Today, I was on duty as a tour guide for one of the prettiest historic homes in New Zealand. It is a Category 1 Historic Place. www.theelms.org.nz
New Zealand was a colonial outpost of Britain in the early 19th Century. By the mid to late 19th Century, shiploads of European, mainly British people, started landing in New Zealand to start a new life. Amongst the earliest arrivals were the missionaries who thought they were given a divine right to ‘Christianise’, the local people and by hook or by crook, they tried to do just that.
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| the drawing room |
There are indicators in the historic texts, that many of the Fundamentalist early Christian missionaries were a pretty dour lot; moralistic and hating the ‘Papists’, combing through bags of second hand clothing to give to the natives and removing anything with a dash of colour in the garment. For all of that, the little Georgian house, ‘The Elms’, near the centre of Tauranga city, has a lovely elegant atmosphere. The missionary families devoted their lives to the community and if you believe places have good or bad vibes, this holds a good lot. It has a richness of spirit, commented on by many visitors. I particularly like the beautiful swan neck kauri wood staircase, the lovely dining room and drawing room.
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| swan neck staircase no photos please oops! |
A couple visited the grounds today, having come up from Christchurch as a respite from the recent earthquake aftershocks. They left smiling.
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