Heritage Day in Helensville - Part 2 (cont)

After we walked around town looking at the old buildings we stopped in at the Helensville Pioneer Museum Open Day.

Helensville Primary School opened in June 1877, although this house, the home of school principals from 1883 to 1973, wasn't built until 1883.

Hedley Cottage, this Edwardian cottage was built in 1910-1912. It was opened as the offical museum for the Helensville & District Historial Society on 11 Dec 1970.

The bedroom.

The Hec Nicholls Memorial Barn is dedicated to the first president of the Helensville & District Historical Society. This mural painted on the side of the barn is of Mr John & Mrs Helen McLeod, the founders of Helensville. The Maori carving I presume is of the local hapu of the Ngati Whatua iwi.

Aren't they cute? A couple of Alpacas from the Alpaca farm at South Head in Kaipara.

On the drive home we passed this Tuscan style farm house, I could have sworn we were in Italy! Shame about the power lines!

On the opposite side of the road were these beautiful creatures, sorry about the rear views!

And that's the final in the saga of our weekend to Helensville and Parakai. Next on the agenda is our long weekend trip to New Plymouth but first I have to sort through about 500 or so photos!

Have a very merry Christmas everyone.

Meri Kirihimete

Ka kite anō, mā te wā

Strolling around the Gypsy Fair

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky with a slight breeze to cool you down now and again. We spent the morning walking around this Gypsy fair at one of our local parks. I surprised myself and didn't buy anything although there was a very cute birdhouse that tempted me, I resisted though!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post more Helensville photos yesterday, will soon.

What were they listening to when you were born?

Here's something a little different. The #1 song on this date in history site allows one to search by date for and listen to Billboard's #1 song on a specific date in history back to the 1890's. In order to hear the songs one needs to have iTunes installed on the computer. I found that searching for songs for dates such as children's births, weddings etc triggered my memories for the times these events occured. When I was married the #1 was "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis (haha very appropriate) and when I was born the #1 was "Only Forever" by Bing Crosby (if only!).

Heritage Day in Helensville - Part 2

Now, where was I? Oh yes we'd just had breakfast at the old railway station.

So after breakfast we went for a walk around Helensville to look at all the old buildings that were open for Heritage Day.

The Old Grand Hotel

The New Grand Hotel

And it's beautiful gardens!

This is what NZ weeds look like, probably very similar to yours! Poor neglected old house, it looked so forlorn that I couldn't help myself, makes a lovely photo though. Those trees on the right with the long thin trunks are NZ Cabbage Trees.

Malolo House

Built in 1904 as a doctor’s residence, the separate "Kaipara Wing" was added in the 1920’s as a cottage hospital. It was the local maternity hospital until 1958. Dr. Farqhuar Matheson christened the house "Malolo" in 1924, after spending time in Samoa. ‘Sau Malolo’ means ‘Come and Rest’.

The Regent Theatre

The Regent was built in 1941 during the War. It was a 400-seat theatre and was filled to capacity most Saturday nights during the 1950's and '60's. The lovely art deco-styled foyer is now the Cafe Regent with a capacity of 45 seats for dinner and 20 for dinner and movie. It didn't look like the cafe was open any longer though. The rest of it is full to the rafters of vintage ephemera, I had a ball in there!

The Old Post Office

Built in 1911, it is now an antiques and collectables shop.

Not sure about this one, looks like a church, now the Christian Life Centre.

After the walk around town we called in at the Helensville Museum on our way home, more photos tomorrow.....

Heritage Day in Helensville

Sunday morning after checking out we had breakfast in the old Helensville Railway Station that is now The Ginger Crunch Station Cafe, the traffic in and out was constant and what a delightful atmosphere. We were serenaded by two young girls singing with their guitars and the food was great.

I had the Western Line dish, french toast (with nuts) , bacon, bananas & maple syrup, yum! However, I would have put the glass of maple syrup on the plate after I sprinkled it all with icing sugar!

And to finish a mochaccino with a complimentary slice of Ginger Crunch.

Then off we went to walk around Helensville to see all the old historic buildings and to visit the museum and historic village. BTW Helensville & Parakai are synonomous with each other, Parakai being just a few kilometres down the road from Helensville, or vice versa!

Back to Weekend in Parakai

So after we left the Macadamia Farm we drove a bit further up the coast to Shelly Beach where we sat and watched a runabout with two men being rescued, I think their outboard had conked out!

Then we drove home, had pizza for tea and watched the election day results in between a few more soaks in the pool!

Wording on the monument:-

This monument was placed here in 1990 as a sequicentennial gesture. It replaces the original stone that was placed here in 1884 to commemorate the Great Meeting House erected on the foreshores of Herepiiti Aotea. We thank both the Maori & Pakeha for their combined efforts to mark this historical occasion.

Maori - indigenous people of NZ

Pakeha - originally referring to the early European settlers of NZ

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and we went to DGS Harry's place where his mum made us a lovely dinner. Harry was at his full on best, this is the photo where he was at his slowest!

This was dessert, yum, thanks Harry's mum - and dad for the BBQ.

Did you know that on this day in 1952 the first false fingernail was sold? Gosh I would have been 12 and probably didn't have a clue of such things! I do remember that at a very young age I thought the year 2000 was that far away that I probably would never see it - and here I am 8 years afterwards and still going strong, well fairly strong :).

Thank you to all my friends who sent me email, facebook and such like birthday greetings, you made my day.

My New Blog

Announcing my new blog - Strangers in a Box - all about my steadily growing collection of vintage photographs, mainly of unknown people, and my attempt to restore them.
Please pop on over and have a look and if you have any of said photos you would like to share please don't hesitate to leave me a comment on either blog. I'm also prepared to purchase any unwanted vintage photos so please keep an eye out for me.

Macadamia Farm

Then we wandered around the farm for an hour or so and had the whole place to ourselves.

I wasn't up for an angry beehive so out came the tele lens.