Donovan’s World

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.

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

According to the histories, Arrowtown came into being in 1862, which is also the date of claimed establishment of the store. But Robert Pritchard was not the first storekeeper, and the shops were not set up in Buckingham Street until after the flood of 1863.

John Hamilton, who now runs the store, believes that Pritchard probably ‘established’ his first store in a tent on the river beach. I surmise that the store you see today was built a little later, when the future of the town had become more assured.

John’s father, Alexander, still takes great interest in the affairs of the store, and they both insist on operating it in the spirit of the traditional general store.

Within the two-foot-thick walls of this solid old building a lot of memorabilia have accumulated, including a magnificent set of brass scales that tourists regularly try to buy. Tourism is now the heart of Arrowtown’s economy and is the major reason why the store will never suffer the depredations of overt ‘modernisation’.

Alexander Hamilton worked in the store for Rattray & Son from 1952 and bought the business from them in 1965, but the Hamilton family is as old as Arrowtown. They intermarried with the Cotters, one of the first three families in the district, and John’s grandmother, Mrs Alex. Hamilton, a Cotter by birth, wrote an often quoted historical monograph titled ‘Notes on Early Arrowtown’.

‘We’ve still got that at home’ says John. ‘We call it “The Black Book”’.

© DON DONOVAN

Serendipitous coincidence is when you’re driving over the Crown Range of Central Otago on the road that connects Arrowtown to Wanaka and you come across a glorious vintage Rolls Royce standing outside the historic Cardrona Hotel, a nineteenth century relic of the Otago goldrushes.

That’s what happened to me. The Rolls was just about to set off and I only managed one quick shot before it ghosted towards Arrowtown; oh for a bit more time to have balanced the blackness of the car against the brilliance of the pub’s yellow fascia!

Just to the right of the picture was a group of German tourists one of whom was making particularly noisy, objectionable and quite unnecessary comparisons between Rolls Royce and Mercedes Benz. The rest of his party seemed embarrassed. I think he might have been drunk. The driver and his companion merely waved politely as they motored off.

© DON DONOVAN

DUDLEY’S COTTAGE, ARROWTOWN

Noelene Dudley-Garbutt lives in the little white cottage that stands near the remains of Arrowtown’s Chinese settlement; it has been in her family since the early 1900s. These are her words: