Clifford Bay, Marlborough

This is Clifford Bay where it has been proposed that a new Cook Strait ferry terminal might be built. It is exposed to the north-east and the full force of wind and tide across the South Pacific. It is said that by putting the terminal here, an hour could be saved from the connexion across the strait between the North and South Islands.

The ferry trip, which is a notable tourist experience, would become a boring slog - especially into southerly winds to which this part of New Zealand is often exposed.

For the sake of that hour one of the prettiest ferry journeys in the world would be foregone. Travelling south, from the moment the ship enters Tory Channel until it arrives at Picton passengers are treated to a series of enchanting bays and hills as the Interislander makes its quiet, serpentine way to the terminal. Picton town is equally attractive and its pleasures would be lost to tourism as well as its economic life to the citizens. All for the saving of an hour blindly dedicated to commercial interests.

Shifting the Cook Strait ferry terminal from Picton to Clifford Bay would be like straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa; it would turn a trip of a lifetime into meaninglessness.

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Open 7 Days 20. The Old Tua Marina Store

I wrote and illustrated ‘Open 7 Days’. It was published in 1991. It’s a series of freeze-frames of some historic New Zealand general and convenience stores as they were preserved in the last decade of the 20th century. Bit by bit, on this blog, I re-publish some of the entries from that book. 

THE OLD TUA MARINA STORE
Tuamarina, Marlborough.
Proprietors: John and Gabi Muir

Old New Zealand hotels have something in common with Texas courthouses - a tendency to be burned to the ground. That’s what happened to the first building on the site of the Old Tua Marina Store. The two-storey tavern went up in smoke in 1904, and the store dates from that time.

John and Gabi Muir met at a birthday party in Tuamarina in 1974, when John, an Australian, was staying briefly in the neighbourhood while on a hiking tour. Twelve years and three children later, they were visiting the old town from their home in Australia when they discovered that the store was up for sale, so they bought it there and then.

These days this obviously cherished old building trades as a gift and craft shop, serving teas and refreshments. It is also the post office, which means it continues to be a centre of community affairs. Between 1905 and 1983 it was a general store in the fullest sense, and the decision to turn it into the kind of business it is now was occasioned by extensive damage caused by major flooding of the local rivers, the Wairau and the Tuamarina.

The famous ‘Wairau Massacre’ happened here in 1843, when a posse of settlers led by Colonel Wakefield tried to arrest a Maori party, under the command of Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, in a land dispute. The Maori won. The incident is commemorated in the hilltop cemetery and across the road from the store in a rest area by the tranquil Tuamarina stream.

The Main Trunk railway connecting Picton with the south passes the store. ‘In these more peaceful times,’ Gabi writes, ‘the train engine drivers often stop at the crossing and dash over to buy one of John’s New Zealand-famous pies - the ones with the money-back guarantee!’

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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Country Churches of NZ 81. South Island New Zealand and St. John in The Wilderness, Koromiko, Marlborough

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

St John’s, Arrowtown door.

THE SOUTH ISLAND COLLECTION

I toured the South Island clockwise; down the east to Southland, a roam through Central Otago then up Westland and into the Nelson area. The first church I illustrated was at Koromiko, south of Picton, the last a not too distant neighbour at Havelock.

In trying to determine whether there might be essential differences between North and South Island country churches I concluded that they were influenced by their origins. There was far more of the 'missionary' up north, whereas in the founding provinces of the south, religion - Anglican and Presbyterian in particular - had been imported with the setttlers as part of their well-established social mosaic.

In view of the pre-European distribution of population, it is only to be expected that, with notable exceptions, Maori churches are far less evident than in Northland or the East Coast, for example.

I'm not sure to what extent those differences affect the external appearance of the churches although I'm sure that they do in subtle ways. But the characteristics of building materials certainly provide distinctions. There's far more stone in the South Island - scoria, limestone, schist - each has its own special colour and texture. And the architecture itself is different; there are fewer of those elegant belfries with their de Jersey Clere flèches. The works of architects such as Benjamin Mountfort seem more serious and authoritarian.

ST JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS, KOROMIKO

'Built 1871, first service 4 April. No graves in churchyard but large ankle-breaking Wellingtonia roots lie along surface because of stony substrate. A photograph in the church of it just built shows it surrounded by a hideous wilderness of shattered tree stumps. Inside, nave is bone-dry kahikatea (borer evident) with rimu trusses.' (SKETCHBOOK NOTE 30/10/01)

Koromiko is south of Picton where the land starts to open out into the old Waitohi Valley. St John in the Wilderness was designed by a Mr Alexander; the builder was Mr Pugh of Picton who had quoted £132.

Mill owner Captain Dalton, an early settler, gave most of the timber for the building. It is said that all of his employees gave a week's wages to the building fund - how willingly is a matter for speculation.

Here a swarm of bees interrupted the baptism of future Governor General the Right Reverend Sir Paul Reeves. Several generations later bees continue to be a problem. They seem to inhabit many of the churches I've visited - I wonder what attracts them?

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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