The Kerikeri Mission House

Welcome to New Zealand's oldest surviving heritage building. The Kerikeri mission house was finished in 1822 as part of the mission station by the Church Missionary Society.

Samuel Marsden established the Anglican mission to NZ with lay preachers who lived in the Bay of Islands under the protection of Hongi Hika, the chief of the local Ngapuhi tribe. In 1819 Marsden purchased the land from the tribe and using Maori plus European labour instructed Reverend John Butler to erect the buildings under shelter of the Ngapuhi tribe or the local Kororipo Pa. They were interrupted by the Ngapuhi campaign under the Musket Wars.

The house is made mostly of Kauri. John Butler was sacked in 1823, then George Clarke occupied the house until the early 1830s when the Ngapuhi had abandoned the Kororipo Pa but the mission station by that time didn't need any protection. The house was then lived in by James and Charlotte Kemp in 1832 and later purchased by the Kemps and stayed in their family for 142 years until it was donated to the NZ Historic Places Trust.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Auckland Metropolis Museum

In amongt the modern new highrise buildings in Auckland City is this smaller vintage building that is currently for sale (I'd buy it if I had the money). My research found that: "It was designed by English-born architect Charles Towle and erected in the early 1930s as the Church of Christ, Scientist, the building's Graeco-Roman facade has towering columns that frame its impressive entranceway, with three ornate timber doors decorated with leadlight inserts providing access to the expansive foyer. Arched ceilings dominate the former congregational high stud space beyond the foyer and numerous picturesque windows provide a light, airy feel and an ambience many office buildings lack. The building housed congregational and Sunday school services for 70 years until it was sold and converted into office space in 2003. A significant refurbishment was also carried out with care taken to ensure that the building's distinctive character remained intact. Special architectural ...

Grace Brothers

We have 2 new chickens, both black ladies. If any of you are familiar with British comedy tv shows you will recognize the names we have given them. This one is named Miss Brahms. And this one is named Mrs Slocombe. At the moment we have them in a temporary shelter next to the Special Patrol Group that we've had for the last 9 months just so they can get to know each other before we intigrate the black ones in with the brown ones. These ones give us a white coloured egg whereas the brown shavers give us brown coloured eggs. Linking up with Tuesday Treasures , Happy Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesday .

Vondel

I nthe heart of Devonport in Auckland is this little block of businesses. In my younger days I worked in this suburb as a legal typist for lawyers and to see it now as it is, it's made many changes over the years. This building is surrounded by older style buildings in the main street with businesses such as shoe shops, clothing shops, professionals, cafes, bars, restaurants etc. It's a very upmarket suburb with quite expensive houses along the waterfront. Vondel in the above photo is a restaurant but upon looking up their website, there wasn't alot of information about who they are. Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup .

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