Letter to the editor As your Heritage New Zealand magazines are excellent, the following are some thoughts related to increasing audited circulation. When members are visiting a GP, dentist, hospital and so on they could leave a past copy of the magazine in the waiting rooms. The above concept should achieve the following objectives: increased funding for Heritage New Zealand as a result of additional membership. There would be no increases in costs to Heritage New Zealand as it is envisaged the members would use their own copies of the magazine to distribute to waiting rooms. It would also “promote and encourage public interest in, and care for, the beauty, history and character of heritage sites throughout New Zealand”. On this subject, Heritage New Zealand magazine does a great job. Ashley Shewan Ed’s note: Nice idea, we just suggest you ask first. Some businesses may prefer to manage what’s displayed for visitors.
Correction
We’re sorry! Due to a production error we incorrectly stated that the bridge pictured in the WW100 story on page 54 of our last issue (Autumn 2018) was the ANZAC Memorial Bridge in Kaiparoro in the Tararua District. The bridge pictured was actually the primary subject of the story, the Edith Cavell Bridge in Queenstown.
BEHIND THE STORY: BRENNAN THOMAS Photographer Brennan Thomas is a regular Heritage New Zealand magazine contributor and captured images for our story on the mapping of Hungahungatoroa Pā on page 36. Around a decade ago, my wife and I had hit the high-water mark of our Wellington existence. We both had solid jobs and a great circle of mates and all those good things, but we felt a push to leave the capital. We gave the dice a roll, deciding to drive the North Island over a period of weeks with the objective of finding a new place to nest. The alternative plan was to leave New Zealand, as a lot of our mates were doing at the time. Gisborne blew our minds, so we dropped anchor on a gut feeling. It was mid-winter when we arrived in this amazing place, but the residents were still t-shirt clad and had a massive affinity for both whānau and whakapapa, as well as the land and the ocean. The pace and pressures of modern city life were non-existent. The total jewel in the crown for both of us was, and still is, the East Cape – especially Te Araroa and Hicks Bay and their surrounding areas. We have had some truly amazing experiences here. It’s not just the incredible beauty of the physical landscape, it’s also the people of Ngāti Porou that make me respond to this area. Photographically, experiencing both is often mind-blowing. Some of the most awe-inspiring human beings I’ve met have been in this far corner of Aotearoa over the past 10 years. This will undoubtedly continue.
4 Winter 2018
Generating interest AUTUMN 2006, ISSUE 100
SINCE WE WERE THERE After undergoing an ‘extreme makeover’, a restored Hawke’s Bay Opera House was revealed on Heritage New Zealand magazine’s cover back in Autumn 2006. And now, while undergoing a significant earthquakestrengthening project that is due for completion next year, the Category 1 building continues to reveal surprises. In a small room at ground level, those working on the project recently discovered the theatre’s original backup power generator – a piece of machinery dating back to 1913 and of such epic proportions it is believed the theatre was literally built around it. Using the generator’s serial number, workers traced its origins to an English manufacturer called Mawdsley’s – a firm founded in 1907 in the town of Dursley in
Gloucestershire, and which is still in existence. With the help of the company and some of its retired engineers, they found that the generator was an early Mawdsley M-type machine, manufactured circa 1907 to 1918, with an American motor – and that it is extremely rare. When Mawdsley’s celebrated its 50th year in business in 1957, it could find none of these models to showcase. The generator is so heavy, and so tightly wedged under a set of stairs, that moving it out of the heritage theatre to preserve it elsewhere isn’t tenable. So instead it will be celebrated in situ: once the opera house, considered one of New Zealand’s most significant examples of Spanish Mission architecture, is reopened, visitors will be able to view the spruced-up generator from its own special viewing platform.
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 • Holmes Consulting Group • Resene Paints • Salmond Reed Architects • The Church Property Trustees • The Fletcher Trust • WT Partnership NZ (ChCh) •
Heritage New Zealand
