Heritage New Zealand Raumati Summer 2023

Heritage New Zealand

A visit to Dunedin’s Gasworks Museum

CLIMATE CONTROLLED

Auckland’s Domain Wintergardens

SET IN STONE Sculptor Chris Booth’s deep Northland ties

CAMP LEADER

The origins of Kiwi camping culture

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 1

Issue 171 / Raumati / Summer 2023 /NZ$9.95 incl. GST

HITTING THE GAS

Make your summer South Island roadie even more iconic Five fantastic heritage experiences FYFFE HOUSE

Scan the QR code to view curated itineraries of beautiful heritage destinations across the South Island

Linger a while as you step back in time this

TIMEBALL

summer at these unforgettable places.

T E W H A R E WA I U T U U T U K AT E S H E P P A R D H O U S E

T O TA R A E S TAT E CLARK’S MILL

and throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.

LY T T E LT O N

NGĀ KORERŌ O ROTO • CONTENTS

Heritage New Zealand

42

Raumati / Summer 2023

Features 12 Set in stone Internationally renowned sculptor Chris Booth also has deep connections to Northland’s heritage

16 Hitting the gas Run entirely by volunteers, a Dunedin museum holds what’s considered the world’s best example of working gasworks machinery

22 Reviving the trail of Poutini Exploring a reawakening of stoneworking knowledge

34

and traditions in Coromandel

30 Camping out Our camping culture has few equivalents around the world – and stories of its demise may be exaggerated

34 Climate controlled Auckland’s Domain Wintergardens will survive and flourish into the future thanks to a multi-million-dollar project

38 A ship’s shape Revealing new insights into a shipwreck that lies just metres off a Coromandel beach

16 12

Explore the list 8

Wild times

From the Otago gold rush to the adventure tourism boom, a Queenstown bridge has successfully spanned centuries

10 Resilience and reinvention Skaters may no longer brave the rink on Napier’s foreshore, but it remains an icon of the Art Deco capital

Journeys into the past 42 Rock stars

Columns

The spectacular geological heritage of the Waitaki District has been globally recognised

3

Editorial

48 Pilgrims’ progress

4

Noticeboard

Pilgrimage trails such as the Camino de Santiago in Spain now attract both a spiritual and a secular crowd

52 Books 54 My heritage place Actor Jennifer Ward-Lealand reflects on Auckland’s Mercury Theatre

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 1

Hitting the road this summer?

Kerikeri Mission Station

Heritage seekers are an adventurous lot, and we know you have a summer’s worth of holiday options ahead of you.

Your membership makes planning easy.

We get it – we live in a beautiful country and there’s a lot to do out there. Make your membership work for you to create a summer that will go down in history.

Your exclusive online Members’ Hub has everything you need, simply scan the QR code on the back of your membership card to get started.

Ready-made itineraries with you in mind, accommodation discounts at places you’ll love, and simple directions to the best heritage experiences are just the start.

Our top holiday packing tip? Take your membership card with you to claim your free entry and discounts along the way.

Thank you / Ngā mihi We are very grateful to those supporters who have recently made donations. Whilst some are kindly acknowledged below, many more have chosen to give anonymously.

Dr Simon and Mrs Robin Barclay Wyatt and Danny Creech Mr Stephen and Mrs Jenny Hart Mr Colin and Mrs Barbara Hickling Mr Alan and Mrs Viv Hayward Mr Pieter Holl and Ms Felicity Cains Mrs Shirley and Dr Stan Simpson Mrs Peggy Snoep Mrs Elizabeth Leary-Taylor Mrs Debra Stan-Barton and Mr Barry Barton Ms Janet Blackman Brenda Hannay and Graeme Macann Mr David Tucker and Miss Karen Shepherd David and Sue Lane Frank and Glenda Woolley

Mr Howard Pugh Miss Wendy Stuart Mr Mike and Mrs Rosalind Robertson Dr John and Dr Anna Holmes Mr Ian and Mrs Jenny Thomas Miss Gaye Matthews Mrs Angela Werren Ms Caroline and Mr Alan List Mr Wayne and Mrs Diana Hann Mr Laurie and Mrs Lynne Schischka Mrs Ruth Morton Mr Tony and Mrs Cath Morgan Mrs Janet and Mr Malcolm McGill Elaine Hampton and Michael Hartley Mrs Leslie and Mr David Newstead

Mr Malcolm Wade Mr William and Mrs Jo Wilson Mr Nigel Russell and Ms Anne Matthews Mr Francis and Mrs Annette Piggin Mrs Pam and Mr Simon Sedgley Mr Cameron Moore Mrs Frances Bell Mr Peter and Mrs Mary Fennessy

New Zealand

A visit to Dunedin’s Gasworks Museum

CLIMATE CONTROLLED

Auckland’s Domain Wintergardens

SET IN STONE Sculptor Chris Booth’s deep Northland ties

CAMP LEADER

The origins of Kiwi camping culture

Issue 171 / Raumati / Summer 2023 /NZ$9.95 incl. GST

HITTING THE GAS

Heritage New Zealand

O

ne of the perils of this job is that it

swoon-worthy green spaces. We’ve

gives you perpetually itchy feet.

already seen a couple in Taranaki that

I got a bad case of this while

reading Lydia Monin’s International

we reckon will warrant a road trip sometime soon.

story (pages 48–51) on walking the

And who could fail to be transfixed

Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trails.

by the images on pages 42–47 of some

It inspired visions of leaving behind

of Waitaki’s incredible geological

Auckland’s rain and my long to-do

heritage? It’s an area of the country

Cover image:

lists at work and home, and taking an

I’ve visited only briefly a couple of times,

Dunedin Gasworks by Mike Heydon

extended break with nothing to do but

but after reading this story I found

walk, soak up the European summer

myself searching the calendar for

and bask in the spectacular scenery of

long-weekend opportunities and flight

northern Spain. Bliss.

itineraries in order to visit.

Issue 171 Raumati • Summer 2023 ISSN 1175-9615 (Print) ISSN 2253-5330 (Online)

Editor Caitlin Sykes, Sugar Bag Publishing

Sub-editor Trish Heketa, Sugar Bag Publishing

Art director Amanda Trayes, Sugar Bag Publishing

Publisher Heritage New Zealand magazine is published quarterly by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. The magazine had a circulation of 7333 as at 30 September 2023.

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

Advertising For advertising enquiries, please contact the Manager Publishing.

Phone: (04) 470 8054 Email: information@heritage.org.nz

Subscriptions/Membership Heritage New Zealand magazine is sent to all members of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. Call 0800 802 010 to find out more.

I love a good long walk, and for the

This year the district’s geological

reasons that I feel are best summed up

heritage was recognised when it was

by Jenny Boyack in this story. Jenny,

named Australasia’s first UNESCO

along with her husband John Hornblow,

Global Geopark – a “single, unified

walked the Camino Francés – one of

geographical area where sites and

the pilgrimage routes that converges

landscapes of international geological

on Santiago – a few years ago, relishing

significance are managed with a holistic

taking a break from technology while

concept of protection, education and

walking through remote villages.

sustainable development”.

“You’re thinking about the practical

The recognition was the culmination

needs of your life: something to eat,

of a decades-long journey and a whole

something to drink, a place to lay your

lot of community effort, and it’s hoped

head, whether your feet are hurting, the

that the designation will encourage

joy of a hot shower when you arrive –

not only visitors like me but also more

wherever you arrive – and a cold drink.

locals to connect with this unique aspect

I think it’s a reminder of some of those

of the area’s heritage.

essential elements that can get so

Summer is a time when many of

overlooked, particularly in city life and the

us get a break and hit the road, so I

hustle and bustle of people’s careers.”

hope that, wherever you travel, you get

Sadly, the vision of a long European

some days full of sun, new experiences

walk doesn’t gel currently with my family commitments or bank balance, so that great escape will have to wait.

and relaxation.

Thanks so much for joining us this year as we’ve shared stories of New

In the meantime, I’m keen to get to

Zealand’s fascinating, beautiful, diverse

Tell us your views

more attainable destinations closer

and complex heritage. And here’s to

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

to home. While researching possible

more exploring in 2024.

options to highlight in our ongoing

Email: The Editor at heritagenz@gmail.com Post: The Editor, c/- Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, 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 Pouhere Taonga.

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

HE WHAKAARO NĀ TE ĒTITA • EDITORIAL

The essential elements

Heritage

Noticeboard feature on heritage gardens (this issue features the Italianate garden of the Category 2 Ōtaki Milk Station

Ngā mihi nui Caitlin

on page 7), Heritage New Zealand magazine art director Amanda Trayes and I have been sharing sites of

Heritage New Zealand magazine is printed with mineral oil-free, soy-based vegetable inks on Impress paper. This paper is Forestry Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified, manufactured from pulp from responsible sources under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Please recycle.

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 3

PAPA PĀNUI • NOTICEBOARD

MEMBER AND SUPPORTER UPDATE…

with Brendon Veale Member survey feedback

SOCIAL HERITAGE…

with Paul Veart, Web and Digital Advisor, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

W

they have unexpected views of the city. And they almost always have white-painted handrails.

We recently featured these paths as part of National Poetry Day, drawing on the following description of them by Kirsty Gunn in Thorndon – Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project. “You see, I had forgotten

hen highlighting

about zig-zags. Those crazy, zany,

Wellington’s heritage on

hopscotch-stepped paths that criss-

social media, we often

cross all over Wellington’s hills, making

focus on grand, photogenic locations:

of the now and then and the here and

the galleon beams of Old St Paul’s,

there the same place, the same time…

the modernist MLC Building or the

I’d forgotten about how zig-zags

parliamentary precinct.

make the hills and city all of a piece.”

But there’s another aspect to the

But how did these unique byways

capital’s built environment – a more

come about? Topography played a

liminal side that can be easy to miss.

part, of course, but, according to the

This heritage isn’t so much a single

Wellington City Council blog post

structure as an interconnected web;

‘When is a street not a street?’, they

a network that exists between

are also a product of survey practices

locations rather than within them.

and attempted land speculation by the

Of course, we’re referring to

New Zealand Company.

the capital’s famously vertiginous

Today, zig-zag paths may be part

zig-zag paths. These precipitous

of your daily commute, a shortcut to

paths tend to be narrow, combining

school (or the fish and chip shop) or a

asphalt, crumbly staircases and

gruelling trial to reach university. They

ceramic half-circle gutters. They

are a vital – if unofficial and often wild

are frequently bordered by

– part of Wellington’s built heritage.

nasturtiums and other enthusiastic weeds. Zig-zags creep between flats, houses and stray sections of bush;

4 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

IMAGE: ‘ZIG-ZAG APPROACH TO BALAENA BAY’ (1977), COURTESY OF ARCHIVES NEW ZEALAND.

We recently conducted a survey of our members to get a sense of what is working and how the membership programme is meeting your needs.

I’m pleased to report that, on the whole, you seem a very happy bunch – at least where your membership is concerned!

The vast majority of you (75 percent) told us you were ‘very satisfied’ with your membership, with a further 20 percent of you noting you were simply ‘satisfied’. This was great feedback, as we aim to do as much as we can with limited resources, and we can take heart that most of you are comfortable with our delivery of the programme.

Unsurprisingly, you also told us how much you love this magazine, letting us know that it is the member benefit you enjoy most – with free entry to heritage sites and knowing you are supporting heritage being the other top two.

We were heartened to see how many of you told us you had visited one of our historic places in the past year or two. We were also delighted to note that more than 90 percent of you are ‘interested in reading’ or ‘very interested in reading’ each of our four publications (two printed and two email newsletters). So we’ll keep doing what we’re doing in this space!

You also gave us plenty of feedback on what we could do more of, or where there are gaps, and we’ll report back on that in a separate update.

A number of you expressed concern about the ‘glossy’ appearance of the magazine and the perception that this may be costly for us. I’d like to clarify that we regularly and proactively assess our options for producing the magazine in the most cost-effective way and we are dedicated to providing value for money to our members. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Thank you to all those who completed the survey – I hope you feel that we are listening to you and value your ideas and comments.

Brendon Veale Manager Supporter Development 0800 HERITAGE (0800 802 010) bveale@heritage.org.nz

Places we visit Matauri Bay, p12 Auckland, p34

Buffalo Beach, p38 Coromandel, p22 Queenstown, p8

BEHIND THE STORY... visual storyteller Lottie Hedley For this issue you shot the Domain Wintergardens in Auckland. Was this a heritage place already on your radar?

I first noticed the Wintergardens when

Napier, p10

Waitaki, p42 Dunedin, p16

I moved to Auckland in 2013. I loved how the plants used to smoosh up against the glass panes and so the condensation and blocks of colourful

because of the pandemic. Sometimes

flowers became works of abstract art

in my work I’m lucky to be thrown

when viewed from the outside – as well

into special pockets of life, and the

as a more traditional grand greenhouse

Castlepoint Beach Races, with its

when viewed from the inside.

150-year history and families with a

Your image of the Castlepoint Station woolshed is also in this issue and you recently contributed to a book on the races. How did you become connected to them?

deep love of the tradition, is one of those magical events.

Summer holidays are just around the corner. Where will you be?

My parents still farm in South Wairarapa,

In 2015 I was lucky to be working on a

so I tend to spend Christmases with

book about the Castlepoint region and

them and my other siblings on the farm.

spent the summer based in the area.

I have a few jobs lined up in Canterbury

Despite having lived in the Wairarapa for

in January, which makes me think that

my entire childhood, I’d never attended

perhaps as I drive south my summer

the Castlepoint Beach Races and was

holiday will be an old-fashioned road

thrilled to photograph them in 2016 and

trip with my sleeping bag and a hiking

again for New Zealand Geographic in

pack at the ready to take on the many

2020, just before the country was closed

opportunities for beauty and adventure.

IMAGERY: SUPPLIED

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

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 5

TE HAPORI • COMMUNITY

PAPA PĀNUI • NOTICEBOARD

LETTER...

had been built there for just

WORDS: SIMON WILLIAMS / IMAGERY: GEMMA FLAY-HUGHES

TUNNEL VISION

Recently I came across and read a copy of Issue 169

such a runaway emergency.

Whew, a major crash averted!

But wait, there’s more:

The construction of the Ōtira Tunnel in the Southern Alps is considered one of New Zealand’s great engineering feats – and it’s still inspiring awe 100 years on

(Winter 2023) of Heritage New

the siding ended in an earth

Zealand magazine. What an

and gravel bank, which our

interesting and well-produced

railcar ploughed into at speed,

publication – congratulations!

coming to a shuddering

I was impressed by every

stop with the rear (now the

article and its photos, but

front) unit derailing and

what really struck a personal chord was the story about the

tipping onto its side down

The TranzAlpine train about to enter the Ōtira Tunnel at Arthur’s Pass.

16 Hōtoke • Winter 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

Heritage.org.nz / Hōtoke • Winter 2023 17

Ōtira Tunnel.

the embankment. In both units, passengers and their

Although the author (Simon

luggage were thrown around,

Williams) wrote about the

the railway line at Jacksons,

hurtling backwards towards –

even onto the track and

steep grade of the rail line

near Ōtira, where we waited

and we might not get around

embankment. Again, it was a

through the tunnel and the

for then boarded the railcar

safely. He then rushed to

wonder that no one was killed

need for “good dual-braking

back to Christchurch.

the handbrake wheel at the

or seriously injured; just several

end of our unit and wound it

with cuts and bruises. We all were shaken up though!

systems”, he didn’t mention

I don’t know if railcars are

(perhaps he didn’t know

still used (most passenger

vigorously but to little effect.

about?) the 1957 near-fatal

rail services seem to have

We roared on backwards

With suitcases and their

railcar accident due to that

ceased, more’s the pity), but

at what seemed, in the

contents strewn around the

steep grade. I was on that

at that time it was a double-

confinement of the tunnel, to

siding, those of us with boots

railcar, and here is my story.

unit diesel-powered Vulcan.

be at least 50mph [80kph]but

and packs walked the line

It was 23 April 1957 and

All was well until we were

was probably no more than

picking up what we could and

a group of us from the

about halfway through the

30mph [48kph] – still fast

tried to find the owners in

Canterbury University College

8.5-kilometre Ōtira Tunnel

enough for us all to realise we

the dark (it was about 10pm).

Tramping Club were returning

on the 1 in 33 [3 percent]

were in a perilous situation.

Eventually, a coach arrived to

to Christchurch after an Easter

upward grade, when the

Fortunately, we made it

take us home to Christchurch,

weekend tramp doing the

engine failed, and with it, the

round the bend and headed at

about four hours late. When

‘three pass trip’ (via Harman,

air pressure to the brakes.

speed towards Ōtira Railway

I emptied my pack the next

Station. If we breathed a sigh

morning, I was embarrassed

Whitehorn and Browning

The railcar started moving

passes) in the Arthur’s Pass

backwards, gathering speed.

of relief, it was premature,

to find an unclaimed pair of

region. In those days there was

The driver rushed through

because we didn’t know there

ladies’ panties among the

a regular railcar service from

both units, telling us all to get

was another train on the line

clutter – but I had a darned

Christchurch to Greymouth

down on the floor or as low

at Ōtira – waiting for us to

good, and fairly original,

and trampers would usually

as possible in order to lower

crash into! Fortunately again,

explanation! My story was

get off at Klondyke Corner,

the centre of gravity of the

the shift clerk on duty at the

confirmed, thankfully, the next

near the Bealey Bridge, on a

railcar. [This was] because

station saw the lights flashing

morning when the newspaper

Friday evening to head off up

there was a bend in the track

oddly on his control board,

and radio reported the

the Waimakariri River. After

just outside the Ōtira end of

realised the situation and just

runaway and derailment.

four energetic days over the

the tunnel – which we had just

in time switched the points to

ranges, we emerged to meet

come up from and were now

divert us onto a siding, which

Phil Collins Tauranga

When we visited Rush

in the 1931 Hawke’s Bay

Munro’s Ice Cream Parlour

earthquake.

and Gardens in 2016, we

SINCE WE WERE THERE …

‘Sweet treat’, Summer 2016 6 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

Then last year, after

reported how it had occupied

more than 90 years at its

the same site – and a place in

location at 704 Heretaunga

locals’ hearts – since 1931.

Street West, change came

London-born Frederick

calling. The parlour’s site,

Charles Rush Munro started

which hadn’t been owned

his Hastings-based business

by the ice cream maker

in 1926, and moved to the

for decades, was up for

site of the parlour and

redevelopment and Rush

gardens after its initial

Munro’s lease was not

premises were destroyed

renewed.

IMAGERY: GEMMA FLAY-HUGHES, SARAH HORN

Under the Tuscan sun Tucked away in Ōtaki on the Kāpiti Coast is a little slice of Italy.

When Lyndia Wood bought the former Rahui Milk Treatment Station more than 20 years ago, it was so run down it took more than two years to clear the detritus (which included some substantial machinery) that had been left behind.

But the former antiques dealer, who regularly spent time in Italy while in Europe on buying trips, had a vision, and ultimately transformed the building and its grounds into what’s today a busy wedding and events venue, The Ōtaki Milk Station.

Lyndia says the masonry and concrete construction of the Category 2 historic place inspired her extensive Italianate renovation.

In the 1.6 hectares (four acres) of gardens, that included installing two fountains and planting olive and cypress trees, along with a fig orchard.

Rush Munro’s owner,

wanted to continue Rush

Vaughan, but only temporary,

The Curries are the

Vaughan Currie, says it was

Munro’s, and build on those

and Rush Munro’s is on the

fifth local family to own

a time of mixed emotions.

memories, we had to move.”

lookout for a permanent

Rush Munro’s, and they’re

“The site held a lot of

Working with Hastings

location where it can recreate

committed to carrying on the ice-cream-making legacy.

nostalgia for our regular

District Council, Rush

the parlour and gardens

customers, and families and

Munro’s found a site in

atmosphere. It will include

the team were invested in

Albert Square – a pocket

elements salvaged from the

but it’s a very important

that nostalgia. It created

park near the city’s opera

former site and currently in

concept for New Zealanders

another aspect to their roles;

house precinct – where it

storage, such as the gardens’

and we’ve managed to

they considered themselves,

has run its ice creamery out

mosaic cobblestones, some

do that for generations of

as I do, custodians of that

of two refurbished shipping

original fountain and cement

families. It’s at the heart of

legacy. But there was also a

containers since late 2022.

work, old rose bushes and a

what we do and there’s a lot

sense of inevitability; if we

It’s a great location, says

concrete bench seat.

of heart and soul to it.”

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

“It’s a very simple concept

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 7

TŪHURATIA TE RĀRANGI • EXPLORE THE LIST

WORDS: ANNA DUNLOP / IMAGERY: CLARE TOIA-BAILEY

Wild times

But before it was famous as the founding location of the ultimate adrenaline sport, this Category 1 historic place was recognised predominantly for its complex and award-winning engineering. The Kawarau

From the Otago gold rush to the adventure tourism boom, a Queenstown bridge has successfully spanned centuries

bridge was designed with one of the longest single spans in the country at the time.

The construction of the bridge began in 1879, precipitated by the need to improve access to the Central Otago goldfields and replace the punt services that provided the only way for people to

T

cross the river upstream from Cromwell. The Great he Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge

Flood of 1878, which inundated the Clutha River/Mata

is arguably the most famous bridge in

Au (of which the Kawarau River is a tributary), played a

New Zealand. Spanning a ravine carved by

part in the bridge’s design.

the Kawarau River, just off State Highway 6 and

“The flood basically destroyed any bridge with

20 kilometres east of Queenstown, the bridge is

mid-river piers, so afterwards a proliferation of

a magnet for thrill-seekers – including this author,

suspension bridges was built in the area,” says Karen

when she was much younger and braver – who

Astwood, Director Corporate Services at Heritage

come from all over the world to throw themselves

New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, who wrote a heritage

off the 43-metre-high structure, attached to what is

assessment of the bridge in her previous role with

essentially a very large elastic band.

Engineering New Zealand.

In fact, since AJ Hackett established the world’s

Notable New Zealand engineer Harry Paisley

first commercial bungy jump on the bridge in 1988,

Higginson had been part of the commission

more than 1.2 million people have taken the plunge –

investigating the Clutha flood, and his familiarity

and millions more have played it safe watching from

with the geology and waterways of the area allowed

the viewing platform.

him to design the Kawarau bridge in just 16 days.

8 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

The remote location was tricky so, where possible, the bridge was constructed using locally sourced materials, including schistose rock for the four striking ashlar masonry towers.

However, Australian ironbark was needed for the deck, and the 28 galvanised-steel suspension cables were imported from the Warrington Wire Rope Company in the UK. Due to the sharp turn of the road on the northern bank of the river, these had to be anchored in deep tunnels dug into the rock face.

Harry Paisley Higginson’s in-depth knowledge of the area proved vital.

“For example, he knew that strong winds whipped through that gorge, so he offset the towers and abutments slightly on each side of the bridge as a wind-resistance measure,” says Karen.

Harry assembled a talented crew – including assistant engineers Arthur Robert W Fulton and Walter Cleave Edwards (who later worked on the Wellington to Manawatū railway) and local contractors John McCormick and James Sutherland – and many credit the longevity of the bridge to this experienced group.

“Harry had a bit of a dream team and

LOCATION

a big part of the bridge’s engineering significance is the very high quality of the work and the design,” says Karen.

This was recognised in 1882, when the

Queenstown sits on the shores of Lake Wakatipu in the southwest of the South Island.

engineer won the UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers’ prestigious Telford Premium Award for his paper on the project.

The bridge opened in December 1880 and remained part of the highway until 1963, when it was superseded by a new spandrel steel arch design, located about 230 metres upstream.

Almost two decades later, in 1981, the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge was the first bridge added to the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero, and

“The bridge is a place where people, through bungy, overcome their fears and have life-changing experiences, and we feel privileged to be operating from such an historic and stunning location”

in 1989, aided by funds generated by the 1000-plus people who braved the bungy in its first year, its timber deck underwent a major restoration.

Today the bridge is managed by the Department of

For the less adventurous, the bridge is also crossed by Queenstown’s Arrow River Bridges Trail

Conservation Te Papa Atawhai (DOC) and stands as

(part of the Queenstown Trail Great Ride network).

a testament to the lengths that were taken to provide

It is also a Tohu Whenua – a place that has shaped

the interior of Otago with reliable connections to the

the nation – and part of a programme that connects

wider world. Its historic significance is not lost on

New Zealanders to significant heritage sites so they

AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand, says co-founder and

can learn more about their unique culture and history.

Managing Director Henry van Asch, who adds that

For Andrew Winter, Heritage Assessment Advisor

the company’s guardianship includes working with

at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, the

DOC on the ongoing monitoring and care of the site.

bridge is a heritage success story, illustrating how

“The bridge is a place where people, through bungy, overcome their fears and have life-changing experiences, and we feel privileged to be operating from such an historic and stunning location,” he says.

something old that has been superseded by modern construction can have an important later life.

“It’s an iconic part of the landscape and one of the brightest jewels in Queenstown’s tourism crown.”

“The days of the Central Otago gold rush were a wild time, and we feel we have been able to add a

www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/50/

few more stories to the history books.”

KawarauGorgeSuspensionBridge

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 9

TŪHURATIA TE RĀRANGI • EXPLORE THE LIST

WORDS: AROHA AWARAU

Resilience and reinvention Skaters may no longer brave the rink on Napier’s foreshore but, along with the adjacent soundshell, it remains an icon of our Art Deco capital

N

apier native Beth

soundshell appear to have

site as event manager of the

Napier’s mayor from 1885 to

Elstone says it’s a rite

achieved that purpose, as

New Year’s Eve Party held

1901 and thought the city’s

of passage for anyone

reflected in the words of

at the soundshell every year.

seafront could be developed

raised in the city to spend

locals like Beth: “It’s always

A tradition for 24 years, it

along the lines of those of

time at the old skating rink

been an iconic and central

attracts around 15,000 people

British seaside towns.

and adjacent soundshell.

part of Napier. For me, it’s

to celebrate with live music

A Category 2 historic place,

a tranquil space. When I

and fireworks displays.

the rink and soundshell were

think back to when I was

“It’s a time to come

of the earthquake, when

built on Napier’s Marine

a kid, the memories come

together to celebrate the

the community had the

Parade to help boost morale

flooding back. Memories of

year and acknowledge the

opportunity to rebuild the

and contribute to the rebirth

eating fish and chips with

start of another. Being by

city and reconsider its look

of the community following

my family in front of the

the water and right next to

and design.

the 1931 Hawke’s Bay

soundshell, memories of

the city gives a community

earthquake, in which much of

listening to music, memories

feeling,” she says.

the city was destroyed and

of enjoying a Mr Whippy

The idea to develop

256 people lost their lives.

ice cream. It’s very Kiwi.”

Marine Parade as a ‘grand

story of the skating rink and

The idea gained momentum in the aftermath

The metaphor of a town rising from the ashes is appropriate in telling the

Decades after the

Beth has an ongoing role

esplanade’ came from

soundshell’s creation. After

disaster, the rink and

in attracting families to the

George Swan, who was

the earthquake, rubble was

10 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

IMAGERY: STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Napier historian Elizabeth Pishief says the story of the construction of the skating rink and soundshell is one of community resilience and hope. The vision and funding for the soundshell came from the Thirty Thousand Club, a local group formed in 1912 whose founding goal was to

LOCATION

increase the population of Napier to 30,000 at a time

Napier is a port city in Hawke’s Bay on the east coast of the North Island.

when it was less than 15,000.

“They wanted to beautify Napier after the earthquake to promote civic pride and to further develop

that it was no longer possible

the agriculture industry,

to skate on it. Skaters of

secondary education,

today should still beware:

transport and tourism,"

it’s considered a health

says Elizabeth.

The club was also

and safety hazard area, with multiple cracks and a

instrumental in funding

dangerously uneven surface.

structures adjacent to

Nonetheless, many locals

the soundshell and skating

insist the rink’s artistic features

rink, including the Veronica

are still worth admiring.

Sunbay, the colonnade and the arches.

Matthew Bonnett – Membership and Marketing

In February 2023, Hawke’s

Coordinator of the Art

Bay was struck again by a

Deco Trust, which organises

natural disaster: a state of

Napier’s annual Art Deco

emergency was declared after

Festival – says the former

Cyclone Gabrielle caused

skating rink and soundshell

rivers to burst their banks and

are popular attractions on the

devastated the region.

cleared from central Napier

for commercial and public

trust’s regular Art Deco tours.

Elizabeth says the

and dumped along the newly

buildings and structures.

“People often step back

soundshell and other

uplifted foreshore, creating

The skating rink was the

and take a look at the skating

sites built after the 1931

sites for new development as

first of the two structures to

rink because hidden in there

earthquake are symbols of

part of the city’s reinvention.

be completed, constructed

is a splendid design with

resilience and show how a

Characterised by its use

from patterned concrete

coloured concrete in the Art

community can overcome

of sleek geometric forms

in 1932. The soundshell,

Deco style,” he explains.

severe challenges.

and man-made materials,

designed by local architect

Art Deco was chosen as the

JT Watson in a shell-like

around the world, but what

significant because it helped

predominant architectural

shape, was completed in 1934

we have in Napier is unique.

to rebuild the spirit of Napier.

style in the city’s rebuild

and kept the Art Deco style.

Some of the designs have

Its familiar presence provides

because it was considered

Facing northwest of the

features that you will not

the community with a sense

“The soundshell is

“You will find Art Deco

a safer way of building and

Pacific Ocean – with the

find anywhere else with a

of security and wellbeing and

was relatively inexpensive

forecourt and skating rink

distinct New Zealand feel.

strengthens its identity.”

to construct.

front and centre, and a

For instance, some of the

Art Deco design could

surrounding colonnade –

structures have Māori motifs.”

www.heritage.org.

also more easily adhere to

the area quickly became an

Napier City Council recently

nz/list-details/4822/

new building regulations

entertainment and social

restored and improved part

SkatingRink(Former)

that were put in place after

hub where the community

of the soundshell, replacing

andSoundShell

the earthquake, with its

met to dance, skate and

the wooden pergola on

focus on seismically resistant

attend civic events.

top of the colonnade,

materials, such as reinforced

Unfortunately, by the 1950s

refurbishing lighting, and

concrete, and reduced

the rink’s concrete surface

giving the colonnade a fresh

ornamentation, especially

had deteriorated to the point

coat of paint.

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 11

WHAKAAHUA • PROFILE

Set in stone Kerikeri-based sculptor Chris Booth is one of New Zealand’s most internationally renowned artists, but he also has deep connections to the heritage world of the North

12 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

WORDS: CAITLIN SYKES / IMAGERY: JESS BURGES

A

century ago, while he was working as a labourer and digging a trench on a farm in Te Rapa, alongside the Waikato River, Stan Booth’s spade struck something extraordinary. Unearthed from the small wetland in which the 18-year-old was working was a tiny, exquisite, carved wooden figure – a taumata atua.

Alongside it was a wooden fern pounder, a stone receptacle and another figure carved from pumice.

“What he did then changed the life course of that little taonga,” explains one of Stan’s sons, Kerikeri-based sculptor Chris Booth. The young man had the foresight to soak some brown butchers paper in linseed oil and wrap it around the wooden items, ensuring their preservation once removed from the wetland.

As Chris and his three brothers grew up on the family orchard in Kerikeri, their father would bring out the little wooden figure on special occasions. In this collection of taonga, he says, were his father’s most treasured objects.

“They were the only things that he kept in his wardrobe, apart from his few clothes and an old, late-1800s engraved shotgun that was in a case in pieces, which had been his father’s.”

Decades later, in the mid-1980s, when he learned Waikato Museum would open, Stan asked Chris to return the taonga to Ngāti Wairere

of Tainui. The transfer, negotiated primarily with the museum’s Senior Curator Dr Ngahuia te Awekotuku, occurred at a pre-dawn ceremony in 1986.

Held in darkness in the now-suburban spot at which the taonga were unearthed, the ceremony was conducted under the direction of tohunga and Kāhui Ariki John Haunui and accompanied by the sounds of ancient karakia.

That story – of discovery, decades of kaitiaki and, ultimately, repatriation – was recently recounted by Chris in a paper dedicated to his father, which he delivered at this year’s New Zealand Archaeological Association conference in Hamilton.

Today, Chris reports, the taumata atua continues to be treasured, and featured in Waikato Museum’s recent ‘Shaping Hamilton – Huringa Kirikiriroa’ exhibition.

Chris is described as New Zealand’s most internationally acclaimed sculptor and is the creator of many recognisable New Zealand public monuments. These include Gateway in Auckland’s Albert Park, Peacemaker in the Wellington Botanic Garden, Nga Uri o Hinetuparimaunga at the entrance to the Hamilton Gardens, and the Rainbow Warrior Memorial at Matauri Bay, Northland.

As a student at Northland College, he studied art under Selwyn Te Ngareatua Wilson, considered one of the founding figures of Māori Modernism, and at the Ilam School of Fine Arts

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 13

WHAKAAHUA • PROFILE

“They’ve spent so much of their lives in the North looking at its history, its art and its conservation. And so it all comes together; it doesn’t get siloed as it normally does” in Christchurch. He then studied and worked in the UK with leading sculptors, such as Barbara Hepworth at St Ives. Characterised by collaboration with indigenous communities, his work, most often wrought in stone, is found in Australia, Europe and the Americas.

While building this impressive artistic career, Chris has also made a significant contribution to the preservation of heritage, particularly in Northland.

It’s a passion he shares with his brothers (who, along with Chris, still live on the family land in Kerikeri) and one that was instilled by their parents – as exemplified by the story of the taumata atua.

“They’re Renaissance people,” says James Robinson,

Senior Archaeologist in the Northland office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, of the Booth family.

“They have many strings to their bows; they’re very interesting people, and I think that reflects that their father was a long-term resident in the North and that they’ve spent so much of their lives in the North looking at its history, its art and its conservation. And so it all comes together; it doesn’t get siloed as it normally does.”

Chris recalls how his and his brothers’ passion for heritage was also triggered by childhood weekend expeditions.

“We didn’t have a car, we only had a tractor and trailer, so on a Saturday or Sunday Dad would drive the tractor,

14 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

with a sofa on the trailer, with the aunties and grandparents and us kids on the back. We would go to the coast and there the whole family would embark on catching fish for our kai and wandering the coast to see what flotsam and jetsam had washed up.

“But also, exposed in the cattle tracks or in the sand dunes, were artefacts you couldn’t help but stumble over. So from eight years old, my twin brother John and I, through to when we were about 18, helped to collect and catalogue about 3000 artefacts.”

Given that the items were collected from within their community, Chris says the family grew up in conversation with mana whenua about the taonga

and their kaitiaki. The conversations spanned generations, with the family entrusted to care for the taonga until a facility where they could be safely housed was identified.

This eventuated in 2017, when mana whenua handed over the Booth collection to Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi.

James Robinson, who has known the Booth family since the 1990s, says while the kind of fossicking the Booths did as boys is illegal today, it wasn’t at the time. It was a period in which people were more widely interested in history and archaeology, he says, and the fields were less institutionalised.

The family have always been willing to share

their finds and knowledge associated with them. And, most importantly, they preserved the locational information associated with the artefacts as they went.

During the writing of this story, John Booth shared a number of archaeological papers that he and his brothers have helped to produce. The papers reference elements of the Booth collection – among them an article co-authored

by Chris alongside friend and Ngāti Rēhia kuia Nora Rameka. It provides ongoing insights into the North’s heritage that are being uncovered with the help of the collection.

Chris explains that prior to the collection’s accession to the Waitangi Museum, the family handled many of its items, which stirred up a number of memories.

Among the objects were what appeared to be a mortar and pestle stained with kōkōwai, and lumps of kōkōwai itself.

Chris recalled that on one of the family’s excursions, when he was aged eight, they’d met a teacher from the school at Tākou Bay (which lies on the eastern coast of the Far North between the Bay of Islands and Whangaroa Harbour) who’d told them about the area’s red ochre mines. That recollection spurred Chris to sift through aerial photos that helped him pinpoint the area. He contacted the farmer who owned the land, and went with Nora to the site to see if evidence of the mines remained.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes,” he recalls. “There were just these humps and hollows like the great swells and troughs in the ocean for more than a hectare. It was unbelievable.”

THE RAINBOW WARRIOR MEMORIAL This year marks 50 years since HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Canterbury sailed to the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia to protest about French nuclear testing in the Pacific, following protests both nationally and internationally that had begun two years earlier.

This historic event has become part of a legacy of anti-nuclear protest, action and related events that have since formed part of New Zealand’s national identity, and also includes the Rainbow Warrior bombing in 1985 and the passing of our nuclear-free legislation in 1987.

Bill Edwards, Area Manager Northland for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, says while visiting the

Rainbow Warrior, which is now sunk off the Cavalli Islands in Northland, isn’t an option for most, the Rainbow Warrior Memorial created by Chris Booth, and sited on cliffs above Matauri Bay, is accessible to all.

The ship’s propeller forms a central part of the sculpture, which was commissioned by hapū Ngāti Kura and created by Chris between 1988 and 1990 – a project captured in the 1991 documentary

When a Warrior Dies. The ship’s masts stand in

This discovery led to the identification and protection of what James describes as a “very, very rare” red ochre mining site.

“It’s been quite important because that farm very soon after was subdivided so those sites have been protected,” he adds.

James continues to work regularly with Chris and other members of the Booth family as part of a community of volunteers associated with the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Northland office. He says Northland is blessed to have an artist of Chris’s calibre living in the area, and he sees strong parallels between the artist’s work and the taonga in the Booth family collection around which he was raised.

“It’s this concept of rocks coming together, this constant theme of rocks.

Of course, in the collection there’s a lot of rock material that tells stories about the past. So he’s also telling stories, but about the present, and moving into the future.”

Dargaville, and Bill says research is underway to recognise the heritage significance of these different parts of the Rainbow Warrior’s story.

“Everyone is connected by the ocean, and the memorial symbolises that interconnectedness,” says Bill.

“The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is now a generation ago, but that story needs to keep being told, and the memorial helps to tell that story.” n

Kāhui Ariki: aristocracy,

royal family of the Kīngitanga kaitiaki: guardian karakia: prayer kōkōwai: red ochre; burnt and mixed with shark oil to create a pigment kuia: female elder mana whenua: those with tribal authority over land or territory taonga: treasures taumata atua: ‘resting place of gods’; figures that represented Rongo, a major god in Māori mythology of cultivated crops, especially kūmara tohunga: priest, expert

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 15

TE WĀHI • PLACE

1. The Dunedin Gasworks Museum is a hub for community groups, including beginners blacksmithing classes.

Silhouetted is instructor Evelyn Guiguet. et 2. The forge was used daily while the Dunedin Gasworks was in operation.

1

16 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

WORDS: CLAUDIA BABIRAT / IMAGERY: MIKE HEYDON

HITTING THE GAS

The Dunedin Gasworks Museum is considered the best example of working gasworks machinery anywhere in the world – and it’s run entirely by volunteers 2

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 17

TE WĀHI • PLACE

1

A

s Ruth Barton pulls the levers of a vintage espresso machine behind the counter at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, she muses on what first drew her to volunteer at the site.

“I wanted to be part of the local heritage community, and the Dunedin Gasworks Museum stood out.”

Gasworks were once common around the country, she explains. There were more than 20 of them, from Auckland to Queenstown, but the majority have been demolished. Except for this one in Dunedin.

“It’s the only remaining gasworks in the country,” says Ruth, who joined the ranks of the museum’s volunteers six years ago, “and this is one of only a handful of gasworks museums anywhere in the world.” Both the gasworks’ exhauster and boiler house, and its fitting shop, are recognised as Category 1 historic places.

Each Sunday afternoon the museum opens its doors to the public, and all those who work there are

18 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

1. The former fitting shop houses the original forge, as well as a new reception area and small library.

2. Lubricators on the vane pump of an electrically driven exhauster.

3. Number 4 exhauster in the engine house.

4. Engineering team co-ordinator and long-time volunteer Tom Galletly at the control valve of the Bryan Donkin booster compressor.

volunteers like Ruth. One of her roles is to greet people at the reception area, located in the former fitting shop, before introducing them to a visitor host for a one-hour guided tour. Rostered on when Heritage New Zealand magazine visits is Bill Riddle.

Bill’s connection to the gasworks goes back decades.

“I worked here as a gasfitter in the 1980s. It was around the time that the gasworks was winding up. A lot of my work was servicing households and businesses, including removing gas meters and rolling maintenance of appliances for people who hadn’t yet made the switch to electricity.”

A natural storyteller, Bill begins the tour by explaining that the gasworks was created as a private enterprise to power 150 streetlights.

“But the discovery of gold near Dunedin was like a shot in the arm and Dunedin took off.”

As the city’s population grew, its founding fathers wanted control over the gasworks. They bought out its founder and restructured and expanded the facility. Its main purpose was to convert bituminous coal to gas that heated homes, fuelled stoves and played a crucial part in powering large industries such as Cadbury’s chocolate factory and the Hillside railway workshops.

According to Bill, at its peak the gasworks supplied coal gas to 18,000 customers throughout Dunedin.

Its pipe network was more than 270 kilometres long, servicing suburbs from Northeast Valley to Abbotsford in the south.

Operating for 125 years, between 1862 and 1987, it was the first gasworks to open in New Zealand and the last to shut its doors.

Karen Astwood, Director Corporate Services at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, says the gasworks’ longevity saved it from demolition.

“Engineering sites like this one are driven by function and are usually demolished soon after they’ve been abandoned. Being council owned, and part subsidised, meant that the gasworks in Dunedin changed with the times. As technology advanced, it upgraded and stayed open for longer.”

By the late 1980s, she says, local community groups were becoming increasingly aware of places that were important to them. Shortly after the gasworks closed, a trust was set up to preserve and protect it for future generations.

On the day I visit, the gasworks is operating in all its glory. It’s a ‘steaming day’, which happens at least once a month, when the boiler has been fired up and the steam engines in the engine room are operating.

One of the engines was shipped here in the 19th century from Scotland; the others arrived in the 20th century. Now they squat solidly on the concrete floor, all but one in their original locations,

2

3

“Two hours to boil the water, one hour to rise to full-pressure steam, and one to warm up the engines” 4

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 19

TE WĀHI • PLACE 1

2

3

20 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

“I love the reactions from kids. They haven’t seen this kind of stuff before; they’re able to touch things, play with knobs on the lathe and drill press, marvel at the tools in the forge when it’s not in use”

representing different eras of Dunedin’s coal gas production. Well-oiled flywheels and pistons turn and nod lazily in almost complete silence. It’s a thing of industrial beauty.

The boiler room is the last stop on Bill’s tour. Here visitors meet Tom Galletly, who stands dwarfed between two boilers: one is an 80-horsepower behemoth that was once the heart of the gasworks, and the other is a smaller, 10-horsepower boiler that Tom operates to create the steam that runs the engines.

While the smaller boiler runs on oil, the original was hand-fired with coke produced on site.

On steaming days Tom starts early, at 7.40am. It takes at least four hours for the boiler to get up enough steam to run the machinery.

“Two hours to boil the water, one hour to rise to full-pressure steam, and one to warm up the engines.”

Tom is currently the boiler’s sole operator, which means the engines only run when he has time.

“It was different when I first started here about 15 years ago,” he says.

“Back then I was the youngest by at least two decades, and we had a group of guys who all loved running the boiler and maintaining the machines.

“It’s an international problem,” he says. “When older people leave, their skills are lost.”

In a bid to mitigate this, Tom currently has two “prodigies” and is on the lookout for more. They don’t need a ticket or even engineering experience; they simply need to be deemed a “responsible person” and get sign-off from Tom. Training alongside him today is Shaun Beckett.

Now aged 44, Shaun used to come to the gasworks as “a little nipper” with his father, who worked as a plant operator. These days he brings along his own son.

Ruth Barton’s four-year-old son Harold is also here.

One of his favourite activities is pulling the cord for the steam whistle that once signalled the starts and

ends of shifts, and smoko. Ruth never gets tired of hearing it. “I hope everyone pulls the whistle at least once on their visit!”

Families are among Ruth’s favourite visitors to the museum. “I love the reactions from kids. They haven’t seen this kind of stuff before; they’re able to touch things, play with knobs on the lathe and drill press, marvel at the tools in the forge when it’s not in use.”

She and other museum trustees are currently looking at ways to make the museum even more family friendly.

Visitors to the museum are evenly split between locals and out-of-town and international visitors, Ruth says.

“We have quite a few older people come in who grew up in Dunedin and knew the gasworks when it was operating; for example, they may have come in to pick up a load of coke with their dad. It’s great to hear people’s stories and see their expressions when they recognise the coin-operated gas meters that we have on display from when they were growing up.”

The museum also hosts community groups and events, including beginners blacksmithing classes held in the gasworks’ original forge, which quickly sell out.

Today the forge is occupied – not by a class, but by one of its recent graduates. Will Stevens is a year 13 student at John McGlashan College, and as part of his International Baccalaureate programme he’s creating a claymore sword for his school. He hammers the glowing tip of a rough metal bar against a giant anvil, then takes it back to the coals glowing on the forge, which is running at about 2000 degrees Celsius.

“I’ve already made 10 knife blades for practice,” he explains.

His project was inspired by a Wētā Workshop display of movie swords. He enrolled in a class at the gasworks, became an apprentice and is now signed off to work the forge by himself.

“What I love about this is that nothing much has changed about the process since blacksmithing was invented. You use the same tools, the same techniques.

Most things get modernised, but with this hobby it’s really refreshing how little has changed. If the gasworks museum wasn’t here, I simply wouldn’t be able to do it.”

As the last steam whistle of the day blows, Ruth reflects on how the gasworks has endured for 160 years. “And thanks to the hard work of our volunteers, hopefully people will care about it for a long time yet.”

1. Instructor Evelyn Guiguet oversees a blacksmithing class at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum.

Classes are booked out months in advance.

2. The finishing touches are made to a bottle opener.

3. A fire poker takes shape.

The Dunedin Gasworks Museum is open to the public on Sundays between 12pm and 4pm, and entry is $5. gasworksmuseum.org.nz

To learn more about the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, view our video story here: youtube.com/HeritageNewZealand PouhereTaonga

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 21

NGĀ TAPUWAE O NGĀ TŪPUNA • MĀORI HERITAGE

Ko Moehau ki Tai students actively learning to read the rivers.

22 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

REVIVING THE TRAIL OF POUTINI WORDS: NIKI PARTSCH / IMAGERY: BROOKE TUPAEA

A reawakening of the art of working with stone is helping to create practical and immersive connections to our heritage

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 23

NGĀ TAPUWAE O NGĀ TŪPUNA • MĀORI HERITAGE 1

W

ith Moehau Mountain located at its tip, there is a massive stone ridge that runs through the Coromandel Peninsula. To the west of this ridge is the beautiful Hauraki Gulf; to the east lies the deep blue expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean. Over the centuries, demand for the highquality stone from here led to a widespread trade and, eventually, the production of stone implements on a massive scale. This trade was hugely significant for the people who lived here.

For the people of Pare Hauraki – a group of 12 Hauraki iwi – recognising this history and their long connection with mahi kōwhatu, or stoneworking, has been part of a wider restorative process in more recent times of the land and its people.

Jamie Watson (Ko Moehau ki Tai) grew up in Coromandel and has had an interest in rocks since he was young. He’s not sure exactly where it began, but he remembers stories and incidents of discovery. His great-grandfather, who dug many drains in his lifetime, would often disturb objects

24 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

such as long-buried toki. According to tikanga, he would rebury them or place them into the forks of tree roots as a way of returning them to the land.

Jamie listened to these stories and wondered who had made these objects, and how.

And he became aware of the tapu surrounding these ancient finds.

“There were a lot of conversations about what to do and what not to do,” he recalls.

His interest also developed into something more hands-on.

“It started when I was a kid,” he says, “learning about flaking, smashing rocks open to see what they were like inside.”

Most people he knew weren’t 2 interested, but Jamie had a couple of friends in Napier who were. They started sharing photos as their skills advanced, eventually to a point where they were making traditional hei tiki and taiaha using stone tools.

Jamie later travelled to the Chatham Islands to attend a wānanga focused on reviving the tools used for carving rākau momori (Moriori memorial trees), where he listened intently to the kōrero and learnt much about the practical side of mahi

kōwhatu. Jamie remembers studying the stone workers’ flaking floor (areas where chips of rock and drill heads have fallen and can be ‘read’ to understand the techniques employed) and enjoying the hands-on learning opportunity to make stone implements at the basalt quarry.

As his knowledge grew, he became amazed by the breadth, volume and reach of the stone trade in Aotearoa.

“Definitely the pakawera from up here was traded all the way to the bottom of the country and all the way to the top,” he says.

“There were full-scale factories with [people in] waka calling in here to trade other goods for stone.”

Stone was quarried and collected and then processed by flaking (chipping), grinding and shaping. The stone tools traded were often items used every day – such as weaving implements, patu muka for grinding, toki for chopping

firewood, weaponry such as mere and patu – and made from tools ranging from large splitters to fine items for carving or detailing.

“It’s estimated that everyone had three toki during their lifetimes, so these were really significant daily tools.”

Trade trails stretched across land and rivers and along coastlines. Forming relationships all along the stone trails was integral, Jamie explains.

“You need the power of trade and the working relationships because you need kiripaka to drill a hole in a mere pounamu.”

Jamie is now an experienced mahi kōwhatu practitioner and teacher, and recently began running wānanga on the art. During 2022 he ran four successful wānanga for descendants of Pare Hauraki, in which participants were introduced to practical work alongside kaitiakitanga of the knowledge and the traditional processes.

1. Using hoanga (sandstone) to smooth down pounamu.

2. Layton Robertson binds a toki to a handle.

3. Jamie Watson reads the stone.

3

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 25

NGĀ TAPUWAE O NGĀ TŪPUNA • MĀORI HERITAGE 1

2

Wānanga were held near the ancestral maunga Moehau, says Jamie, because of its proximity to the stone and to connect the people involved to the land, awa and other aspects of the natural environment.

Weather conditions in 2022 were difficult enough, but those experienced by people attending a wānanga held in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023 were particularly bleak.

“The first three days outside the whare, it was a bit of a mud pit. It looked like a battle scene from the movie Braveheart,” says Jamie.

Invitations to the week-long wānanga were extended to expert practitioners Ruihana Hamuera

THE WHAKAPAPA OF STONE

(A version of this story)

The ancestor/explorer Ngāhue visited New Zealand and took a large piece of pounamu from New Zealand back to Hawaiki.

There are limited stone resources in the Pacific, so this original block of pounamu was split into pieces to make three taonga.

Two were large toki named Hauhau-i-te-rangi and Tutauru. The third, an ear pendant, was named Kaukaumātua.

Each of these taonga was passed down through many generations along with their origin story. The two adzes were used to build the Tainui and Te Arawa waka and both were returned to New Zealand, as was Kaukaumātua. n

1. Roimata Taimana and Johnny Wheeler using a tūwiri, a traditional stone drilling tool. 2. Layton Robertson (unseen) makes the first ceremonial cut into Tamanui, the tree that Ruihana Hamuera (pictured) has named after his ancestor. 3. Molly Konui uses a toki pounamu (greenstone adze) to shape a stick.

4. Raika Whakarongotai Bradshaw Stevens, Roimata Taimana, Layton Robertson, Johnny Wheeler and Jamie Watson grinding their toki on sandstone.

5. Johnny Wheeler looks for the grain of the stone.

3

26 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

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4

and Layton Robertson, who hail from the top of the South Island. Both have expertise in mahi kōwhatu and knowledge of the history from a Te Tauihu perspective.

“A big part of our wānanga was to build connections and share traditional iwi versions of stories about the trade routes,” says Jamie.

Despite the rugged weather, a long trip to the foot of Moehau, and an energy-sapping virus that spread through the group, their passion was apparent.

“The crew was so into the mahi, the conditions didn’t really faze them. When it rained, they got under a little bit of cover, or they found a new place in the shed to work.”

Dedication, concentration and a huge amount of time are put into creating each beautiful, functional taonga. There is little thought of where the sun sits in the sky, and when the natural light fades the practitioners switch to artificial.

“Time becomes insignificant,” says Jamie.

“It’s more like a wairua experience. If you think too much about time, you’ll never actually complete [the work]. You have to let go of it to get to where you’re trying to get to.”

The revival of mahi kōwhatu and the subsequent growth of practitioner/teacher numbers are having positive impacts on communities. While Jamie was the area’s sole

awa: rivers hei tiki: pendant kaitiakitanga: guardianship kiripaka: flint kōrero: talk, conversation mahi: work mahi kōwhatu: stonework maunga: mountain mere: short, broad-bladed weapon pakawera/ōnewa: basalt pakiwaitara: folklore pakohe: argillite pounamu: greenstone pūrākau: legend, story taiaha: long-handled weapon tangata whenua: people of the land taniwha: water spirit taonga: treasures tapu: sacred/spiritual restrictions tikanga: cultural protocol toki: adze tuhua: obsidian

THE PŪRĀKAU OF POUTINI – AN ORAL MAP OF STONE DEPOSITS

practitioner two years ago, numbers swelled to seven following the first wānanga series in 2022, and another six have joined the cohort following the one held early this year.

Jamie’s approach is for the students to become teachers. He encourages his students to involve young people through demonstrations of flaking, drilling and grinding at schools and special events – hands-on work in which youngsters are encouraged to participate.

The wānanga have been supported through Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Mātauranga Māori Contestable Grants, which have helped to grow the mahi kōwhatu collective. And Jamie has his heart set on seeing a wider revival of mahi kōwhatu and capturing its stories and knowledge from around the country.

“I want to revive the trail. My dream is to have a contingent of stone workers from each of the stops of Poutini,” he says (see sidebar story below).

Jamie thinks it would be great to see ancient stone-working and trading trails opened to others, including tourists, but feels that it is up to each iwi to decide if, how and when.

“All cultures have worked with stone; I think it’s a good thing for all people to do because it’s quite therapeutic – engaging in the mahi of all our ancestors.”

Poutini also stopped at Tahanga in northern Coromandel, and he later crossed inland to Taupō, where there is another deposit of obsidian. Then he travelled south, and from Wellington he crossed over to the Nelson area where

As new generations learn pūrākau and

there are significant deposits of pakohe.

pakiwaitara associated with mahi kōwhatu,

His stops were many and well recorded

more are hearing the many tales of Poutini,

within purākau, including places such as

which provide clues to the locations of ancient stone quarries and historic trade routes across Aotearoa New Zealand.

According to Ngāi Tahu tradition, pounamu is a taonga from the taniwha Poutini, who captured a beautiful woman named Waitaiki and fled with her, eventually placing her in the mighty Arahura river and transforming her into pounamu.

Poutini, a fish or taniwha depending on whose narrative

5

Punakaiki, Piopiotahi and Takiwai. Pounamu from here is called takiwai, or bowenite.

The final stop of Poutini was perhaps at the Arahura River, where pounamu known as kawakawa, kahurangi and inanga are found. These are all types of nephrites.

The story of Poutini has been told and retold by hapū and iwi for centuries. As Jamie says: “There are lots of different versions. The true story of Poutini sits with the tangata

you hear, was pursued around the country and coastline.

whenua of each location. The story begins at Tuhua and ends

Each stop on his journey is the location of a high-quality

at Arahura with many stops in between. The whole story sits

stone deposit.

within the wānanga of the communities.” n

One stop was at Tuhua, Mayor Island, off the Coromandel coast.

It is here, according to Jamie, that “the cleanest-breaking, most

To learn more about the story of Poutini, listen to this episode

responsive form of obsidian in the country is found”. Obsidian

of the Taringa podcast: taringapodcast.com/e/taringa-ep-120-

tools from Tuhua have been found all over New Zealand.

once-upon-a-taima-poutini

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 27

TINO WHAKAAHUA • BEST SHOTS 28 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

WORDS AND IMAGERY: LOT TIE HEDLEY

Shed a little light Last year the Castlepoint

towards the lighthouse

drama of the Castlepoint Cup

established in 1848 and is one

Racing Club celebrated its

when they think of the

Calcutta, in which syndicates

of the oldest in the country.

150th year of horse races

Castlepoint Beach Races,

made up of friends and family

Until 1995 its woolshed was

along the Wairarapa coastline

the unofficial start to the

bid on the horses racing

the main working building

at Castlepoint. While most

proceedings happens

in the Castlepoint Cup the

during shearing season for

people visualise the horses

the evening before in

following day. The woolshed

Castlepoint Station, but as the

thundering down the beach

the Castlepoint Station

also houses the jockeys

largest building in Castlepoint

woolshed.

and trainers during the race

it was also used for functions.

More than a century old,

day as they weigh in with

Since the mid-’90s its main

the woolshed fills at dusk

the Clerk of Scales before

use has been for celebrations

with locals and visitors for the

saddling up to be led to the

such as the Calcutta and the

beach and the start by the

odd wedding or two.

Clerk of the Course.

The 2995-hectare Castlepoint Station was

Technical data • Camera: Canon 5DMIII • Lens: 24-70mm • ISO: 200 • Aperture: f/2.8 • Exposure: 1/250

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 29

TE WĀHI • PLACE

CAMPING OUT WORDS: MAT T PHILP

New Zealand’s expansive camping culture has few equivalents around the world – and stories of its demise may be exaggerated

T

hey came from Riverton in Southland, and Runanga on the West Coast. Canterbury families would hit the road before dawn, kids sprawled across the back seat in sleeping bags, arriving in time for lunch.

The Ashburton-based Ferris family made the pilgrimage every Christmas, always with an enforced stop on the winding ‘Whangamoas’ (the Whangamoa Saddle) when their caravan-towing Vauxhall’s engine boiled.

For the families who returned summer after summer, the journey to reach Nelson’s Tāhuna Beach Holiday Park was as much a part of the ritual as the beach swimming, car races on the mudflats and nightly concerts in the campground amphitheatre. We know this, because the camp cares enough about its 97-year heritage to record the memories of the ‘Tāhuna faithful’ on its website. There’s an entry from Max Ferris, who recounts being called on stage as a child to assist

30 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

The Great Benyon’s magical act – a staple of the camp’s entertainment programme during the 1960s and ’70s.

And there’s April Jarden, whose parents Herb and Hazel Pattinson first camped at Tāhuna in 1956, describing a summer decades later when four generations of her family – ranging from a three-week-old baby to an 87-year-old – were all together on site.

Other contributors recollect the year of exceptionally high tides when a small shark swam into the park via a drainage pipe; the summer of the teenage ‘riot’ in O Block; and the sister whose efforts in the Tāhuna Beach sandcastle competition made the local paper.

“We have a really important legacy that we are privileged to look after in terms of the people who’ve been coming to us for decades,” remarks Debbie Armatage, the camp’s Marketing, Communications and Events Manager. She says the camp’s challenge is to continue to update its facilities and

Far left and below: Nelson’s Tāhuna Beach Holiday Park has a 97-year heritage.

Imagery: Tahuna Beach Holiday Park, Nelson Provincial Museum

services, while “at the same time making sure it feels familiar, comfortable and what they love each summer”.

Tāhuna is not unique in that regard. The days of New Zealand’s historic campgrounds being able to rely on habit and loyalty to fill sites are long over. Reports of the death of the Kiwi summer campground holiday are exaggerated, but it’s fair to say holidaymakers have different expectations and many more options than in camping’s heyday of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

There’s Airbnb and the rise of glamping to consider for a start. Both are a long way from camping’s 19th-century origins in the rough and ready shelters used by bushmen, hunters, shepherds and gold miners. The first campgrounds created specifically for holidaymakers appeared in the 1910s, then multiplied on the back of the automobile boom, with regional Automobile Associations collaborating with local authorities to provide accommodation for motorists exploring the country.

In his 2020 PhD thesis The Origins of the Camp, former University of Otago researcher Leonardo Nava Jiménez describes how the growth of this “archipelago” of commercial campgrounds was defined primarily by the state highway network. Camping was a car-based holiday activity, supported by a small industry of tent-makers and food and camping

“Something Kiwis don’t realise is that New Zealand is an example to the equipment suppliers and supplemented by surplus army gear brought back from the Great War. Leonardo, who is from Mexico, says New Zealand developed an expansive camping culture that had few equivalents around the world. In his home country, recreational campsite options were always more limited and mainly for the well-off.

“Something Kiwis don’t realise is that New Zealand is an example to the world,” he says, citing an egalitarian ethos,

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 31

TE WĀHI • PLACE

strong holiday culture, decent weather and the absence of killer wildlife as contributing factors.

Auckland was the incubator of new models of commercial holiday campgrounds. The prototype was Tūī Glen in Henderson, which opened in 1925 and is believed to have been the first officially registered campground in New Zealand. Set among mature trees beside Henderson Creek, the campground was created by Claude Brookes, a keen boatie who had discovered the idyllic site a decade or so earlier while exploring the creek in his boat Mayflower.

Over the years, Claude barged in or built a series of cabins for holidaymakers, including a couple of old ship cabins and an army hut, and had staff at his Auckland engineering workshop manufacture swings, slides and other play equipment. Sand was brought in from Te Atatū Point to create an artificial beach.

According to a contemporary article, by the late 1930s Tūī Glen offered “sixty different amusements, including boats and canoes, standard-sized bowling greens, miniature golfputting links and fine-chip tennis courts”. Later, a milk bar and a skating rink were added.

But the real gem was the creek – a safe and attractive swimming ground. As a 2001 heritage assessment notes, “When the stream deteriorated, the camp was largely finished

“We walk quite a distance to go to the loo, we line up for showers, and there’s always an airbed that goes down and needs replacing, but we must all love it, because we keep going back for as a holiday resort.” In the 1960s the local council bailed out the struggling campground, and it limped on until it closed in 2002, with the land designated a reserve. Ten of the original cabins survived and were restored in 2011, giving visitors at least a flavour of Claude’s Henderson hideaway.

Tūī Glen was a trailblazer, but only a year later Tāhuna opened its doors, followed by campgrounds in both the North and South Islands through the 1920s and ’30s. The end of postwar petrol rationing in the 1950s spurred another boom, with one of those ’50s campgrounds being Vinegar Hill.

Set within the Pūtai Ngahere Domain near Hunterville, in its early years Vinegar Hill was little different from any other New Zealand campground. (Leonardo notes that campground regulations of the 1930s created “an unprecedented level of homogeneity among these sites”.) Since the late 1970s, however, the campground beside the Rangitīkei River has had a unique identity as the site of the longest-running queer summer camp in New Zealand.

Vinegar Hill was recently nominated for heritage listing as part of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Rainbow List Project, which aims to improve the diversity of the List by recognising places of historic significance to the LGBTTFQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, takatāpui, fa’afāfine, queer and intersex) communities.

Kerryn Pollock, Area Manager Central Region, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, says Vinegar Hill’s significance among the queer community was ignited when a group of men

32 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

Left: Vinegar Hill campground was recently nominated for heritage listing as part of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Rainbow List Project.

Imagery: Stuff Below: Tūī Glen in Henderson is believed to have become the first officially registered campground in New Zealand in 1925. Imagery: Lottie Hedley

from the Manawatū Gay Rights Association camped there in the summer of 1978-79.

“It’s a beautiful landscape, with a lovely big river and native bush, but importantly for gay men it was in the middle of nowhere and private,” she says, noting that homosexual law reform wasn’t enacted until 1986.

“They had a great time and the following year they invited more friends, and the word went out. By 1983, people from Auckland, Hamilton, Napier and even Australia had joined the original campers and it grew from there. It became a more organised thing, with a New Year’s Eve celebration involving a drag show and music.”

Apart from the odd incident, there was little harassment.

“One end of the campground became known as the gay end, the other was known as the straight end, and from what I’ve heard, they seemed to co-exist pretty happily. And the local Hunterville community embraced the campers because they brought in a lot of money,” says Kerryn, who notes that Vinegar Hill remains a major summertime drawcard for the rainbow community (visitor numbers peaked at 1500 in 2020).

Vinegar Hill rolls on, but what about other campgrounds?

Since the early 2000s there’s been a growing sense that the Kiwi camping tradition is on the way out, a narrative reinforced by ongoing sales of campgrounds to developers to capitalise on skyrocketing land values.

During a four-year stretch in the early 2000s, eight campgrounds closed in Coromandel alone – part of a wave of sales from the Far North to Central Otago, where as recently as 2020 the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park lost 200 camping sites to a $1 billion development.

According to Leonardo, however, the end is not nigh. In fact, there are more campgrounds now than there were in the 1970s. It’s mostly coastal land that has been sold, he notes, adding that while new campgrounds have sprung up inland, they tend to be smaller and pitched more at international visitors than the campgrounds of legend.

“Those huge campgrounds where three or four generations camped are disappearing, yes. And when you eliminate one of those, it does affect people’s hearts, because they have links to those campgrounds,” he says.

That’s certainly true of Tāhuna, for which the most pressing threat is an application by Nelson Airport for a planning change to allow it to extend its runway. The holiday park has opposed the application, arguing that the threat of increased noise levels and restrictions on its ability to improve facilities could leave it to ‘wither on the vine’.

You can easily imagine the sense of loss if it were ever to close. In a 2016 entry on the campground website, a couple describes what at the time was a 21-year tradition of holidaying at Tāhuna with friends.

“We walk quite a distance to go to the loo, we line up for showers, and there’s always an airbed that goes down and needs replacing, but we must all love it, because we keep going back for more.”

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 33

TE WĀHI • PLACE 34 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

A

s Cyclone Gabrielle ravaged Auckland in February this year, with more than 200 millimetres of rain and wind gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour, Tracey Hartley, Senior Associate, Salmond Reed Architects, held her breath.

A two-year project to seismically upgrade, repair and improve Auckland’s iconic Domain Wintergardens had just been completed, and for Tracey the cyclone was the first real test of whether thousands of hours of detailed design and engineering would see the structure withstand the harsh weather conditions.

The Domain Wintergardens is one of Auckland’s most popular heritage sites, visited by thousands of international and domestic tourists each year.

The seasonal displays and unique architecture have captivated people for more than 100 years.

Designed by the prominent architectural firm Gummer and Ford, the pair of barrel-vaulted glasshouses (Tropical and Temperate) address each other across an elegant courtyard terrace enclosure with a central pool – and are additionally associated with a fernery. Created between 1916 and 1930, the Category 1 historic place incorporates some of New Zealand’s earliest steel and glass construction.

By 2021, however, the buildings had deteriorated. An inadequate rainwater disposal system and blocked drains had caused water seepage, which was compounded by more frequent and intense rainfall and storm events.

“Leaking roofs and overspilling gutters were saturating the masonry and encouraging plant growth, causing damage,” says Tracey.

“It was an interesting project for me because I’ve spent my working life trying to remove unwanted vegetation from buildings.

Plants, especially the roots, can destroy buildings and cause problems through damp. In this case though, we were trying to provide an environment for them to work in harmony.”

While the $5.7 million project was undertaken to strengthen the buildings for safe public use, as our changing climate takes hold, says Tracey, the work also included climate resilience. Heritage buildings and structures around the world are increasingly at risk from the impacts of climate change – from extreme temperatures to rising tides and increasing storm activity and flooding. New Zealand’s heritage sites are not immune.

“I think everybody is realising that our one-in-100-year weather events are now occurring much more frequently than predicted, and there will need to be significant investment and hard decisions made about how we manage and maintain our heritage buildings into the future,” says Tracey.

Careful consideration needs to be given to the longevity of materials used in restoration and maintenance, she says, which sometimes involves a trade-off. “We always try to specify materials that will be there for the long term. When you reroof a heritage building, you use what happens to be the longest-lasting material. That always costs more initially, but when considered as a life cycle, it costs less in the long term.”

For the Wintergardens, this longterm approach involved obtaining resource consent to change the external appearance of the buildings to allow for a new glass roof and rainwater disposal system.

WORDS: NICOLA MARTIN / IMAGERY: LOT TIE HEDLEY

CLIMATE CONTROLLED A multi-million-dollar project is helping to ensure that Auckland’s landmark Domain Wintergardens will survive and flourish as our climate changes Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 35

TE WĀHI • PLACE 1

2

1. The team had to obtain resource consent to change the external appearance in order to complete the new glass roof and rainwater disposal system.

2. The seasonal displays and unique architecture of Auckland’s Domain Wintergardens have captivated people for more than 100 years.

3. Finding glazing that would meet seismic standards was one of the biggest challenges.

3

“Our one-in-100-year weather events are now occurring much more frequently than predicted, and there will need to be significant investment and hard decisions made about how we manage and maintain our heritage buildings into the future”

36 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

Spouting was replaced using a new, deeper, cast-iron option imported from the UK, and 12 new cast-iron downpipes were added to each building to increase the system’s capacity and convey water to ground level more rapidly.

A new drainage margin was also laid around the buildings to protect the walls from the effects of unwanted plant growth and dampness. And new underground drains and gullies were incorporated beneath each drainpipe, replacing previously blocked drains. These will keep the buildings drier and prevent the garden display beds flooding in wet weather.

“When Cyclone Gabrielle arrived we had just finished the work, and the new rainwater disposal system, including new castiron downpipes and larger spouting, proved its worth. It coped beautifully, with no water leaking into the building,” says Tracey.

Robin Byron, Senior Conservation Architect at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, says all the Wintergardens work has been considered and undertaken from a best-practice conservation perspective.

“This includes the need to anticipate resilience in the face of climate change, earthquakes and extreme weather events, and the planning for the good performance and longevity of the materials, features and finishes of the place,” says Robin.

“Such considerations will ensure significant heritage places like the Domain Wintergardens survive well into the future.”

The project has not gone unnoticed; it was recognised this year with an Enduring Architecture Award from Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects.

For Tracey, the project’s many highlights include discovering and reinstating the colour of the buildings’ original steelwork, repointing the brickwork in lime mortar, and uncovering and reinstating two watering ponds, which were part of the original design.

The original paint colour was discovered as workers scraped back layers of paint to weld new cleats for the seismic strengthening. It was retained on all the original steelwork, while the new seismic steel was painted in a slightly darker colour.

“It doesn’t jar with a large contrast from ground level. It’s only if you look for it that it’s identifiable, and it was a subtle way to delineate what was original and what is new,” says Tracey.

“Looking at the buildings now, you would never know the amount of work that went into the seismic engineering by the very skilled structural engineers, and the extent of the skills needed to repair them.”

Alongside the new rainwater disposal system, the biggest challenge the project team faced was replacing the aged glazing, which didn’t meet seismic standards. Due to the buildings’ design, options were limited by the weight they would add to the existing structure. However, the glass that was used ultimately restored the buildings closer to their original states.

“The buildings were originally constructed with clear glass, and [there are] good historical photos showing the clear glass panes. But over the years they had been whitewashed on the inside and gradually, over time, the buildings had undergone replacements with a move to obscure glass. Unfortunately, the obscure glass textured pattern encouraged all the lichens and mould to take hold,” says Tracey.

Adds glazing engineer Rob Collis: “One of the first challenges we had was to come up with a glass solution that would meet our primary requirement of structural seismic safety, but we also wanted a nod to its original state.”

That was no easy task given that the buildings’ glazing stretches up to 12 metres above ground. The team settled on a custom heat-strengthened laminate glass, designed using two three-millimetre-thick glass panes heat-laminated together to make six-millimetre-thick panes.

Just trying to find a local fabricator for the panes was a challenge, says Rob, compounded by the fact that, due to the buildings’ age, nothing was a uniform size. “Almost every piece had to be custom measured on site and then fabricated,” he says.

The custom design also extended to a new glazing bar that would create a minimalist profile, and custom glazing connections that could be used at every glazing angle and would ensure there was no water ingress.

“From the outset, our primary design requirement was not only the seismic strengthening and making sure that if the glass broke, it stayed in the frame; it was also to try and make it a bit more resilient and to make sure the glass wouldn’t break in high winds or extreme weather events,” says Rob.

The team also had to prove the laminate would not affect the plants housed in the buildings adversely, says Tracey.

“The original horticultural glass was so thin that there was no heat protection or UV protection. We had to be sure the laminate glass would not affect the plant growth in the houses.”

Rob is proud of the glazing solution and the nod to the buildings’ original design, but his greatest triumph is that, despite the engineering involved to ensure it would stand up to anything the environment could throw at it, the glazing is not the feature.

“Anyone going into those buildings is not going to know the intricacies of the engineering that went into creating and recreating the space. The Wintergardens are left to do all the talking.”

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 37

TE MĀTAI WHAIPARA TANGATA • ARCHAEOLOGY

A SHIP’S SHAPE Thanks to an award-winning project, new insights into a shipwreck that lies just metres off a Coromandel beach have been revealed

WORDS: KIM TRIEGAARDT / IMAGERY: HMS BUFFALO RE-EXAMINATION PROJECT

W

hen Dr Kurt Bennett and Matt Gainsford noticed solid teak beams lying in Whitianga’s Mercury Bay Museum, the maritime archaeologists’ interest was piqued. The framing timbers, they knew, had to be part of a bigger story.

Museum Manager Rebecca Cox was happy to fill in the details. The beams had washed up from the watery grave of the HMS Buffalo – a shipwreck sited just 50 metres off the shore that’s so synonymous with Whitianga it has a burger, a school house and even a beach named after it.

However, all anyone knew about the site came from a 1986 survey by Australian divers who had excavated 146 years’ worth of silt to find a few timbers.

What, Kurt and Matt wondered, did the wreck look like now?

There was only one way to find out. So with masks and fins in place, Kurt and Matt swam out into the bay from Buffalo Beach to have a look. Hovering just three metres above where the old survey had placed the wreck, they were stunned at what they saw.

“The wreck was totally scoured out and all the silt and sand were gone. It was completely exposed,” says Kurt.

Mother Nature had provided an opportunity that Kurt, Matt and Rebecca were not going to let slip by. And so the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project was born.

“There are not many pre-1900 wrecks that lie so close to the shore in less than three metres of water,” says Kurt.

38 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

“But unlike the previous survey, we really wanted this project to be about sharing what we could.”

It was a commitment shared by Rebecca, who wanted as much knowledge about the ship as possible to extend into the community.

Built in Kolkata, India, in 1812-13 and originally named the Hindostan, the ship was purchased by the British Admiralty, renamed the HMS Buffalo and sent to serve as a store ship in the Napoleonic Wars. It was then repurposed as a quarantine ship before being upgraded to carry passengers – a mix of convicts and immigrants – to the new colonies in Australia.

On its return trips to Britain, the ship always stopped in New Zealand to load up with valuable kauri spars.

It was during one of these replenishing stops that disaster struck. Log books from the day record an approaching storm off the Coromandel coast, with Captain James Wood deciding to shelter in Mercury Bay at a well-known spot marked on the admiralty maps, Cook’s Anchorage.

As the storm howled past, the mooring ropes snapped and the Buffalo was flung around the bay, crashing onto rocks and losing its rudder. Knowing the Buffalo couldn’t be saved, the captain steered the ship onto the beach. It was 28 July 1840.

Ngāti Hei oral histories record that members of the tribe raced to help the sailors, even swimming out to the wreck with a rope to guide people to shore. While most of the crew were saved, two sailors drowned and were buried at a Ngāti Hei urupā.

“It’s just one of the ship’s many ties to the area,” says Rebecca.

“Some sailors stayed and married local Māori, including John Kennedy, after whom Kennedy Bay is named.”

Auckland’s Duder Regional Park bears the name of the Buffalo bosun Thomas Duder, who also chose to stay and work for the newly established colonial government.

As they set up the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project, Kurt, Matt and Rebecca knew they wanted this survey to focus on the community.

“The value of the survey is that it’s given us a much more comprehensive idea of how the ship was actually put together”

The HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project has created a site plan that covers the full length of the ship’s keel.

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 39

1

2

3

1. Teak beams from the HMS Buffalo lie in saltwater basins before being assessed.

2. A memorial to the HMS Buffalo.

3. Matt Gainsford surveys the wreck of the HMS Buffalo.

4. Students from Whenuakite School in Whitianga lie on skateboards to replicate a real underwater survey.

5. The wooden crosses made from HMS Buffalo timbers.

40 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

“It was more about getting locals involved and trained than it was an academic or professional survey,” says Kurt.

They tapped into New Zealand’s diving community for help and 12 divers answered the call, turning up to survey the ship over one weekend in March 2021.

“The wreck is 30 metres long and about eight metres wide.

We ran a baseline down the keel and gave each pair of divers a quadrant to survey. It worked well even though none of them had done an archaeological survey before,” says Kurt.

The survey also got a boost when Australian maritime archaeologist and conservator Dr Andy Viduka suggested the team run it through a citizen-science initiative. Called Gathering Information via Recreational and Technical (GIRT) Scientific Divers, the initiative shows divers how to systematically survey a wreck, observing the site’s condition and the flow of sediment on and around it.

By the end of the weekend, the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project was able to provide, for the first time, a site plan that covered the full length of the keel. Using photogrammetry, they also produced a 3D version of the wreck that can be viewed online.

“We also took samples of the frames and planks to determine if the ship was built totally out of teak, or if some timbers had been changed out at the different times it was repurposed,” says Kurt. The samples confirmed the ship was built using timber of Indian origin with the addition of some from European species.

“The value of the survey is that it’s given us a much more comprehensive idea of how the ship was actually put together.”

The survey took place during the Covid-19 pandemic – a tough time for the Coromandel community, but their support was enthusiastic.

“A café did morning teas for the divers, the supermarket supplied water and snacks. Everyone got behind us. This is their shipwreck, in their backyard, so to be able to increase their understanding of it was very rewarding,” says Kurt.

Matt says another satisfying aspect of the project was the involvement of local schools. Rebecca put together an educational field trip to the beach, and an interactive session with artefacts from the museum, while Matt and Kurt set up a ‘shipwreck’ in the school hall for students to ‘dive’ on.

“Soda drink bottles were painted yellow to resemble scuba tanks, and the ‘wreck’ was marked off in grids. Students lay on skateboards wearing masks and fins and rolling around the floor to get the sensation of gliding over the wreck,” says Matt.

Rebecca adds that the experience resonated with the students so much they now take their parents to the beach to point out the site.

“We had 180 local kids experience the Buffalo and get excited about it. You put the knowledge in their heads and they will go home and spread it out into the community,” she says.

The survey has also assisted with the building of a database that will help researchers understand coastal erosion and the currents within the bay. Mercury Bay gets pummelled with big easterly swells, and at least five large pieces of teak framing have been found recently in different locations around the bay.

Rebecca says the pieces, some as long as three metres, have been collected and are being kept wet under tarpaulins at the museum.

“Interestingly, none of the pieces show fresh break marks, which means they haven’t broken off the wreck,” she says.

“It’s more likely they’ve been brought up from the sand beside the wreck.”

One of the roles of the archaeologists is to advise which of the recovered elements are significant enough to build a more comprehensive knowledge of the ship.

To the delight of Rebecca, Kurt and Matt, the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project won both the New Zealand Archaeological Association’s Public Archaeology Award in 2022 and the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology Martin Davies 2023 Award for best public archaeology initiative.

What’s exciting for both Kurt and Matt, however, is that the story of the HMS Buffalo hasn’t ended yet.

The pair approached the Royal New Zealand Navy to ask for help in retracing the wrecking event during which, logbooks suggest, the HMS Buffalo lost its last anchor and a cannon. The Navy obliged, excited to use the opportunity as a training exercise.

“HMNZS Matataua, the hydrographic [and diving specialist] unit, used its marine geophysical survey equipment, including side-scan sonar technology and a new magnetometer, to inspect the bay,” says Matt. “We were able to identify about 100 points of interest for future diving inspections.”

Now the targets have been identified, Kurt and Matt will gather the divers together again for another round of surveys.

However, it might not be soon; the challenge, as always, is time and funding.

“We are all doing this as volunteers, so things take a bit longer,” says Kurt. “Or someone might like to adopt the wreck GIRT-style, and with their regular updates we’ll be able to monitor any long-term changes in this archaeological site.”

That support will ensure that HMS Buffalo continues to be an important part of the Mercury Bay community long into the future – just as it has been for the past 184 years.

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GOING HOME One person who recorded his time on the HMS Buffalo was 19th-century French-Canadian dissident Francois Xavier Prieur, who was exiled to Australia for participating in an armed rebellion against British rule in Quebec in 1838.

His book, Notes of a Convict of 1839, described his harrowing journey on the ship as a political prisoner landing in Australia just five months before the ship sank at Whitianga.

In the Winter 2023 issue of Heritage New Zealand magazine (page 6), we reported on a project, sparked by Bill Edwards, Area Manager Northland for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, to honour Francois, which involved crafting three small crosses from washed-up timbers from the Buffalo, which had previously been professionally examined and archaeologically recorded.

To view a 3D version of the wreck, visit bit.ly/3rGXs0A

Bill says reading a translation of Francois’s book and then watching a documentary on it, called Land of Thousand Sorrows Revisited, by filmmaker Deke Richards, inspired him to find a way to honour Francois’s deep desire to memorialise the tragedy that befell him.

“It was almost as if this person from nearly 200 years ago was pleading for someone to make a small cross from the timbers of the ship that caused him so much misery, and take it back to his home in Canada,” he says.

Francois’s wish was finally fulfilled earlier this year. Almost 185 years after his conviction and deportation, two of the crosses fashioned from the wood of the ship that tormented his soul were presented to his descendants at a special ceremony in Quebec, in his home parish.

Deke reports that the story of the crosses received extensive media coverage in Canada.

With the permission of Francois’s descendants and the church, he has since undertaken a small tour showcasing the two crosses to prominent diplomats, politicians and historians – beginning with a visit to the New Zealand High Commission

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in Ottawa. n

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 41

KŌPIKOTANGA • DOMESTIC TRAVEL Waitaki Whitestone Geopark Trust’s Helen Jansen and Mike Gray wander among the magnificent Elephant Rocks.

42 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

ROCK STARS WORDS: ANNA DUNLOP / IMAGERY: MIKE HEYDON

The Waitaki District’s spectacular geological heritage has been recognised globally following decades of combined community effort

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 43

KŌPIKOTANGA • DOMESTIC TRAVEL

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urrounded by rushing waves and half buried in the sand of Koekohe Beach on the South Island’s east coast lie Te Kaihinaki Moeraki Boulders. These mysterious spherical ‘stones’ may look like an alien landscape, but they are in fact concretions – masses of mineral and sediment that formed around a nucleus (such as a shell or pebble) within seafloor deposits. Coastal erosion over millennia has gradually exposed the boulders, and there are likely to be more, deep in the cliffs, waiting to be discovered.

The Moeraki Boulders are just a taste of the geological wonderland that is the Waitaki District, which covers more than 7200 square kilometres from the east coast to the base of the Southern Alps. Karst formations, volcanic sequences and glacial valleys are evidence of the tectonic forces that moulded the area as Zealandia broke away from the supercontinent of Gondwana and became submerged in the ocean for millions of years.

Marine life thrived, then died and sank to the seafloor, eventually forming the limestone and ancient marine fossils for which Waitaki is famous.

The uniqueness of the area’s geology was officially recognised in May, when it became Australasia’s first UNESCO Global Geopark.

UNESCO defines global geoparks as “single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and

44 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

sustainable development”. Their purpose is to use this geological heritage ‘in connection with all other aspects of the area’s natural and cultural heritage to enhance awareness and understanding of key issues facing society, such as using earth’s resources sustainably, mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing natural hazard-related risks’. There are 195 global geoparks in 48 countries, but the Waitaki Whitestone UNESCO Global Geopark is one of just 19 in the Southern Hemisphere.

Helen Jansen, Chair of the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark Trust (WWGT), says the district’s designation as a global geopark is the culmination of a decades-long journey that started in the 1990s with paleontologist Professor Ewan Fordyce and the community of Duntroon. The professor, then working at the University of Otago’s Geology Department, had discovered marine fossils on various farmers’ and landowners’ properties in the Duntroon area, and invited these enthusiastic individuals to form a local network.

“They all came together and wanted to tell the story of the hidden treasure under their land,” says Helen.

Ewan’s discoveries coincided with the threat of closure of Duntroon’s school, and this creep of rural decline was the catalyst for the community to act to save its town.

“The locals looked at what the town’s assets were,” says Mike Gray, an advisory trustee of WWGT and a former member of the Duntroon community.

“The area’s geology was the obvious answer.”

1. Limestone rock formations seen from Danseys Pass at Tokarahi.

2. These honeycomb-like lattice formations at Anatini are the result of wind weathering the rock.

3. The Valley of the Whales is named after the marine fossils discovered there.

Following the formation of the Vanished World Society in the early 2000s, the Vanished World Centre and Trail were established, showcasing whale, dolphin and penguin fossils and featuring 15 locations of geological interest, from Moeraki to Oamaru and inland to the Waitaki Valley. (Over the years, the community has also worked hard to restore the Duntroon Wetlands, as well as the jail and Nicol’s Blacksmith Shop, a Category 1 historic place). Mike is one of 15 founding members of Vanished World and still runs guided tours of the district.

Back then, the geopark movement was still in its infancy, but Helen believes that even in those early days, Professor Ewan Fordyce knew the district’s potential.

“He saw it could be a geopark because it tells the story of the evolution of the seafloor’s sedimentary layer,” she says.

“They all came together and wanted to tell the story of the hidden treasure under their land”

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Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 45

KŌPIKOTANGA • DOMESTIC TRAVEL

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“Global geoparks attract visitors who want to experience the natural environment through an educational and sustainability lens”

1. Elephant Rocks are the weathered remains of an ancient seabed.

2. Māori believe Te Kaihinaki Moeraki Boulders were formed from the wreck of the Ārai-te-uru waka.

“There was everything from enormous whales to turtles and ammonites – it was a place that was teeming with life for tens of millions of years.”

WWGT was established in 2018, with representation from the Waitaki District Council, the Vanished World Society and Te Rūnanga o Moeraki, and in 2019 the trust submitted its application to become a geopark to the New Zealand Commission of UNESCO. Then came Covid-19, causing a significant delay that allowed WWGT to re-evaluate its strategic direction.

46 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

“Originally we were very focused on the economic and tourism benefits, but the delay caused by the pandemic enabled us to refocus our strategy on the community,” says Helen.

“Now we’re concentrating on connecting with what’s going on in the local district and supporting community-led activities.”

The trust also formed a closer partnership with Te Rūnanga o Moeraki to better reflect te ao Māori in the co-design of the geopark.

Finally, in July 2022 WWGT welcomed two UNESCO evaluators to the Waitaki District, and on 23 May the Waitaki Whitestone UNESCO Global Geopark became official. Christine Whybrew, Director Southern Region at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, says it was a significant milestone.

“The emotion expressed by many at the launch demonstrated the community’s long commitment to this project and the collective efforts to recognise Waitaki’s geological and cultural heritage.”

Liz Longworth, Chair of the New Zealand Commission for UNESCO, adds that the geopark demonstrates what is possible when passionate people come together in a community – including “iwi who are willing to share their knowledge and traditions; scientists who persevere; a district council that actively backs a vision; and disparate supporters and funders who are prepared to step up and make it happen”.

The geopark now encompasses more than 40 ‘geosites’ – locations of geological or geomorphological interest, which may also have cultural or heritage significance – as well as the district’s largest town, Oamaru.

Some of the sites are closed to the public; others, such as Elephant Rocks and Anatini, are on private land, accessible only by the grace of the landowners.

Several geosites – including Maerewhenua and Takiroa (both Category 2 historic places) – feature Māori rock art, and these, along with other culturally important sites such as Te Kaihinaki Moeraki Boulders and Matakaea Shag Point (another Category 2 historic place), are highly significant to Ngāi Tahu.

Protection and kaitiakitanga are at the heart of the geopark philosophy and, according to Park Manager Lisa Heinz, the cultural and geological stories will be told side by side.

“It’s a huge area, with around 50 community groups and individuals involved throughout the park,” says Lisa.

“There are different geographies and different elements that communities care about – some are interested in the tourism aspect; others are more concerned with the education opportunities. It’s important that we engage with all of them.”

Global geoparks are both an important vector for community engagement and a driving force in promoting regional economic development.

“The geopark will boost tourism and provide opportunities for local businesses and communities to develop sustainable tourism initiatives,” says Liz. “Global geoparks attract visitors who want

to experience the natural environment through an educational and sustainability lens.”

For Lisa, it’s a case of quality over quantity.

“Geoparks are quite niche; we aren’t expecting a lot more people to come to the area because of it, but we think the people who do come will stay longer. We are targeting people who are interested in learning about the district’s stories and engaging with the communities.”

To this end, the project that started it all – the Vanished World Centre – is getting a well-deserved upgrade, with redeveloped exhibits that will better tell the ‘story’ of the area, and a rock garden with a variety of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks that can be used for educational purposes for visiting school groups.

Mike says that in forming Vanished World over two decades ago, the community naturally aligned itself with the global geopark network’s ‘bottom-up’ approach to empowering local stakeholders.

“It just epitomises their philosophy,” he says. “It is incredible that the initial community effort evolved into the Waitaki Whitestone UNESCO Global Geopark as it exists today.”

His hope is that the creation of the geopark will encourage locals to learn about the Waitaki Geopark’s rich geological and cultural history.

“When people wonder about and understand the land and its people, they get pride; when they get pride, they get ownership, and it’s when they have ownership that they are likely to want to protect that land – and share its stories with others.”

FIVE MUST-SEE GEOSITES VALLEY OF THE WHALES: Named after the whale and dolphin fossils found here, the exposed cliffs in this valley showcase a thick sequence of sediments.

TE KAIHINAKI MOERAKI BOULDERS: Walk among these geological marvels and discover the Ngāi Tahu story of the wreck of the Ārai-te-uru waka, which Māori believe led to the formation of the boulders.

ANATINI: Discover the fossilised bones of an ancient baleen whale, which are partially exposed in a limestone outcrop.

ELEPHANT ROCKS: The remains of an ancient seabed have been weathered to form towering limestone ‘elephants’.

TAKIROA ROCK ART: Explore Māori rock art depictions of birds, animals and European settlers, dating from between 1400 and 1900. n

View our video story here: youtube.com/ HeritageNewZealandPouhereTaonga 2

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 47

HAERENGA I TE AO • INTERNATIONAL

Pilgrims’ progress WORDS: LYDIA MONIN

Pilgrimage has been an aspect of people’s spiritual lives for millenia. But today, walking pilgrimage trails, such as the Camino de Santiago in Spain, also attracts a more secular crowd

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ittle could King Alfonso II of Asturias have imagined back in the 9th century that his long, arduous trek would, more than a millennium later, inspire a global movement. The king was told of the discovery of an apostle’s tomb; off he went to what we know today as Santiago de Compostela, and now hundreds of thousands of pilgrims follow in his contemplative footsteps.

Pilgrimage is a medieval concept enjoying a 21st-century resurgence. Walking the Camino de Santiago is back in fashion and a steady stream of pilgrims grace the roadsides of northern Spain,

48 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

reminiscent of the Camino’s mediaeval heyday.

They walk alone, in pairs or in small groups, and they’re instantly recognisable with their hiking boots, walking poles and massive backpacks.

A network of pilgrimage routes converging on Santiago has evolved. As well as the Camino Primitivo (the Original Way), these include the Camino del Norte (the Northern Way) and two routes through Portugal. But the most popular journey is the Camino Francés (the French Way), first used in the 10th century because the terrain wasn’t as challenging.

In 1993 UNESCO added the Camino Francés to its

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1. Medieval pilgrimage is undergoing a resurgence.

Image: Shutterstock 2. Iconic yellow arrows show pilgrims the way.

Image: AdobeStock 3. Pilgrims cross Lugo’s Roman bridge bound for Santiago de Compostela.

4. The Fountain of Eternal Youth, Santa Irene.

5. Lugo is surrounded by two kilometres of Roman walls.

Imagery: Lydia Monin

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World Heritage List. Early pilgrims needed churches, hospitals, monasteries, hostels and bridges, and the result is a vast collection of built heritage from the Romanesque to the Baroque architectural eras scattered throughout the Camino’s towns and villages.

An industry has grown up around the Camino and the line between tourist and pilgrim is blurred.

There are places to stay, eat and buy walking gear.

Tour companies offer to organise the entire journey.

Souvenir stalls and shops follow the pilgrims through each town to the steps of Santiago Cathedral and all the way to the city’s airport departure lounge.

John Hornblow, a retired All Saints Parish priest from Palmerston North, and his wife Jenny Boyack walked 150 kilometres of the Camino Francés six years ago. Jenny recalls the feeling of walking through remote villages and leaving technology behind.

“You’re thinking about the practical needs of your life: something to eat, something to drink, a place

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to lay your head, whether your feet are hurting, the joy of a hot shower when you arrive – wherever you arrive – and a cold drink. I think it’s a reminder of some of those essential elements that can get so overlooked, particularly in city life and the hustle and bustle of people’s careers.”

Since 2008 John and Jenny have led pilgrimages both overseas and in New Zealand, beginning with a visit to Te Rangimarie Marae at Rangiotū during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Anglican Diocese of Wellington. They’ve written about the way in which pilgrimage can unify Māori and Pākehā by generating dialogue and a deeper understanding of past injustices, and they’ve compiled a pilgrimage guidebook.

The pair have visited around 100 New Zealand places they see as pilgrimage sites, including the Category 1 historic place Kotahitanga Church at Moeraki. Built in 1862, it’s the oldest surviving Māori mission church in the South Island.

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Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 49

HAERENGA I TE AO • INTERNATIONAL 1

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“Pilgrimage is more than just a tourist trip. It’s where you can … experience something at whatever level of a transformation within yourself that you can take back with you” One of its stained-glass windows commemorates Ngāi Tahu leader and land protestor Matiaha Tiramōrehu, who made the first formal statement of Ngāi Tahu grievances against the Crown in 1849.

They were particularly moved by the story of St Michael’s Church, built as a symbol of peace on the site of the Battle of Ōhaeawai, fought during the Northern War in 1845. British forces were heavily defeated by local Māori and their dead were buried initially in a nearby forest. However, Ngāpuhi Chief Heta Te Haara gained permission to exhume the remains of the British soldiers and rebury them in the churchyard alongside their former enemies.

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50 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

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“There were a lot of people who were really keen to explore the foundations of our country and our faith in some of the actual places and sites where they happened,” says John, “to get a broader view of what Christianity means, rather than just sitting in the pews being preached at.”

Committed believers and those exploring their faith or spirituality have all walked with John and Jenny.

The revival of the medieval pilgrimage began in the 1980s, helped by two men: John Paul II, who became the first pilgrim pope to undertake the journey, and parish priest Don Elías Valiña Sampedro, who rescued the overgrown, hidden paths of the Camino Francés. He promoted the history of the pilgrimage and painted the now iconic yellow arrows along the route, showing pilgrims where to go. Now, all over northern Spain, there are towns and villages where pilgrims gather.

High on a hill overlooking Sarria stands the Monastery of the Magdalena, where pilgrims can sleep before the next day’s trek to Portomarín. Here, historic buildings were moved, stone by stone, to higher ground in the 1960s before the old town

1. The 10thcentury Church of San Pedro in Portomarín.

2. Pilgrims passed through the Porta Mina gate on their way out of Lugo.

3. Unusually, the Church of San Nicolás in Portomarín is both a church and a fortress.

Imagery: Lydia Monin 4. Steps lead pilgrims to their final destination, the Cathedral of Santiago.

5. The golden altar inside the Cathedral of Santiago.

6. The Cathedral of Santiago’s three spires are a welcome sight for weary pilgrims.

Imagery: Shutterstock

was flooded to create a hydroelectric dam. The Romanesque Chapel of San Pedro and the Church of San Xoán, crowned with battlements because it doubled as a castle, are among the painstakingly reassembled buildings.

In the village of Santa Irene stands the Fountain of Eternal Youth where, legend has it, the water would cure the ills of passing pilgrims before they embarked on the final couple of days on the road.

Today, more than half of those who complete the Camino aren’t religious; they’re looking for a physical challenge, an adventure, to work through personal issues or to immerse themselves in nature, history, art and architecture. To qualify for the Compostela, or pilgrim’s certificate, they need to have undertaken the journey “for religious or spiritual reasons, or at least an attitude of search”. (In addition to the Compostela, the Pilgrim’s Reception Office now offers pilgrims the Certificate of Distance, which certifies the number of kilometres they have travelled, whatever the starting point of their pilgrimage.)

Pilgrimages can take many forms. Since the 1950s, for example, generations of young New Zealanders have been embarking on a different type of secular pilgrimage in the Northern Hemisphere. In 2002 University of Auckland lecturer Dr Claudia Bell described the Kiwi OE, or Overseas Experience, as a “secular pilgrimage to ‘see the world’”. It’s a rite of passage, usually centred on Britain, with rituals of departure, arrival and return. Thatched cottages from storybooks and London’s famous streets from the Monopoly board become real.

“Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Great-Grandad’s house were all sacred architecture: all equally sites of worship to the Antipodean visitor,” writes Claudia. Visiting historic sites, bringing home tales of adventure and finding oneself are all part of the OE pilgrimage.

Walking the last 100 kilometres of any route is the minimum distance required to get an official Compostela, which makes Lugo a great starting point. The town is a World Heritage site described

by UNESCO as “the most complete and best preserved example of Roman military architecture in the Western Roman Empire”. The historic centre of Lugo is encircled by more than two kilometres of Roman walls containing 85 towers and 10 gates.

The oldest and best preserved gate is the Porta Miñá, through which pilgrims left the city for Santiago de Compostela, crossing the Roman bridge that still stands over the River Minho. Near the entrance to the ancient bridge is a very shiny, 21st-century sculpture of a Roman soldier. Next to him is the Camino sign with the bright yellow arrow, and across the road is a pizza restaurant.

“Pilgrimage is more than just a tourist trip,” says John. “It’s where you can take time to be reflective, to engage with the site and with the people at the site and where you can experience something at whatever level of a transformation within yourself that you can take back with you.”

The destination isn’t clear, he says. “You might know that you’re going to end up in Santiago de Compostela – but that’s a geographic reality. Where will you end up in terms of your inner self?”

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Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 51

NGĀ PUKAPUKA • BOOKS

to travelling abroad for research and training in photography, to snapping shots with a Kodak No. 1 in their own homes.

Lissa’s research is both broad and extraordinarily detailed, and includes stories of Māori, Pākehā, refugee and immigrant women. There are hundreds of them.

There is plentiful detail about the production

WORDS: ANNA KNOX

Ngātokimatawhaorua: The Biography of a Waka

Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960

process and photographic equipment, which will fascinate readers with an interest in photographic heritage, while many of the photos provide glimpses into the homes, studios and landscapes of a world gone by.

Lissa Mitchell RRP $75 HB (Te Papa Press)

Jeff Evans

The story of women’s lives in

RRP $50 HB

the 19th and 20th centuries is

(Massey University Press)

commonly one of repression, struggle and second-class

Ngātokimatawhaorua, the waka championed by Te Kirihaehae

citizenship. All true, but in

Te Puea Hērangi (Princess Te Puea) for the 1940 Te Tiriti o Waitangi

telling it we sometimes silence

centennial celebrations, is currently housed at the Waitangi

the rich and varied stories of

Treaty Grounds. At 37.5 metres long, the waka taua is the largest

individuals who worked and

in existence and of great value and significance, especially for

thrived in those eras. Lissa

northern iwi and to the Polynesian waka revival movement. As

Mitchell’s Through Shaded

Pita Tipene explains in his foreword, the waka shares its name with

Glass is a feat of resuscitation

the ancestral Ngātokimatawhaorua in which Kupe returned to

in this sense and does the

Hawaiki, so is also a tupuna, and its story therefore a biography.

important and fascinating

The book moves chronologically, beginning in 1937, as master

work of telling some of those

waka builder Rānui Maupakanga searches Puketi Forest for

stories, challenging the idea

two kauri trees large enough to fit the vision of Te Puea (Jeff

that women, for centuries, did

finds what could possibly be one of the stumps). The first half

little but survive.

is engrossing, detailing the felling of the trees, the shaping,

The hard-backed, linen-

transportation and carving of the enormous vessel, the training

bound, glossy-paged

of kaihoe and, finally, the centennial celebrations.

compendium about – as the

We follow Jeff into the forest, zoom up close to the men

subtitle says – women and

Katherine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station

working under the karakia of the tohunga as they learn and teach

photography in Aotearoa

Redmer Yska

the ancient skills of waka building, and watch with 10,000 awed

New Zealand between 1860

RRP $50

spectators as Ngātokimatawhaorua makes its way into Hobson

and 1960 also showcases

(Otago University Press)

Beach. This textured and vibrant history is supported by the film

hundreds of their photographs

and photography work of Jim Manley, whom Te Puea sanctioned

in generous reproductions.

Over time, Katherine Mansfield

to document the project, despite the tapu nature of the work.

While loosely chronological,

has become a poignant figure

the approach is deeply

infused with a holy glow in the

Ngātokimatawhaorua after the centennial, moves faster, and at

biographical, focused on

popular imagination, inspiring

times the biography of the waka is subsumed by the larger waves

individual women and their

much gravitas along with a

of its contexts. But as Pita Tipene observes, “for such an important

contributions in the field –

fair amount of bad writing.

taonga … it is a mystery why there is so little written information

from hand-colouring portraits

Redmer Yska sets all that to

about this storied waka”. Jeff Evans has given us some.

to running studio businesses,

rights in his energetic and

The second half of the book, charting the fate of

52 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

Other titles of interest

$59.99 HB (Canterbury University Press)

Allan K Davidson

continental pensions, hotels,

Bateman Illustrated History of New Zealand (Third edition)

In This Place, From This Place: St Luke’s Presbyterian Church Remuera–Newmarket 1875–2022

The story of Thomas

$50 (The Community of

spas and villas where

Matthew Wright

Edmonds – an innovative

St Luke’s)

Katherine lived, worked,

$59.99 (Bateman)

and progressive individual

This well-illustrated and

travelled, convalesced and

History of New Zealand from

who came to New Zealand

comprehensive book

died. His descriptions of these

the arrival of Polynesians

with his wife in 1879 and,

explores the rich and varied

places have a luxurious vitality

to a fully rewritten section

from a small grocery store

history of St Luke’s since

and, accompanied by excellent

covering the years from the

and a box of baking powder,

its beginnings in 1875 and

photographs, come vividly

late 1970s, including the neo-

grew what is now our most

provides a wide-ranging

to life, as does an eerie link

liberal ‘revolution’, the 2010s

iconic baking brand.

account of people of faith.

between past and present. At

earthquakes and the Covid-19

times, the non-chronological

pandemic. Features over 600

approach confuses, but

paintings, maps, sketches

the joyful moments where

and photographs.

The Forgotten Prophet: Tāmati Te Ito and his Kaingārara Movement

chatty account of Katherine’s years in Europe, returning to us a gun-slinging, chain-smoking,

Redmer visits the

Peter Alsop, Kate Parsonson, Richard Wolfe

erratic and sometimes (frankly) bratty Mansfield.

Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story

Jeffrey Sissons

A Spirit Companion: Celebrating the First 50 years of the Spirit of Adventure Trust

Living Between Land and Sea: The Bays of Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour

$49.99 (BWB)

Roger McDonald

The story of Tāmati Te Ito

$60 HB (Oratia)

Ngāmoke, a renowned

Stories from over 70 people

Taranaki prophet who led

who have made ‘the Spirit’

biography and travelogue

Jane Robertson

the Kaingārara movement in

part of their lives – from

is the story of the legend

$75 (Massey University

1865 and initiated ‘Taranaki

those who have worked

of Katherine Mansfield, and

Press)

iconoclasm’, where followers

for the Spirit of Adventure

how it grew, especially in

Illustrated history of the

built huge bonfires into which

Trust to the young people

France, and of the plaques,

people who settled in the

treasures, carvings and other

whom it has introduced to

events, places and ceremonies

many bays of Whakaraupō

tapu objects that had been

sailing and self-recognition.

scattered throughout Europe

Lyttelton Harbour. Includes

associated with atua were

Clothbound hardback with

that commemorate her – and

maritime history and

thrown. Te Ito eventually

illustrations by Sue Fisher.

some that have disappeared.

dramatic rescues, farming

joined Parihaka in 1872 as

and trade, wartime

a respected leader.

Redmer’s and Katherine’s timelines merge seamlessly – such as on a train journey into the Swiss Alps – are worth it.

Woven through the

A pedestrian route once signposted ‘Allée Katherine

experiences and quarantine

Mansfield’ leads to the site of

stations, tourism and

the chalet where Katherine

recreation.

lived in 1921. Now there’s a

The Dressmaker and the Hidden Soldier

Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History Ryan Bodman

Doug Gold

$59.99 (BWB)

luxury golf hotel with “a golf

Vikings of the Sunrise

$37.99 (Allen and Unwin)

A history of the game told

ball the size of a Mini plonked

Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter

The true story of New Zealand

through its communities,

by their well-clipped entrance”.

Buck)

soldier Peter Blunden, who

Ryan’s account draws on

“Katherine would have been

$49.99 (Oratia)

was captured in Crete in

oral history interviews,

unimpressed,” writes Redmer.

Long-awaited reissue of

World War II and jumped

rugby league memorabilia

“She detested golf.”

one of the greatest books

from a train to escape from

and captivating illustrations

written about the peopling

his Nazi captors. Hiding in the

to tell the fascinating stories

of the Pacific. Told through

house of a Greek dressmaker

and highlight the cultural

oral history, scholarship and

who is secretly a resistance

significance of the sport in

personal reflections.

fighter, he falls in love.

New Zealand. n

atua: ancestral spirit/s kaihoe: paddlers, rowers karakia: prayer, incantation tapu: sacred / spiritual restrictions tohunga: priests, experts tupuna/tūpuna: ancestor/ancestors waka taua: war canoe

BOOK GIVEAWAY We have one copy of Lissa Mitchell’s Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960 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 30 December 2023. The winners of last issue’s book giveaway (Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy: 40th Anniversary Edition) were Claire and Craig Radford, Dunedin.

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 53

HE WĀHI TUKU IHO HIRA KI AHAU • MY HERITAGE PLACE

My heritage place After performing on its stage more than 500 times, Jennifer Ward-Lealand called Auckland’s Mercury Theatre, a Category 2 historic place, a home away from home

AS TOLD TO AROHA AWARAU

54 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz

I

was 19 when I first walked into the beautiful Mercury

and learn to hit the back of the circle without microphones. It

Theatre on Mercury Lane in Auckland. I had moved

was great training. The theatre had wonderful acoustics and

to Auckland from Wellington and was attending the

was beautiful to look at. For such a big theatre it still felt cosy

Theatre Corporate drama school, which sat behind the

to perform in and I never felt overwhelmed in the space. It was

Mercury Theatre. At the time I was desperate to be an actor and loved theatre in particular, and I hoped that one day I’d get to tread the boards in this place.

The theatre was built in 1910 by John Fuller and Sons,

a real home away from home.

The theatre had a number of quirks. It was an old building, and it needed a lot of love. There were a couple of beautiful rooms: the magnificent Dome Room, where patrons would

initially to screen popular silent films of the day, and was

be wined and dined, and the Garrick Bar upstairs. Such

first called Kings Theatre. It was designed at a time of great

wonderful memories.

change in theatre design and demonstrates the transition between Edwardian theatres and the first cinemas.

I finally made my debut at the Mercury playing Agnes in the

Due to mounting debt, the Mercury was forced to close in 1992 and was eventually sold to the Apostolic Church. It was a very sad day. I wasn’t working there at the time, but I know

play Agnes of God in 1985. From then until 1991 I gave more

people who were scheduled to perform that night and arrived

than 500 performances, so I know that theatre backwards.

to find locks on the doors. We were all devastated. Whenever

I learned how to project on the big stage at the Mercury.

Actors don’t often get opportunities to build vocal strength

IMAGERY: IVAN KARCZEWSKI, SUPPLIED

a theatre dies in the city it breaks your heart. The Mercury Theatre has been a big part of many of our lives.

Heritage.org.nz / Raumati • Summer 2023 55

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Taranaki-based Heritage Preservation and Field Support Solutions have been caring for our heritage since 2016. As well as conserving historical and artistic objects of all types, we are excited to now be able to offer climate-controlled storage for artworks, archives, taonga and other heritage items that are sensitive to environmental changes.

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