Saving the old stone wharf was a community effort.

Some of the core project group are pictured with a large compass artwork by James Webster. L-R: Bob Nicholls, Peter McVicker, Louise Barker, Alison Henry, Eric Mair and Andrew Scobie.

1

perspective, but one of the important things about this place is its ability to tell the story of pre-Treaty relationships between Māori and Pākehā, including collaboration and cooperation where there was perceived mutual benefit.”

The wharf’s restoration has also been a collaboration.

TCDC, Ngāti Hei, Engineering New Zealand, the Waikato Regional Council, DOC and the Mercury Bay community all worked together to save it.

“Once we started, we had to keep going. If it fell into the tide then it wouldn’t be there anymore,” says Bob. TCDC Project Engineer Andrew Scobie says he was impressed by the community effort and collaboration that went into the wharf’s restoration.

It was a challenging project because of its Category 1 heritage status, says Andrew, adding that they had to be careful not to go too far outside the wharf’s original state.

The wharf’s old stones, some up to three tonnes in weight, were recovered from the sea floor by divers and a crane. The old timber derrick that used to winch cargo off boats was recreated. Timber baulks were installed to create seating. Artwork, signage and specialist lighting were also installed to finish the project.

“It created a lot of interest as it was worked on,” says Andrew. “The ferry continued operating throughout the project, so people were always coming and going, wondering, ‘What are they doing now?’”

An old winch from a tow truck in Martinborough was refurbished locally by Kieran McCarten to create the replica derrick. Another local, Travis Boyd, provided the timber baulks, while locals Murray Strachan and Peter McVicker spent many hours sanding, preparing and installing the derrick and seating.

Acclaimed Coromandel artist James Webster, of tā moko studio and Māori arts gallery Tahaa, worked

Heritage New Zealand

iwi: tribe pā: fortified villages tā moko: traditional tattoo

1 An old winch from a tow

truck was refurbished locally to create the replica derrick now on the wharf.

2 The restoration project was

finished off with timber baulks for seating, lighting and signage, bringing the wharf’s history to life.

with Ngāti Hei to create the large compass artwork that is set into the wharf’s pavement, completing the project.

The compass references voyagers Kupe and James Cook, who placed Mercury Bay on the map.

“These locals provided so much of their time and energy,” says Andrew. “Evenings and weekends. It was also really important to have the link with the community in terms of getting quick responses on things; that community engagement made things flow very smoothly.”

Ngāti Hei spokesperson Joe Davis says the site is particularly significant for Ngāti Hei as Whakapenui and Whitianga pā are sited on the hill to the right of the wharf.

“Preservation of history was always the main objective and we supported this restoration project from the outset.

“Features like the stone wharf help to tell the story of our place and keep that history alive for future generations. I think people appreciate that,” he says.

And while the wharf is an important example of early stone wall construction, it is also a significant engineering feat that has stood the test of time. The huge ignimbrite stones mined from the local hillsides were originally lifted into place using Ngāti Hei labour.

“We provided a ready workforce. It was like building a pyramid, the way the stones slotted together,” says Joe. While the wharf represents a collaboration of sorts between Ngāti Hei and the British, Joe says it was also a tumultuous time for the iwi.

“Timber leases were set up. They all knew they had to work with the local chiefs. But along with the English, there were Irish, Welsh, Scots, French and Portuguese – all vying for a slice of the trade. There were also the introductions of weapons and disease. There were so many dynamics at play for us,” he says.

“The wharf is only a very tiny snippet of the history of our region and our people, but it is playing quite an important role in our tourism industry now and the restoration project has brought it all to light.”

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Summer2019 201919 19 Summer

BUILDINGS AT WORK

The grand

OLD DUKE After a nine-year, $12 million revamp, Russell’s iconic Duke of Marlborough Hotel is looking sharp and is ready to receive the guests who stream through its doors

WORDS: JENNY LING • IMAGERY: JESS BURGES

20 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

When Anton Haagh found himself climbing into the roof space of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel with a fish bucket to catch the rain falling through its leaking roof yet again, he must have wondered what he’d got himself into.

The year was 2010 and Anton and his wife Bridget had uprooted their corporate lives in Auckland and bought the iconic Russell hotel with long-time friends Jayne Shirley and Riki Kinnaird.

Anton was a former operations manager for Simon Gault’s Nourish Group in Auckland, Bridget worked in health promotions, Riki was a chief financial officer of a telecommunications company in London and Jane was an HR manager for a large Spanish bank.

Cue Anton, now running around the languishing building with fish buckets during a downpour.

“When we first bought it, I was taking the first lot of guests upstairs and there were 20 buckets in the hall,” he says. “The water had filled the bar tills and all the tills had sparked out.

“I was having to climb into the roof space with a fish bucket to catch all the rain and I’d have to empty it out after every rainfall.

I can remember reading a comment in the guest book saying ‘Welcome to New Zealand’s very own Fawlty Towers’.”

Touted as having been serving “rascals and reprobates since 1827” the Duke has a colourful past, starting its life as Johnny Johnston’s Grog Shop.

An ex-convict, Johnston managed to swing the first liquor licence in the country for his establishment, not long after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 and New Zealand’s first government was formed just down the road in Okiato.

Misfortune struck when the ‘first Duke’ burned down in 1845 during the battle of Kororāreka, but Johnston quickly rebuilt and retained the building until 1878.

However, a subsequent and catastrophic fire razed it in 1931.

The current building originally housed workers at the Cable Station at Cable Bay, which was established in the Far North in 1902. A year after the fire, this building was shipped 100 kilometres down the coast and hauled into place by steam traction engine to where it sits today, nestled in the heart of Russell’s heritage precinct.

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 21

BUILDINGS AT WORK

2 4

1

The Duke had made its way through many sets of entrepreneurial hands before the current owners bought it from Frenchman Arnauld Kindt in 2010. Determined to do the ‘grand old lady’ justice, they set about making plans to bring the building back to its former glory.

They worked closely with Heritage New Zealand and Salmond Reed Architects in order to maintain the building’s integrity and respect its colonial heritage.

Meetings were set up immediately, a series of sketches was presented and views were shared on what was to become a nine-year, $12 million project.

First came the much-needed roof replacement, followed by a revamp of the two kitchens, one of which had been closed for years. Then came the redesign of the function room, which is now used for up to 100 functions a year, including around 30 weddings.

The vision Anton relayed to the designer was a room as lavish as the ballroom in Titanic – which went down very well with the film’s leading lady Kate Winslet when she popped in a few years later for lunch. There have been plenty of other big names to grace the Duke’s rooms, including Sir Mick Jagger and Kiwi actor Sam Neill (the hotel now sells his Two Paddocks wines).

22 Summer 2019

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Over the years bathrooms have been replaced, the restaurant has been upgraded, and extra rooms have been created, taking the accommodation wing from 25 rooms to 38 and increasing the building’s total size by around 1200 square metres.

First-floor balconies and a turret on the Strand façade have also been added, and balconies on the York Streetfacing side.

The final stage of the upgrade, completed in December 2018, included conference facilities, a garden bar, gym, offices, staff accommodation and extra parking.

Anton says his love and appreciation of old buildings developed while he was studying at the University of Otago, which is rich in built heritage and from which all four owners graduated.

However, nothing prepared them for the sheer amount of work and co-ordination that the revamp entailed.

Challenges aplenty included working with multiple agencies to get each project across the line.

For instance, a simple extraction fan in the kitchen required sign-off from WorkSafe, Heritage New Zealand, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the Far North District Council.

1 Anton and Bridget Haagh

with friends Riki Kinnaird and Jayne Shirley, who jointly own the Duke of Marlborough Hotel.

2 The opulent dining and

function room is used for up to 100 functions a year.

3 Over the years extra rooms

have been created, taking the accommodation wing from 25 rooms to 38.

4 The Duke’s hallways are

lined with original art by Kerikeri artist Lester Hall.

5 Riki, Jayne, Bridget and

Anton have worked hard on the revamp of the historic hotel.

iwi: tribes

Heritage New Zealand

“We had to get resource consent and council building consent, line up tradies and talk to local iwi,” Anton says.

“You think you’ve got a plan, and someone says it doesn’t meet the standard, so you’ve got to change it.

The hardest thing is having to talk to multiple agencies and keep everyone in the loop.”

Added to this was running a busy restaurant and hotel, which is staffed by 120 workers and churns out more than 1000 meals a day in summer.

“We worked out how much we could spend each season, then planned nine to 12 months ahead. We did most of the work in winter, when Russell was quiet.”

Salmond Reed Architects Director Lloyd Macomber worked on the project, along with Senior Architect Sean Kisby, Associate Philip Graham and architectural graduate Sebastian Sayers.

The challenges were not so much architectural, but more to do with accommodating services and amenities for the hotel’s expanding operation, says Lloyd.

“Integrating kitchen extracts, electrical systems and water storage for fire protection systems into the building and site and considering what worked well and what had to be hidden was more of a challenge than the heritage or architectural design aspects of the project.”

Another surprising finding was the limited amount of early built heritage fabric that remained as a result of the frequency of alterations to the hotel over the years, says Lloyd.

Previous design modifications to the Duke included heritage transgressions such as installing aluminium window frames.

“Yes, we were dealing with a very important site with a lot of history,” says Lloyd.

“However, the Duke’s heritage value, in terms of surviving building materials in areas proposed for alterations, was limited, allowing us some freedom and licence. We’re very pleased with the outcome and hope the owners and guests are too.”

Along with thousands of old bottles that had been dumped into holes scattered around the property from the pub’s early days, the new works also uncovered 11 disused septic tanks that required inclusion in engineering plans, and some rusty nails and pipes from an old blacksmith’s forge. While most of the bottles were broken, 300 that remained intact have been kept and preserved.

Heritage New Zealand Area Manager Northland Bill Edwards says Heritage New Zealand was pleased to be part of the revamp.

“The big thing was we met early on in the project and had that continuity throughout. Because of that we’ve achieved good outcomes. They’ve done a really good job – it’s a really good model of how heritage and business can work together.”

After nine winters of projects, Anton, Bridget, Riki and Jayne have enjoyed their first winter off.

“It’s been a really positive experience working with Heritage New Zealand and the architects,” Anton says.

“It feels a bit weird, having it in your mind’s eye for so long and seeing it complete. We’re proud and happy but pretty sad at the same time. It’s been a labour of love.”

Heritage New Zealand

A WORK OF ART A unique feature of the Duke’s grand interior is the artwork that decorates its walls.

About two-thirds of the artwork throughout the restaurant, rooms and hallways has been created by Kerikeri artist Lester Hall.

It’s been an evolving collaboration between the current owners and Hall that started in 2016.

“Lester and his art are key to the Duke, underlining its part in the early New Zealand story,” says Anton.

“We feel it is important that the colonial exterior meets an interesting continuation of the look and feel presented Inside. This partnership continues to grow and change in a way any good story should.”

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Summer 2019 23

ARCHAEOLOGY MĀORI HERITAGE

WORDS: JACQUI GIBSON 1

It’s Saturday in the Bay of Islands. We’re nosing our way into Kent Passage on a 10-metre launch captained by amateur historian and trusted Heritage New Zealand volunteer Jack Kemp.

The ocean is twinkling in the morning sun as we briefly slow to photograph Black Rocks, a striking line of basalt lava rocks believed to be around 1.2 million years old.

We don’t stop for long. There are other early sites to shoot on this spectacular morning and the clock is ticking.

Our party of four is en route to Te Rawhiti Marae for a half-day wānanga hosted by Bay of Islands hapū Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha.

On transport is Jack; photographer Marcel Tromp and I are documenting events.

Meanwhile, Heritage New Zealand Senior Archaeologist Dr James Robinson is presenting findings from the Mangahawea Bay Partnership Project.

“It’s an extraordinary project to be part of,” shouts James over the rumble of the boat’s engine.

Pointing to the pōhutukawa-fringed foreshore of Mangahawea Bay, on Moturua Island’s northwesterly side, James turns to me.

“Just imagine if it were your tīpuna who set foot there, ending millions of years of human endeavour that started

24 Summer 2019

in Africa. That’s how it is for Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha.

This bay represents the arrival of their Polynesian ancestors and one of the last places settled on Earth.”

The Mangahawea Bay Partnership Project was set up in 2016 by Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha and three Crown agencies: DOC, the University of Otago and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

Each partner wanted to know more about Mangahawea Bay’s early human history and figured that working together to combine skills and knowledge would help.

On the one hand, Crown agencies had pulled together enough archaeological evidence from surveys carried out in the 1960s and ’70s – and an unpublished excavation in 1981 – to believe that Mangahawea Bay was an early Polynesian settlement site.

On the other, local hapū had clues to the site’s ties to Polynesia embedded in their oral histories, genealogy stories, proverbs and place names.

Each had pieces of the puzzle – but no-one knew the whole story.

Anchoring in Kaingahoa Bay, outside Te Rawhiti Marae, we go ashore in Jack’s rubber dinghy, joining manuhiri gathering for the morning pōwhiri. All up, we are a group of around 100 people.

1 Mangahawea Bay. IMAGE: DEAN WRIGHT 2 Waka hourua, Bay of

Islands.

3 Black Rocks, Bay of

Islands.

4 Jacqui Gibson and

James Robinson en route to Te Rawhiti Marae.

IMAGERY: MARCEL TROMP

Heritage New Zealand

2

The extraordinary stories unfolding in a small Northland bay are helping to tell the wider story of 1000 years of Pacific voyaging and navigation that brought the first people to Aotearoa/New Zealand

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Heritage New Zealand

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Summer 2019 25

ARCHAEOLOGY 2

3 1

There’s a good turnout from the project team.

Kaumātua Matutaera (Matu) Te Nana Clendon and Robert Willoughby, the hapū elders overseeing the project, are here. DOC Senior Ranger Historic Andrew Blanshard, who spent a decade collating archaeological evidence related to the site, is here, together with James, who is the lead archaeologist on the project.

Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha whānau are here for a project update and to discuss how to share the findings.

An overseas film crew making a documentary on New Zealand rugby chanced upon the wānanga and have gained permission to record goings-on.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage have travelled north to make a plug for sharing the story of Mangahawea Bay at the Tuia 250 commemorations over the summer. Dame Jenny Shipley and Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr, co-chairs of the Tuia 250 National Coordinating Committee, are leading the charge.

As the oratory unfolds, we learn that both scientists and tangata whenua are confident that Mangahawea Bay is a place of very early Polynesian settlement in New Zealand.

Two archaeological digs carried out as part of the project in 2017 and 2019 have unearthed compelling proof.

James tells us that excavated hāngi pits, middens and gardens reveal evidence of foods such as moa and taro that were eaten for only a short time after human arrival.

Radiocarbon-tested artefacts, such as moa bone fishhooks and pāua shell pendants, date the island’s human habitation to the 1300s.

A third and final archaeological excavation planned for January 2020 should further confirm timelines and finally attest to the site’s historic significance.

“Your ancestors came here to settle,” says James, addressing the small crowd perched on rows of office chairs and wooden benches as a sleeping child quietly snores on her aunty’s lap in front of me.

“Just as your stories suggest, they were explorers.

They were experienced, skilled navigators pushing the boundaries of knowledge and imagination, much like those who were first on the Moon.”

26 Summer 2019

AOTEAROA: THE LAST PLACE TO BE SETTLED ON EARTH 1500BC The Lapita people colonise Polynesia, moving from Southeast Asia through Western Polynesia.

1400BC The Lapita people make it to Eastern Polynesia: Tahiti, the Marquesas and the Society Islands.

600-700AD Rapanui/Easter Island is settled, followed by Hawaii.

1200-1300AD With the Polynesian arrivals, Aotearoa becomes the last place to be settled on Earth. n

Matu, who was born and raised on Moturua Island, grew up listening to stories of his Polynesian ancestry.

The science is exciting, he explains to me later over a cup of tea, but simply corroborates what many of his people already know.

“Many local names are like footprints left by our Pacific ancestors. There’s Poroporo Island, referencing Bora Bora in Tahiti.

“But probably the most significant name you’ll find around here belongs to a tiny island off Mangahawea Bay. The island of Rangiātea references the sacred site of Ra’iātea, the cultural centre of the Polynesian world.”

Meanwhile, Rakaumangamanga/Cape Brett, just 10 kilometres north of Te Rawhiti, is one of the waypoints of the Polynesian triangle referenced in voyaging oratory alongside Rapanui/Easter Island and Taputapuātea on Ra’iātea.

When former prime minister Jenny Shipley takes the floor to speak, she encourages Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha to promote the story of Mangahawea Bay to the rest of New Zealand during Tuia 250.

Tuia 250, a national event that began in Tūranga/ Gisborne on 5 October, marks 250 years since British Lieutenant James Cook first sailed to New Zealand on HMB Endeavour.

Instead of focusing on Cook, she says, Tuia 250 gives communities such as Rawhiti a chance to promote the untold stories of the country’s settlement history.

In 1769 Cook anchored off adjacent Motuarohia Island, accompanied by British naturalist Joseph Banks and Polynesian navigator and tohunga Tupaia. That much is well known.

Heritage New Zealand

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hāngi: earth oven hapū: sub-tribe iwi: tribe kai: food kaitiaki: caretaker karakia: prayer kaumātua: elder manuhiri: visitor mātauranga Māori: indigenous knowledge mauri: life force pou: carved post pōwhiri: welcome tangata whenua: local Māori tikanga: customs tīpuna: ancestors tohunga: expert practitioner waiata: song

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What’s less well known, says Matu, is that the British crew’s ability to come ashore and safely trade items for food was made possible because of the similar culture and language that Tupaia shared with local Māori – and the brokering role Tupaia played between Māori and the British.

“We know from our stories that our people took Tupaia away for several days before returning him to the Endeavour. They recognised his status. They were able to communicate with him. They gave him and his entourage safe passage because of his common connection to the Pacific.”

Kaumātua Robert Willoughby says: “To me, it’s time to look back on Aotearoa’s voyaging history and to see it with fresh eyes.

“It didn’t start with Cook. It started hundreds of years before him when the Pacific Ocean was a highway taking Polynesian people from one island to the next.

“That’s how our ancestors made it here to the Bay of Islands. It’s that story that’s missing from the narrative in this country.

“The story of 1000 years of Pacific voyaging and navigation that brought the first people to Aotearoa/ New Zealand. The Mangahawea Bay Partnership Project is our opportunity to bring that story to life.”

At the wānanga, hapū members talk about how best to share the story of Mangahawea Bay.

Heritage New Zealand

wānanga: forum

Some agree with plans to publish an illustrated history book and record an oral history of Matu’s life on Moturua Island. Hosting a public open day at Mangahawea Bay, in which archaeologists and hapū present the science and mātauranga Māori of the site side by side, is another popular choice.

Public signage and historical interpretation at Mangahawea Bay are given the green light, as are other education projects, including primary and secondary school history resources and academic voyaging wānanga.

At one point, talk of ignoring the opportunity provided

by Tuia 250 altogether comes up because of the drain on the limited time and resources of the hapū.

But when the idea of a pou erected at Mangahawea Bay is mooted, the mood of the small wooden meeting house shifts again. Someone asks what its purpose would be.

It would act as a permanent visual marker – a new footprint of sorts – representing the historical ties between the voyaging cultures of the Pacific and the first people of Mangahawea Bay, says Matu.

This idea gets plenty of smiles and nods as we finally break for waiata and shared kai in the dining hall.

1 Te Rawhiti Marae.

2 Hapū, Tuia 250 and Heritage New Zealand representatives.

3 Tuia 250 National Coordinating Committee Co-chair

Jenny Shipley.

4 Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha kuia singing waiata.

5 Te Rawhiti Marae and foreshore.

IMAGERY: MARCEL TROMP

MAINTAINING THE MAURI AT MANGAHAWEA BAY Having Matutaera (Matu) Te Nana Clendon, of Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha, act as kaitiaki of the Mangahawea Bay Partnership Project excavations was a highlight for DOC Senior Ranger Historic Andrew Blanshard.

“Despite all the work that had been done at Mangahawea Bay before 2016, there had never been any iwi involvement, let alone any maintenance of the site’s mauri,” says Andrew.

“So it felt very different working under Matu’s guidance. It felt right.

I personally felt more comfortable. And I think we all felt much safer, culturally. I know I’m not alone when I say Mangahawea Bay feels like a very spiritual place. It’s very much a living site, connected to a living culture.”

Every morning and every night of the Mangahawea Bay excavations were marked by karakia led by Matu, who stayed on the island for the duration of both two-week digs to uphold the tikanga of the site.

“Honestly, I do think things went smoothly because of Matu and because we took the time to pay our respects,” says Andrew.

So has his experience at Mangahawea Bay changed his practice as an archaeologist?

“Absolutely, yes. Working with iwi and hapū in this way is just how we do things now in Northland.” n

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EXPLORE BEST SHOTS THE LIST

WORDS A N D I M AGE : B R E N N A N T H O MAS

A sold-out show This photograph is from deep inside the heart, or perhaps the brain, of the easternmost cinema on the planet.

It was taken in 2008 in a really special place, Te Araroa.

Situated at the tip of East Cape, Te Araroa is home to some of the most amazing Māori history, people and beautiful, wild landscapes in the country; it’s in my heart.

It’s also home to a unique cinema.

Not only does the cinema have the look of an aircraft hangar about it, but the projector was transported all the way up winding State Highway 35 from the Odeon Theatre in Gisborne.

Well before the time of home VCRs, the cinema brought the local community

28 Summer 2019 2014

together for three shows a week every Saturday; the word was it was the place to be.

This image was taken in 2008 when I was photographing a documentary series on the area.

By then the cinema had been closed for some years as the easy availability of home videos had put it permanently to sleep.

The movie buffs may have left, but nature’s own nocturnal enthusiasts were now occupying the front-row seats.

TECHNICAL DATA Camera: Nikon D200 Lens: 10–20mm (DX) Exposure: 15 seconds, f/4.8

Heritage New Zealand

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 2014 29

ARCHAEOLOGY

GROWING

TIES

30 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

WORDS: JAMIE DOUGLAS • IMAGERY: FRANK VISSER

A former market garden in Ashburton has become one of only eight post-1900 sites in the country to receive archaeological recognition

Yep Ng at the outdoor pig oven with the market garden settlement buildings in the background.

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 31

ARCHAEOLOGY

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1 The remains of the

settlement from the air, with Allens Road to the right.

2 Robert King (left),

grandson of original part-owner Charlie King, and Yep Ng, who lived at the site from 1949.

32 Summer 2019

It’s a few weeks on from the fanfare and occasion accompanying the declaration of the Ng King Brothers Chinese Market Garden Settlement in Ashburton as an archaeological site – and now it’s back to business for the key people involved in its ongoing care.

At a meeting in Ashburton District Council offices are 11 descendants of the five brothers who established the market garden in 1921, along with four council staff, an independent heritage consultant from Eru Design and two Heritage New Zealand staff.

The meeting is upbeat and focused on what needs doing. And between matters of business about timber conservation treatments, security issues and interpretation panels, trips are taken down memory lane. One in particular explores the best way to prepare and roast a pig in the heyday of the onsite pig oven.

Laughter and sharing knowledge of life and times on the site always fill the air when talk turns to this fascinating part of Ashburton’s history and heritage.

This site is real, still alive.

Five members of a Chinese family dug deep in 1920s Ashburton, both literally and figuratively, to establish strong roots in a new community so far from home.

Their property is still registered in their names – Charlie King, George Boe, James King, Ng Fook Ying and Ng King Yau – and the core of the settlement on Allens Road remains.

On 8 July this year, to coincide with the lucky number eight in Chinese tradition, it was declared an archaeological site by Heritage New Zealand, ensuring that this special place, which is becoming surrounded increasingly by housing development, is protected.

Trading as Kings Bros, the market garden closed in 1964, ending its golden run as the South Island’s largest, selling fruit and vegetables to Ashburton and its surrounds within a 35-kilometre radius.

But it was more than just an outlet for growing and selling. The original five family members, who came from Hoisan, China, employed many kinsfolk to work in the garden, and by the 1950s it was home to 14 families and at least 80 people.

Heritage New Zealand

“Hopefully we can continue to develop the connection the family has with the site and the community, opening it up to them and involving them more and more” Brothers Tong and Yep, sons of Ng King Yau, lived at the settlement from the late 1940s until the late 1960s.

Their house was one of four running parallel to the road and was demolished not so long ago. As children, the brothers would weed, pick and harvest potatoes, and wash and bag vegetables during school holidays.

“When our father and uncles started the business, they formed strong friendships within the community,” recalls Tong.

“When the families arrived, the children were of various ages. The Allenton School set up a special English class after normal classes. As they looked after

us, we looked after them. It was a close bond between us and the people of Ashburton – like a big family.”

Yep spent five years contacting as many descendants as possible to get their approval for a joint agreement, reached with the Ashburton District Council in 2013, for the council to manage the site as a reserve.

“It was hard work when we lived there, but it was worth it,” says Yep. “Pretty much everything was done by hand, the planting and irrigating. We’re all very happy that the council has supported us and fixed the main buildings to make them all secure.”

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Summer 2019 33

ARCHAEOLOGY

“Through excavations we could learn about the settlement’s layout, changes over time, how labour was organised, the technology and gardening techniques used, what produce was grown, and how people adapted to their new homeland”

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Ashburton District Council Commercial Property Advisor Racheal Western says the declaration and its celebration have awakened the history and importance of the market garden site.

“Hopefully we can continue to develop the connection the family has with the site and the community, opening it up to them and involving them more and more.”

By year’s end, the council aims to have weatherproofed the buildings – which include a schoolroom, storeroom, kitchen, lounge and dining room, and bedrooms – by fitting galvanised steel sheet metal underneath the existing corrugated iron roof as a protective skin. A preservative applied to the timber exterior of the buildings will add another protective layer. Work will also be done on the foundations of the standalone, wooden sleeping quarters.

A warning shot was fired over the site’s future in October last year when the corrugated iron roof was blown off the retail shop and two of its side walls collapsed. The ‘Kings Bros’ sign that featured above the shop entrance and the remainder of the building were deconstructed and stored to reinstate at a later date. Still also on site is the adjoining building to the shop, a large garaging shed, washroom and laundry.

But it’s the kitchen, living area, office building and the outdoor pig oven that provide the greatest insights

34 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

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DEFINED AND DECLARED The Ng King Brothers Chinese Market Garden Settlement is the eighth post-1900 archaeological site to be declared by Heritage New Zealand.

The declaration process enables the protection of those 20th-century places believed to be archaeologically significant.

Post-1900 archaeological sites do not have protection under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 unless they have been declared.

The Historic Places Act 1993 set a cut-off date of 1900 to define an archaeological site, and this was retained in the review and establishment of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014. The cut-off date replaced the more fluid definition of “over 100 years old” that featured in the 1980 Act. The Ng King Brothers Chinese Market Garden Settlement declaration joins the Napier Prison Wall, the Makatote Tramway on State Highway 4 at Erua, 20th-century goldmining sites in the Remarkables Conservation Area in Central Otago, 20th-century components of a pottery brickworks site at Limeburners Bay in Auckland, Featherston Military Training Camp on State Highway 2 in Wairarapa, the Norwegian Whalers’ Base at Rakiura/Stewart Island and the SS Ventnor shipwreck at the mouth of Hokianga Harbour. n

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into what life was once like at the market garden, says Heritage New Zealand Senior Archaeologist Frank van der Heijden.

“In terms of understanding how the community lived here, the kitchen, living area and office are very important. The kitchen table in the middle of the room would have been a hub for conversation; a stereogram along the wall would have been playing in the background and a phone was just inside the front door. In the living area, by an open fire, more socialising and all sorts of games would take place.”

More importantly, says Frank, the site offers incredible potential through archaeological investigations to get a real sense of daily life in the market garden settlement.

“Through excavations we could learn about the settlement’s layout, changes over time, how labour was organised, the technology and gardening techniques used, what produce was grown, and how people adapted to their new homeland.

“And the beauty is that here many of the buildings, the functions of which are known, are still present.

These aspects – combined with an already strong oral and written record – give this site a whole new dimension and, as far as I can tell, make it unique in New Zealand.”

Heritage New Zealand

1 Senior Archaeologist

Frank van der Heijden says the buildings offer great insights into life at the market garden.

2 The gas boiler that

provided hot water for the wash house.

3 A peek inside the

kitchen area.

4 Some of the artefacts

found during the clean-up of the site.

5 One of the sleeping

quarters for single men who worked for Kings Bros.

Ten boxes of archaeological items have been recovered from the site by Underground Overground Archaeology, and it is proposed that some artefacts – shoes, newspapers, bottles and kitchenware – be displayed at the rebuilt retail shop. These will add to a fascinating stopover point on a public walkway through the site that will connect with existing walkways.

In 2013 the council secured a $7500 grant from the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust to restore the outdoor pig oven. This year marks 75 years since the abolition of the Chinese Poll Tax, which caused much hardship for early Chinese immigrants.

What is clear is that the partnership between the descendants and the council is very strong.

“Every now and then with this project,” says Racheal, “we hit a brick wall, but the good thing is that something pops up and we make advances.”

Summer 2019 35

BUILDINGS AT WORK

WORDS: ANN WARNOCK • IMAGERY: BRAD BONIFACE

A perfect GENTLEMAN Gentlemen’s clubs were once a feature of many provincial towns, and the few that remain are moving with the times

36 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

The snooker room is the heart and soul of the Feilding Club. Club member Con Hienold is at the table.

Heritage New Zealand

Summer 2019 37

BUILDINGS AT WORK

When the Feilding Club opened its doors 122 years ago, its freshly built premises were reported as conveying “exclusivity, masculinity, tradition and quiet consequence”.

Housed in an attractive single-bay Victorian villa near the town’s centre, the building’s Category 2 listing details its connection to Feilding’s ‘elite’, who founded the club.

The listing also cites its exemplification of a colonist desire to transplant the social and cultural aspirations of the UK into the raw 19th-century New Zealand landscape.

Despite the new nation’s yawning geographical isolation from the motherland, a good chunk of Great Britain’s hierarchical social code was carried in the baggage of Aotearoa’s early settlers.

And along with it came the notion of gentlemen’s clubs – bars, billiard rooms, reading rooms, card rooms, dining rooms; socialising, relaxing and residing; places of superiority and selectivity established by the upper echelons of London society in the 1700s.

As colonial New Zealand hit its straps, a plethora of gentlemen’s clubs sprang up across its major centres and provincial hubs.

The Feilding Club, formed in 1888, and its clubrooms, completed in 1897, were part of the mix.

A century or so later, however, exclusivity isn’t part of the club’s vocabulary and there’s nothing hoity-toity about its end-of-the-week social bustle.

The Friday hubbub includes a hearty afternoon tea shout for 25 older gentlemen – many of them retired farmers – who stay on for snooker, a drink and an early meal.

“Some of our older boys live on their own now and they’ll carpool to the club,” says club secretary Stuart Atkins. “The camaraderie, chit-chat and a hack around the snooker table is a real drawcard.”

He says the generosity and deep pockets of its members have allowed the club to stay afloat despite the costs inherent in the management of an historic property.

Past-president and long-serving committee member John Wheeler says that “modernised traditions” have also helped the Feilding Club survive in the face of shifting societal themes in the late 1980s and 1990s, which triggered the demise of a raft of gentlemen’s clubs.

The club’s jacket-and-tie dress code is long gone; members’ electronic swipe cards have replaced a full-time, onsite steward, and subscription fees have been lowered.

“Some of the younger members who’re now starting to join are probably sons of the older guys who belong, but there’s nothing starchy about the way things are done,” says John.

While women are still not granted membership at the Feilding Club, since 2013 designated parts of the clubrooms have been shared with the local Oroua Women’s Club. In a win-win situation, a cash injection from the Oroua women, following the sale of their original premises, bankrolled carefully executed renovations at the Feilding Club.

Fittingly, over the decades the club’s ‘strangers’ room’ – where wives once politely waited to collect their husbands – has been reconfigured as a commodious women’s bathroom and now forms part of the Oroua extensions.

38 Summer 2019

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At the Canterbury Club in central Christchurch, restoration has also shaped its recent trajectory.

Built in the newly fashionable Italianate-style favoured by the clubs of London, the institution was formed in 1872 by the ‘newer gentlemen’ of the province as a breakaway from the Christchurch Club founded by large rural landholders in 1856.

Over the decades the property has undergone a number of largely internal renovations to adapt the building to its changing character.

In 2008 – fortuitously – it strengthened its premises in order to meet its code of compliance.

President Russell Lange says the remedial work saved the club building from destruction in the 2011 earthquake.

“I happened to be in the dining room when it struck, and it was horrendous. We had crystal chandeliers flying around above us. Without strengthening, the ceiling and walls would have collapsed and there would have been 70 to 80 casualties,” he says.

Post-quake, says Russell, the club struggled.

1 The Feilding Club’s

‘Locker Room’.

2 The Feilding Club was

described as “a credit and ornament to the town” upon opening in 1897.

3 Club vice-president

Tim Horgan on bar duty.

4 Framed caricatures

of current committee members.

5 Feilding Club secretary

Stuart Atkins (left) with past-president and long-serving committee member John Wheeler.

6 The Canterbury Club on

Cambridge Terrace in Christchurch.

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

Heritage New Zealand

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“We’ve got honest traditions, but we have no mothballs and we’re relevant” 6

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Heritage New Zealand

“Part of our attraction has always been our location; members walk to the club after work. When the CBD emptied out after the quake, we weren’t able to trade or attract new members,” he says.

The club closed for 18 months for quake repairs and a series of upgrades designed to cater for a younger generation.

Eight years on, the Canterbury Club is prospering.

“We may be a private club, but we’re still in the business of hospitality, and it’s a highly competitive scene in Christchurch,” says Russell. “Our younger members operate their own very popular under-40s events schedule with balls and dinners, and we’ve got a lower companion member’s rate.

“We’ve added a gym; we’ve got a very modern bar/ café next to a snooker room with stuffed animal heads on the walls. We’ve got honest traditions, but we have no mothballs and we’re relevant.”

Relevance is a hot issue at the Northern Club (1869) in Auckland, where its first female president Victoria Carter, elected in 2018, is presiding over a record number of members.

While the club’s peak membership is gratifying, Victoria is quick to reference the vigour and vision of club committee decision making in 1990 when the picture was less rosy.

“Two highly significant things happened. Firstly, the gentlemen acknowledged that our facilities needed refreshing and that the club could become a relic of the past if it didn’t move with the times. So the ball started to roll on making our premises relevant,” she says.

“Secondly, we were getting resignations because some members didn’t like that we were men-only,

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BUILDINGS AT WORK

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GENTLEMEN’S CLUBS – A SNAPSHOT n Established by well-to-do colonial settlers in Aotearoa to preserve a “high British tone” and provide upscale socialisation away from the riff-raff of public houses. n Modelled on the gentlemen’s clubs of 18th-century London, White’s (1693) on St James’s Street, being one of the most exclusive, is still going strong.

Women are barred, apart from the Queen. The waiting list is reputedly years long. n The Pickwick Club emerges in Wellington (1840) as a short-lived version of male social organisation. Named

40 Summer 2019

after Pickwick Papers, penned by then-new author Charles Dickens. Emeritus Professor Lydia Wevers: “It held its meetings in a tavern and wavered on a blurry line between high literary aspirations and convivial drinking.” n Followed closely by the Wakefield Club. n The Wellington Club makes an appearance (1841). It’s here to stay. n The Canterbury Club invites women for afternoon tea on the first Tuesday of every month (1894).

n Clubs bob along for a century or so with strict dress codes and codes of conduct. n The winds of social change begin to buffet society (1980s). Men share responsibilities at home, women are increasingly visible in the professional and commercial landscape. Drinkdriving becomes a topic and police blitzes are in the frame. n At the Northern Club in Auckland, women are accepted as members (1990).

The Wellington Club follows suit (1993). n The term ‘gentlemen’s club’

is replaced by ‘private members’ club’. n Some clubs are forced to close – low membership, high running costs. Others hang on by a thread, some thrive. n Clubs rethink and refresh to meet the contemporary needs of prospective members – fitness centres, squash courts, business hubs, secluded board rooms, bistros, cafés, cocktail bars, mini conference rooms, private courtyards, outdoor fireplaces. Dress codes are relaxed. They are no longer exclusive bastions of male privilege. n

Heritage New Zealand

when we had female lawyers, accountants and company directors – and we addressed that issue too.”

The Northern Club’s acceptance of female members in 1990 was a ground-breaking move.

Last year Victoria led a women’s membership recruitment drive as a means of acknowledging 125 years since New Zealand women won the right to vote.

“All our members were able to gift a joining fee to a woman of their choice. I’m so proud that we’ve gained 150 new female members as a result,” she says.

Positivity is also in full swing at the historic Wanganui Club and it’s against the odds.

Founded in 1881, the club moved into its handsome Edwardian-style, purpose-built premises on Saint Hill Street in 1915.

At the time, its grand staircase provided access to an upper level comprising several sprawling reception rooms, accommodation and staff quarters.

In 2000, falling membership and a challenging balance sheet forced the club to sell its property. It was manoeuvred from owner to anchor tenant in a building embodying its own narrative.

President Steve Caudwell says the loyalty of its core membership has kept the club buoyant over the past 20 years, but a tactical membership drive launched in 2017 has been a game-changer.

There has recently been a 40 percent net increase in the club’s membership, with a 45 percent hike in the number of female members.

“We’ve been very strategic,” says Steve.

“We’ve looked at old photos of club members and then we’ve looked at the main street and the CBD to see who occupies a heritage building. We’ve needed fresh leads to bring in new and younger members.

“We’ve thought, ‘Who would enjoy the character and context of the club?’ and then we’ve literally knocked on doors.

“Even our accountant said we’re nailing it.”

Steve believes “heritage is making a comeback” and there is a resurgence of interest in the historic built environment. “And the Wanganui Club is riding that heritage wave.”

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WELLINGTON CLUB – A CASE STUDY 1 Northern Club president

Victoria Carter ONZM. 2 The Northern Club’s new

Bankside Bar & Lounge.

3 The Northern Club’s

premises in Auckland.

4 The historic property

(at rear) sits alongside its cutting-edge modernist expansion designed by Cheshire Architects.

5 The Wellington Club on

The Terrace.

IMAGERY: SUPPLIED 6 The Wanganui Club’s

recently refurbished foyer.

7 The Wanganui Club

building was sold 20 years ago and is now known as Heritage House.

IMAGERY: STEVE CAUDWELL

n New Zealand’s oldest private members’ club (1841). n Nomadic life before leasing the former Criterion Hotel on the foreshore of Lambton Quay (circa 1860). n Moves to a purpose-built clubhouse designed by architect Thomas Turnbull on The Terrace (1877).

Serves the club for almost 100 years. n New motorway forces the demolition of Turnbull’s building (late 1970s). n A temporary clubhouse designed by Roger Walker is built on the front of the same site. It’s nicknamed ‘Noddyland’. Later demolished. n New seven-storey clubhouse designed by Sir Miles Warren “with overtones of Regency London and Bath” (1990) is built on the same site. n Wellington Club has same address since 1877. n The building has a distinctive curved exterior to accommodate a landmark pōhutukawa tree planted on the club boundary in 1895. n Membership at its lowest (late 1980s). n Membership at its highest (2019). Attributed to diversified offerings – restaurant, café, bar, business centre, office suites and increased accommodation. n

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Summer 2019 41

DOMESTIC TRAVEL

1 Turn right for Carterton,

the arts hub of Wairarapa.

2 The historic Wakelin’s

Flour Mill sign was one of the first things Siobhan Jephson renovated.

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42 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

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WORDS: SHARON STEPHENSON • IMAGERY: BRAD BONIFACE

Take State Highway 2 out of Wellington and drive the winding road that snakes over the Remutaka Hill. Ignore the turn-off for Martinborough and instead carry on for around 20 kilometres. Eventually you’ll hit Carterton’s High Street; follow that almost to its end.

Just before the park with the towering evergreens, and just after the blue spa shop, is the tallest building in Carterton, a four-storey rectangle that casts its shadow over all who walk in front of it.

You’ve arrived at Wakelin’s Flour Mill, built in 1863 by British immigrant Edward Louth Wakelin on the banks of Mangatarere Stream, around seven kilometres away.

In its day, the 720-squaremetre building racked up a

Heritage New Zealand

LITTLE GEMS In recent years Wairarapa has been home to some significant heritage restoration projects that are helping to attract visitors to stay, shop and play

number of milestones: one of the earliest businesses in the newly founded settlement of Carterton; its first flour mill; its longestrunning business.

But while there was a clear need for the water-powered mill in wheat-rich Wairarapa, its founder miscalculated when it came to the location. As Edward soon discovered, it wasn’t terribly profitable to transport flour all the way from the mill to Carterton on roads that weren’t as serviceable as they could have been.

So in 1869 he chopped up the building and moved it to a section he owned in High Street South.

It was a good plan and he sold around 750 tonnes of his Golden Crown Roller Flour per year.

But all good things must come to an end and in the 1960s a new

Summer 2019 43

DOMESTIC TRAVEL

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mill in Horowhenua signalled the end for Wakelin’s Flour Mill. The building passed into the hands of local company Renalls Joinery and began the next chapter of its history as an accommodation and storage facility for the joinery.

Fast forward to the mid-1990s, however, and the rundown building was being threatened with the wrecking ball. It took the local community to call for the building’s heritage values to be recognised before Wakelin’s Flour Mill was finally registered in 2005 as a Category 1 historic place for its outstanding heritage values.

Around 2012 Siobhan Jephson stepped in. The local resident and hairdressing salon owner had always loved the building and was determined to save it.

“Not only does Wakelin’s Flour Mill have an important place in the town’s history, it’s also important to my family’s history, with my grandmother almost certainly getting her flour here,” says Siobhan. “I couldn’t bear to see the building go to rack and ruin.”

44 Summer 2019

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“These buildings become part of a visual footprint that we use to differentiate ourselves from other parts of New Zealand” It helped that Siobhan’s Irish husband, David Wilson, is a builder with extensive experience of restoring heritage buildings, including buildings in England that decades earlier had been bombed during World War II. “We bought the mill knowing how much work needed to be done and how much it would cost to bring it back to life,” says Siobhan. “But we’re doing it in stages, as we have the time and the money. There’s no rush; it’s our labour of love.”

The couple’s initial plan was to turn it into a family home, but that has since evolved into three luxury rental apartments and two ground-floor shops. So far, they’ve undertaken earthquake strengthening and watertightness

work, including repiling, replacing corbels and windows, and painting the exterior. They’ve also painstakingly reinstated the original Wakelin’s Flour Mill name at the top of the building.

The couple is hoping to start on the interior soon, installing light, modern apartments and shops under the heritage king trusses.

“We’re confident the renovated building will attract guests wanting to experience this important part of Carterton’s history,” says Siobhan. “It will also be a point of interest for people driving through and further adds to the rejuvenation of the area.”

Alison Dangerfield agrees.

The Heritage New Zealand Area Manager Central Region applauds Siobhan’s passion to preserve

Wakelin’s Flour Mill, one of three Category 1 buildings in Carterton.

“We’ve worked closely with Siobhan over the past five or six years on how she’s going to adapt the building to ensure its rich heritage values are retained,” says Alison.

“That included helping her financially via Heritage New Zealand’s National Heritage Protection Incentive Fund for the roofing work and timber repairs to the impressive façade.

“But I believe the apartments are going to be an asset to the town and will help attract visitors who enjoy staying in such historic surroundings.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by David Hancock, General Manager of Destination Wairarapa, who says his region has a “rich resource of wonderful colonial buildings”, as well as a number of building owners who respect those buildings.

“Greytown, for example, shows what can be achieved when there’s a collective recognition of

Heritage New Zealand

the value that old buildings have in a community,” says David.

“Not only does it help to engender pride in the local community, it also gives rise to business confidence and investment and is a driving force behind local tourism, attracting visitors from all over the country to stay, shop and play. These buildings become part of a visual footprint that we use to differentiate ourselves from other parts of New Zealand.

“It’s terrific to see the restoration of buildings such as Wakelin’s Flour Mill and the Royal Hotel in Featherston, which shows the positive impact of heritage tourism more broadly across our region.”

It’s not too far to the historic Royal Hotel, over which two Wellington business consultants waved a heritage revival wand

1 Siobhan Jephson, her

husband David Wilson and son Deaglan (7) explore the building they’re painstakingly restoring.

2 The couple on the north

side of the building, which has yet to experience the makeover influence.

3 Siobhan and David are

hoping to find a home in the old mill for industrial lights salvaged from another building.

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DOMESTIC TRAVEL

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1 The renovated Royal Hotel.

EAT AND DRINK IN WAIRARAPA

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2 Rob Allen, Janelle Harrington and

dog Zuko.

3 The Tāwhiao Room.

4 There’s an array of cakes made daily

on the premises, plus a full menu.

You’ll never go hungry in the southeastern corner of New Zealand.

Here are a few of our favourite spots:

5 The arched staircase.

6 The Derkhan Blueday room.

7 The stylish black-and-white

bathroom in the Jules Verne room.

8 The 1900s switchboard has pride

of place in the Royal’s foyer.

Food Forest Organics 10

in 2015. First opened in 1869 as a ‘house of entertainment’, the hotel and attached stables burned to the ground 14 years later in the middle of the night. The Royal, as it’s widely known, was subsequently rebuilt as a 26-room hotel.

Rob Allen and Janelle Harrington undertook a milliondollar renovation, creating a steampunk-themed bar, restaurant and 11 guest rooms, a style chosen as an historical reference to the glory days of rail in Featherston.

Every room is different, but each is traditionally styled and references either an historic local identity or a family forebear.

“We get people coming here who say, ‘We didn’t expect to find this in Featherston; this is something we’d expect to find in Paris’. We had the vice-president of Google stay here recently and tell us this was as nice a hotel as he’d stayed in anywhere in the world – and I think that really speaks volumes.”

The couple had already converted a nearby historic building dating back to the 1860s, called Lacewood, into a venue for wedding and events, and Rob says it was their love of historic buildings that helped drive them to sink their teeth into another local heritage project.

“It was really the combination of Featherston experiencing a renaissance and the Royal being such a lovely building that attracted us to restoring it to its former glory,” says Rob.

Heritage New Zealand

So smitten with Greytown was Hollywood producer James Cameron, that he and wife Suzy not only turned 1500 hectares nearby into an organic farm, they also converted a 134-year-old villa into this plant-based eatery to showcase their fresh, ethically produced and sustainable fruit and veges, honey and coldpressed oils.

The White Swan

9 James Cameron’s Food Forest

Organics eatery and shop.

10 Greytown’s historic White Swan.

11 Schoc Chocolates offers some

If you like a side of history with your drink, you’ve come to the right place. This gracious old building started life as a Lower Hutt railway admin block before being dismantled and driven over the Remutaka Hill in 2002.

There’s elegant accommodation upstairs and out back, and a wine store, restaurant and bar.

unusual flavours.

Schoc Chocolates 11

You’ll smell the thick, sweet aroma of chocolate long before you enter this shrine to the cocoa bean, housed in a cute 1920s cottage. Murray Langham was a chef, then a therapist, and combined the two when he opened Schoc Chocolates in 2002 (he’ll deduce your personality from your preferred chocolate flavour). More than 200 kilograms of the dark stuff is lovingly handcrafted each week into 80 flavours – some more unusual than others. Curry and poppadom chocolate, anyone?

Summer 2019 47

INTERNATIONAL

1

Living spaces WORDS AND IMAGERY: JACQUI GIBSON

3

2

48 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

1 The Sandalla, or Garden

Room, at Lunuganga, Sri Lanka.

2 Garden view to the Lower

Gallery, Lunuganga.

3 View of the Sandalla,

Lunuganga.

4 Inside the Lower Gallery,

Lunuganga.

5 The gardens of Lunuganga.

4

Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa changed the way the country looked at itself and its heritage.

And 100 years on from his birth, his legacy is stronger than ever

It’s possibly one of the most painstaking efforts to preserve Sri Lanka’s architectural heritage in recent times.

That is, meticulously dismantling thousands of individual bricks, tiles and materials belonging to an architecturally significant house, numbering each piece, and transporting the lot 90 kilometres away for careful reconstruction in a sprawling country garden.

Not to mention the fund-raising and out-of-the box thinking needed to complete the entire exercise.

Yet that’s exactly what the Geoffrey Bawa Trust did in 2013.

The trust was set up in 1982 to preserve the legacy of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, one of South Asia’s most prolific and influential architects.

In 2013 trustees bought and relocated an example of the architect’s earliest residential homes, the Ena de Silva House.

The property, built for Ena de Silva, a leading artist and batik designer, faced certain demolition by property developers.

The trust set about raising enough cash to purchase and relocate the building, taking six years

Heritage New Zealand

to complete the reconstruction at Lunuganga, Bawa’s world-famous country residence.

This year, the Ena de Silva House (known as the ‘Ena House’) is open to the public.

The Bawa-designed building, originally located in Colombo’s old city, is one of the venues of a year-long centenary celebration programme called Bawa 100, marking 100 years since the birth of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa.

It’s open for tours, an exhibition by Sri Lankan artist Laki Senanayake (a close friend of Ena de Silva) that took place in September and overnight stays.

“It’s probably one of the most important houses in the history of contemporary South Asian architecture,” says Shayari de Silva, a Yale University graduate and the trust’s first official curator.

Shayari says the trust centred the centenary programme at Lunuganga and opened up spaces like the Ena House to give people a way to experience Bawa’s work first-hand.

“Bawa helped change the way Sri Lankans look at ourselves and our heritage. Coming here to Lunuganga and setting foot in the Ena House, you’re immersed in Bawa’s love of local materials and techniques and his celebration of both traditional and modern forms,” she says.

It’s a humid afternoon when I arrive at Lunuganga from the coastal town of Bentota.

During my tour, I learn that Bawa designed about 70 private homes (though fewer were built) and 35 hotels, as well as schools and many commercial, religious and public buildings.

Some of his higher-profile projects include the Sri Lankan Parliament Complex and Lunuganga itself, his extraordinary lakeside homestead and gardens.

5

Summer 2019 49

INTERNATIONAL

1

2

1 Hill country, Sri Lanka.

2 The Gate House,

Lunuganga.

3 Inside the Sandalla, or

Garden Room, Lunuganga.

4 The Sri Lankan Parliament

Complex, Kotte, Sri Lanka.

IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA

50 Summer 2019

My guide explains it took Bawa more than half a century to move hills, transplant woods, cut terraces and experiment with landscaping, essentially carving out a series of outdoor rooms from the property’s jungle setting.

By the time he passed away in 2003, aged 83, Bawa had earned the prestigious title of ‘Deshamanya’, meaning ‘Pride of the nation’ and had received the Aga Khan’s Special Award for a Lifetime’s Achievement in Architecture.

He’d also become known as the founding father of Tropical Modernism, a style of architecture combining Modernism with traditional forms.

Lunuganga, meanwhile, had developed into an impressive 10-hectare complex of gardens, guest rooms and decorative structures known as follies.

Today, Lunuganga is not only the focal point of the Bawa 100 programme and a country retreat for rent, it also offers students a place to study topics as varied as environmental studies and fine arts.

Sri Lankan-born architect and Victoria University of Wellington lecturer Shenuka de Sylva says Geoffrey Bawa was always a strong supporter of Sri Lanka’s architecture students.

“It’s hard to overstate his influence,” she says.

“He took part in design reviews as a critic and offered students the chance to work with him.

When I was a student, Geoffrey’s first book of drawings became my bible. I remember my first meeting with him in my twenties, and years later staying at Lunuganga.”

3

Bawa’s work, plus that of others, including Sri Lankan Modernist architect Minnette de Silva, was part of a Victoria University of Wellington architectural study tour of Sri Lanka organised

by Shenuka in 2005.

“I think the centenary event, and what the Geoffrey Bawa Trust is doing more generally to promote Bawa’s legacy, is extremely important.

It gives New Zealand’s architectural community plenty of food for thought,” she says.

“As someone who has lived, studied and worked in Sri Lanka, I know it can’t be easy conserving a 100-year-old legacy in a country where preservation centres on ancient, thousand-year-old heritage.

That’s where the bulk of Sri Lanka’s heritage funding goes.”

Heritage New Zealand

Yet the idea that a trust could acquire and restore an architect’s work and use it as the basis for educating the next generation, architectural tourism and promoting a professional legacy is inspiring, says Shenuka.

“Just imagine if we did something similar here in New Zealand for one of our architectural greats like Sir Ian Athfield.”

Shayari says the Bawa 100 centenary event is the trust’s most ambitious public event to date. The programme began in July and features lectures, international speakers, tours, art exhibitions, an online oral history project, and the launch of the triennial Geoffrey Bawa Awards, recognising outstanding contemporary Sri Lankan architecture.

“Am I excited to be involved in Bawa 100? Yes, very much so,” says Shayari. “I’m part of a younger generation who didn’t know Geoffrey personally, so it’s a journey of discovery for me. I’m learning new things about him and his work all the time.”

But there are plenty of challenges too, she says.

“As a trust, we’re constantly looking for private sector funding, but without a local tradition for arts philanthropy, like you see in the US, for example.

“That means the rental income we make from the trust’s properties is vital. It’s a primary means for preserving the buildings and Geoffrey’s extensive art collection.”

But renting out the trust’s properties makes sense for other reasons, says Shayari.

“These buildings have to be lived in. In Sri Lanka’s climate they fall apart the moment you close them up. Do that, and they’ll simply rot away.”

On my walking tour of Lunuganga, in the hothouse heat of the afternoon, I learn that Bawa’s father was a wealthy Muslim lawyer, while his mother was of mixed European and Sinhalese descent.

Bawa took up architecture in his late 30s after studying law. At the time, Sri Lanka had only recently gained independence, following 450 years of colonisation.

“Sri Lanka was changing when Geoffrey Bawa started out,” my guide says, as we head down a stone path past a grazing cow towards Dedduwa Lake.

“As an independent country in the late ’40s, we wanted to join the world and become modern.

But we were also looking to revive our Sinhalese traditions,” he says.

“That tension is perfectly captured in Geoffrey Bawa’s work. In it you see the use of concrete as a material from the Modernist school, for example.

But you also see a return to living spaces centred around intimate courtyards and the use of Sri Lanka’s skilled artisans to shape the buildings.

“That’s what makes Lunuganga so special,” he explains, as we retreat from the wild, secretive spaces of the garden and poke our noses into the Cinnamon Hill villa.

“That’s why people need to come to Sri Lanka, to Lunuganga, to see these buildings and the work of Geoffrey Bawa for themselves.”

Heritage New Zealand

VISIT LUNUGANGA FOR BAWA 100 Shayari de Silva, Bawa 100 art and archival collections curator, says December is a great time to visit Sri Lanka for Bawa 100. “It’s the best weather.

In December all six new art works commissioned especially for Bawa 100 will be installed and the Ena de Silva House is open to the public.” > Get to Lunuganga by taking a two-and-a-halfhour drive from the international airport or the oneand-a-half-hour drive from Colombo (alternatively, Bawa 100 will arrange an airport pickup). > For more on Bawa 100, visit www.bawa100.com.

TOUR, STAY AND SEE BAWA’S WORK > Number 11, Colombo: Geoffrey Bawa’s Colombo residence, Number 11, is available for tours and overnight stays through the Lunuganga Trust. Built in the 1960s, it is considered an outstanding example of improvisation (or architectural bricollage) for bringing together a series of suburban bungalows into a single, walled-off, private property. > De Saram House, Colombo: Once the private residence of acclaimed pianist Druvi de Saram and his wife Sharmini, and renovated by Geoffrey Bawa in the mid-1980s, De Saram House in Colombo is available for rent through the Lunuganga Trust. > Lunuganga Estate: Lunuganga, the country home of Geoffrey Bawa for more than 50 years, is available for tours and overnight stays. Bought in 1947, the property today features seven suites available for rent. > Ena de Silva House: One of Geoffrey Bawa’s earliest designs, the ‘Ena House’ has been relocated to Lunuganga Estate from Colombo and is available for rent through the Lunuganga Trust. > Sri Lankan Parliament Complex: Located on an island in the administrative capital of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, about 16 kilometres east of Colombo, the Sri Lankan Parliament Complex designed by Geoffrey Bawa officially opened in 1982.

Organised tours of the complex are available through a range of tour providers.

4

Summer 2019 51

BOOKS

WORDS: M A RI A N N E T R E MA I N E

Families in history The connections that bring history to life Although a great deal has been recorded about individuals who dominated a place or a period, much has also been written about those who made history by being part of a group or a family. The Plimmer Legacy, by Bee Dawson (Penguin Random House NZ, $50), examines the whole family, as well as particular individuals. John – the first Plimmer to arrive in New Zealand, in 1841, and after whom Wellington’s iconic Plimmer Steps are named (he traversed them daily to and from work) – was both entrepreneurial and interested in civic affairs; just the type of man to found a dynasty.

Among John’s many descendants, Clifford Plimmer was one who inherited his forebear’s determination and industriousness.

For example, when Clifford began working in his first job, at stock and station agency Wright Stephenson, he also enrolled for a Bachelor of Commerce at Victoria University of Wellington.

He described his daily regimen as “an hour’s study first thing in

52 Summer 2019

the morning, then would take the train to town and arrive at the office at 7.30am, then knock off at 5pm and walk up to the university. When lectures finished at quarter to nine, I’d go back to work and get things ready for the next day before taking the train home” (page 61).

This book should possibly come with a warning – even just reading about the Plimmers can be quite exhausting. However, Clifford was in his twenties and very focused and determined.

He maintained the same level of focus throughout his working life and did not welcome interruptions when concentrating on specific goals. For example, a client asking for him was told he was out to lunch. When the client wanted to know when he would be back from lunch, his informant said, “I’ll just go and ask him.”

Reading this book almost makes you feel as if you have met the Plimmers. Real people with human foibles and strong personalities live in the pages of The Plimmer Legacy.

Real people also live in the pages of Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914–1920, by Jared Davidson (Otago University Press, $35).

But the messages in these letters remained dormant, prevented from reaching their destination by the censor, who was very active in New Zealand during World War I. With the subtle tendency to grow and spread typical of central institutions, the censor’s activities began to reach further than concerns about maintaining secrecy on anything affecting the war and were soon attempting to safeguard the interests of the state and the government.

Worse still, censorship did not die away with the end of the war. Once the machinery had been established, it developed a rationale for its existence and a life of its own.

In the New Zealand of the time, people did not need to be very unusual to provoke suspicion.

Being German or Hungarian, having a different accent, wearing different clothes, carrying out unfamiliar activities, or standing out in any way was quite troubling for such a conservative society.

Written in each writer’s voice, the letters are personal and demonstrate how difficult it can be to communicate freely at times when there is widespread suspicion of anyone whose activities deviate from the norm.

University Press, $45), is Jock’s story of how his life became devoted to history. He begins with his parents’ history, as their backgrounds shaped what he would become. His father, Neville, was a professor of history at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and later became the university’s vice-chancellor. Both parents looked to England for their values and perceptions of the ideal way to live.

Neville had studied at the University of Oxford and had met his wife Pauline in England during World War I. Back in New Zealand after Neville’s war service, the couple kept in touch with England by subscribing to The Observer, and subsequently moved back there to live in retirement.

With this background, Jock believes it was inevitable that he would become an historian. But he chose to study New Zealand history, despite growing up in Anglophile Christchurch with parents who held the English way of life as an ideal. He was also influenced by work colleagues in his university holiday jobs and was always eager to learn from them.

In his writing about New Zealand history, Jock contributes to our understanding of ourselves as New Zealanders and encourages us to see our country not as a pale imitation of England but as a nation shaped by our own distinctive past.

Making History: A New Zealand Story, by Jock Phillips (Auckland

The relationship between the past and the present is also important

Heritage New Zealand

GIVEAWAY We have one copy of Making History: A New Zealand Story to give away.

To enter the draw, send your name and address on the back of an envelope to Book Giveaways, Heritage New Zealand, PO Box 2629, Wellington 6140, before 31 December 2019.

The winner of last issue’s book giveaway (Abroad: The Travel Journals and Paintings of Cranleigh Harper Barton) was Phillippa Joyce, of Christchurch.

in Pūrākau: Māori Myths Retold

by Māori Writers, edited by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka (Vintage, Penguin Random House, $38). Familiar myths are retold in a way that brings them up to the present with a strong and rather shocking immediacy and reality. Pūrākau demonstrates that Māori myths have deep truths within them that will never date. They are stories with soul.

They are part of our lives.

In Journey Towards Justice (Bridget Williams Books, $49.99), Kim Workman has written an autobiography. This book is the story of how Kim completely lost faith in himself and his ability to achieve changes in the prison system, even though he saw making these changes as the entire purpose of his life.

Having lost his way by focusing on himself rather than the task ahead, Kim became even more

Heritage New Zealand

intensely committed to and was successful in establishing one of the first faith-based prison units in New Zealand.

Kim believes that in order to create change you must recognise the paradoxes within yourself.

To simplify a debate by taking a rigid position turns you into a “cardboard cutout”, he says, and you become a stereotype if you deny your own complexity.

Kim believes that the way forward will come from determining “what drives our sense of justice and how that might be formed into a theory of justice” (page 267). This book is a thought-provoking overview of the struggle experienced by those who are dealing with life in large organisations.

Just as thought-provoking, but in a completely different context, the charm of Finding Frances Hodgkins, by Mary Kisler

(Massey University Press, $45), is that instead of being presented with particular works of art

by Hodgkins and considering them separately, we travel on a delightful journey with Mary as our guide to see the landscape and surroundings that produced each work. Beautiful photographs and illustrations; a book to cherish.

In contrast, Galleries of Maoriland: Artists, Collectors and the Māori World, 1880–1910,

by Roger Blackley (Auckland University Press, $75), is like being taken into a huge gallery with very detailed descriptions of all the exhibits.

This book aims for a comprehensive discussion of a big, complex topic.

Nevertheless, Roger’s thorough treatment of his subject and its historical background gives us a context for the individual

sections and the artists and collectors discussed.

The quality of the reproductions is superb, and the stories of the people involved and the relationships between them are fascinating.

This would be a wonderful book to own and return to again and again. If a significant birthday is approaching, you may like to drop a hint to your friends and family, or you might decide to order it for yourself and forego something more expensive that might not bring you as much pleasure.

Books are chosen for review in Heritage New Zealand magazine at the discretion of the Books Editor.

Due to the volume of books received, we cannot guarantee the timing of any reviews that appear and we are unable to return any copies submitted for review. Ngā mihi.

Summer 2019 53

HERITAGE FOR KIDS

WORDS: JAMIE DOUGLAS • IMAGERY: EVERYONE’S ADVENTURE

Ride like

the wind An eBike ride out to Pencarrow Lighthouse on a summer’s day could be just the ticket As a kid growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, bike rides were always fun. Dropping the gears on a flash Healing 10-speed with padded handlebars, imagining you were Jon Baker or Frank Poncherello cruising the California highways in the nowcult television programme CHiPs, it was a great time for kids who’d

54 Summer 2019

been told to get out of the house for some fresh air.

So a bicycle trip to Pencarrow Lighthouse at the entrance to Wellington Harbour could be just the ticket for parents wanting to change their child’s view of the world from computer-generated squareeyed to just plain wide-eyed.

Best of all, parents can join in on a round trip of around 90 minutes from Burdan’s Gate at the end of Muritai Road in Eastbourne on a flat, gravel coastal road to Pencarrow Head, and then up to the 11.5-metre, cast-iron lighthouse.

You can take your own bikes or you can hire mountain bikes and eBikes on site if you choose to. (An eBike is guaranteed to make the “I’m too tired to pedal” complaint a thing of the past.)

Pencarrow Lighthouse, which was built in the late 1850s, sits above a rugged and spectacular coastline. Its parts were shipped from England in prefabricated form and the 480 separate packages pieced together in time for the first light to be shone by New Zealand’s first – and only – female lighthouse

keeper Mary Jane Bennett on 1 January 1859.

The views from the lighthouse are sweeping. Watch the ferries and other boats coming and going, the aeroplanes lining up on and soaring from Wellington International Airport runway, and other bikers and walkers experiencing the sights and delights of the south coast.

You’re so close to, yet so isolated from, the capital city.

One word of warning: there are no toilet facilities and the coastline can be subject to some wicked winds, so do plan ahead.

For bike hire, visit www.bikeshedpencarrow.com.

Former Pencarrow Lighthouse (Category 1 historic place: www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/ details/34)

Heritage New Zealand

ALBERTON MARKET DAYS supported by

Sundays, 8 December, 9 February, 8 March and 12 April (Easter Sunday) Alberton’s Market Days are back. Restock your pantry and gift cupboard. Get the jump on festive shopping.

A cracker day out from 10am-2pm n

Speciality produce n Fresh flowers n Artisan food stalls n

Beautiful handcrafted goods n Children’s activities n Live music n n

Pop-up tearoom n Dog-friendly n Explore historic Alberton with discounted admission (children free) n

n

(09) 846 7367 n www.alberton.co.nz

With up to 67% Government funding available

The time to strengthen your heritage building is

RIGHT NOW.

Find out if your building is eligible

CONTACT US

www.heritageequip.govt.nz

phone 04 499 4229

heritage.equip@mch.govt.nz

HE0419_HNZ

Alberton, 100 Mt Albert Road, Auckland

MARKETPLACE

Keep your place

with a Resene CoolColour

TM

A Resene CoolColour is designed to reflect more of the sun’s energy than a standard colour reducing stress on the coating, the substrate and the building, keeping them cooler.

FANCY LONDON?

Beautiful accommodation in the heart of the West End.

Available only from Resene.

0800 RESENE (737 363) www.resene.co.nz

Stay informed with our monthly e-newsletter, covering the latest heritage news and events

Enjoy the elegance of the art deco restaurant or unwind in the stylish buttery of this friendly, affordable and historic London clubhouse.

The ROSL Clubhouse is within walking distance of London’s top attractions and a peaceful base for business travellers. www.roslnz.org.nz info@rosl.org.uk

Consider leaving a gift that will last forever

A gift in your will could provide a lasting legacy for our nation’s heritage and help preserve our history for future generations.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE? Contact Brendon Veale for further details.

0800 802 010 • bveale@heritage.org.nz PO Box 2629, Wellington, 6140 • www.heritage.org.nz

56 Summer 2019

Heritage New Zealand

Live your dream… say“I do” in style!

Pure gold setting at Highwic

Love with a French twist at Pompallier

Bring your fairytale to life at Alberton

A fine Victorian mansion, refurbished from top to bottom. Spacious heritage gardens are perfect for marquees or use the Ballroom and Billiard House for true Victorian ambience.

The French place in the heart of the Bay of Islands. The language of love is perfectly interwoven into the lush gardens and lawn which offer you the ideal outdoor venue, mere steps from Russell’s beachfront.

Romantic and elegant, set amid large historic gardens – Alberton is the perfect backdrop for intimate weddings. Enjoy wedding drinks on our expansive verandahs.

Newmarket, Auckland

Pompallier

Russell, Bay of Islands

Alberton

Tel: (09) 524 5729 highwicfunctions@heritage.org.nz

Tel: (09) 403 9015 pompallier@heritage.org.nz

Tel: (09) 846 7367 alberton@heritage.org.nz

Highwic

Mt Albert, Auckland

Hire an historic venue and make your day one to remember.

Hit some heritage trails this summer and explore our path to nationhood

Experience the heart and soul, and stories, of pre-Treaty New Zealand’s Northland, where Māori and Pākehā first met, traded, philosophised, fought, loved – and established a nation like no other.

FREE to download,

the Heritage Trails app (Apple and Android) and six tours are our gift to you this holiday season, and beyond.

Heritage New Zealand’s other free apps:

MORE TO DOW NLOA FREE D !

• Waikato’s peaceful hills and plains once rang with battle cries and the boom of warships. Explore the Waikato War (1863-64) with our free driving tour www. thewaikatowar.co.nz and explore the battle sites for yourself. (Apple and Android) • Visit highstreetstories.co.nz for over 90 stories, histories and anecdotes of life in Christchurch’s High Street precinct from before the quakes.

For your free app download go to heritage.org.nz/apps