Protecting A Hidden Treasure
High on a lonely Banks Peninsula ridge is a small, unremarkable-looking building which houses something quite incredible. Within its red coloursteel walls is a grand 130-year-old carved and painted hallway rescued from the ravages of time and weather.
Rehutai (‘sea spray’ in te reo Māori) was a homestead built near Menzies Bay in 1894 by John Henry Menzies for his son William. Menzies was a polymath, a farmer who was also a master carver as well as a cabinet maker, writer and artist. Born in the UK in 1839 he emigrated to NZ in 1860. He initially settled in Southland before moving to the bay that now bears his name in 1878. Along the way he built a number of notable structures including the heritage listed Ringway homestead and stables in Otautau and the church of St Lukes at Little Akaloa.
Menzies had a great interest in traditional Māori carving techniques and motifs, as well as local Kai Tahu culture more generally, and he expressed this interest in carvings of furniture and interiors. While on the outside Rehutai was a fairly unremarkable colonial homestead, the interior was dominated by a magnificent central hallway built to resemble a whare whakairo (meeting house). The walls are panelled in machine-fluted kauri mimicking toetoe grass interspersed with carved uprights, painted panels line the ceiling, and at one end a carved statue stands in front of an altar. Outside the hallway the house also contained a number of fireplaces and other decorations in Māori and traditional Gaelic styles.
The homestead had been uninhabited and in a state of increasing disrepair since the 1990s and suffered additional damage in the 2011 earthquake. While it was listed as a Category One site by Heritage NZ in the early 2000s, no funding was made available to restore or preserve the house and the heritage listing made it impossible to relocate all or part of the dwelling from its remote location to a museum or marae setting.
By 2019 the house was in danger of collapsing and so the owners Gayle and Paddy Cotter decided to act to save the precious interior. Bushnell Builders were engaged to carefully deconstruct the building and instructed to save ‘every conceivable carved or painted piece you can lay your hands on’. The saved material was carefully documented and stored pending construction of a new home.
In 2023 a purpose-built museum building designed by architect Noel Strez was erected, oriented and sited to match the context of the original homestead. Kauri flooring from the homestead was installed and the original hall in all its glory was lovingly resurrected, surrounded by a gallery that includes further elements of the old house along with interpretive information about the house, John Menzies and his connection to Kai Tahu.
Having gone to such lengths, Paddy and Gayle now looked to the future, exploring legal options to ensure that this precious historic artifact would have a safe future. After discussions with their lawyers White Fox & Jones and Alex Liggett at Fox, guided by their daughter Rebecca who is also a legal professional, the structure of a protective covenant was agreed upon. Covenants like this are nothing new to Fox and Associates, with our long-term support of the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust as well as work for the QEII National Trust and the Department of Conservation.
The covenant binds the current and future landowners to a legal entity owned by the Cotter family and covers not just the museum but the regenerating bush around it and the view from the museum out to sea, so that the museum retains the content of the original house. The covenant requires the landowner to protect, maintain and insure the museum building and to allow the family to retain access to ensure that the museum and its contents are being taken care of.
Alex visited the site and undertook a survey of the covenant area and prepared a plan to accompany the covenant document when it is registered on the title to the property, along with an aerial photodiagram so that all parties can see how the covenant boundaries relate to features on the ground.
Some times we play a major role in projects that are over in months or years. This time we had a small but critical part in saving 130 years of history. As always though, we are proud to help another client create a unique legacy with their land.
