Provincial New Zealand - Architectural Style

Cust Museum- in the formerWaimakariri-Ashley Water Supply Board building.

You don't have to drive far in New Zealand to find a small town filled with a crazy assortment of buildings - public and private alike. Last weekend I was out in Oxford, about 40 minutes north of Christchurch. That's a small town that has changed significantly over the last five years. An Oxford gift store & bookshop - in the old Salvation Army Church Building. Circa 1930-1940 Originally a saw-milling town, then a rural service town, Oxford is now being billed as "a destination, a quaint village with an English atmosphere." I put that down to slightly hysterical marketing hype myself, because frankly, you don't get 'English village atmosphere' simply by virtue of sharing the name of one of England's most iconic villages. It doesn't feel at all English to me. It feels iconically Kiwi provincial. I don't know why people want to sweep that under the carpet and pretend to be English. Private Residence. Oxford. Probably 1940-50s with 1970s conifer plantings. All that aside, I do like like Oxford, Canterbury, New Zealand (and nearby Cust). It really does have a glorious assortment of buildings that shine a light on different architectural styles across the decades. And I love the way buildings morph and change use over time - the old church building that is now a busy gift store; the old villa that is now a popular cafe; an old council building converted into a tiny museum. It says so much about the industriousness of country people and their ability to turn just about anything to good use.

Old villa, possibly early 1900s; now a cafe

Fernside Memorial Hall and Community Centre at Fernside. There is no denying that the first European settlers in New Zealand were English (and Scottish) predominantly but come on people, that was over 150 years ago. It's lovely that we have clues to that in some of our early architecture but all these decades on, surely it's time to claim these small places with their quirky buildings as quintessentially New Zealand - not some so-called 'quaint English or French (Akaroa) outpost.' I find that sort of regional marketing embarassingly twee. It makes me want to stand up and scream "NEW ZEALAND - This is provincial New Zealand. Enjoy it and be proud of it for what it is. Don't try to make it something foreign." www.oxfordnewzealand.co.nz

Waitangi Day in Akaroa

This is where I am today - in the pretty harbourside village of Akaroa on Banks Peninsula, an hour's drive from Christchurch. I'm attending the Ngai Tahu Waitangi Day celebrations at Onuku Marae, which sits on the edge of the harbour about five minutes from the village. (I'll be presenting photographs from the celebrations on my other blog, http://maorilifestyles.blogspot.com tomorrow). Akaroa will probably be swollen with visitors today - the many who arrive in town for the Waitangi Day celebrations, along with the usual throng of tourists, who fill the streets at this time of year. I will report back with more in the coming days.

Meet the People - 5

Another in the series Meet the People - Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders doing Interesting Things - There can’t be too many New Zealanders who can claim to have hosted over 15,000 house guests – Bruce and Carol Hyland are two who can. As the owners of three top rating NZ B&Bs over the last sixteen years they’ve notched up an enviable record as fantastic hosts and many of their returning guests are now personal friends. They were the original owners of two leading Devonport B&Bs in Auckland and they now run the very delicious Maison de la Mer in Akaroa, an hour from Christchurch. And when they’re not pampering others, they’re usually giving in to their own passion for travel, spending three months of every year exploring France, Italy, Britain, Canada, Australia, USA and Asia. Back in the eighties they spent three years living aboard their sail boat in the Bahamas – complete with three young children and family dog! These days you’ll find Bruce yacht racing every Sunday on Akaroa Harbour. www.maisondelamer.co.nz

Marketing Madness

Mon Dieu! Whatever next? Now we have Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism promoting Canterbury as "the new Europe!" It's bad enough that Akaroa flaunts itself so brazenly (and misguidedly in my opinion) as being French. Okay, so the French discovered it before Captain Cook but they missed out on claiming it as legitimate French territory so why why why, over 150 years later, does CCT keep making exaggerated claims that it is a French village. As the ever-witty Joe Bennett quips in today's Sunday Star Times: "Le Mini Golf is about as far as it gets......you could fire a scatter gun around Akaroa for four days and not find anyone whose French vocabulary was in double figures." I agree wholeheartedly - a French restaurant, a few cafes and a few French street names does not a French village make. And now this latest embarassing claim that Canterbury is "a little slice of Europe." CCT chief executive, Christine Prince may be right in saying that "you have to find ways to cut through and engage people and get them thinking about things differently," but let's keep it in perspective - let's keep it 'in New Zealand' in fact and let's stop making wildly fantastic claims that leave most of us cringing in embarassment.