I have had ten days away. I went as far as Kaiteriteri and the Tasman National park in the North of the South Island and traveled back down the centre of the island home again. I missed blogging and face-book. I decided that I am a 61 year old with an Internet addiction! I have a number of blogging posts brewing.
This cottage in the photos above is near Mapua, not far west of Nelson. (Mapua is "famous" for its "Clothing optional" camping ground and beach area.) We noticed a sign pointing to the cottage location off the main highway. It is a history lesson just to visit it and walk around it. It has been restored and you can see how it was built. There is a basic framework put together with no nails, manuka pegs are used to bind the frame together. It is made of a rammed earth construction with an outer plaster made of a mixture of "stuff". It has a thatched roof, rammed earth floor, very simple home made door locks and interesting wooden spouting. There is a main room down stairs with an adults' bedroom off it. There are very low "bed" platforms in the ceiling space upstairs with a vertical ladder up the wall and through a manhole as access. I guess this was the bedroom for the children. Cooking was done over the open fire and there was a small room off the back veranda which was a pantry/storeroom area .... a very small cottage compared to today's dwellings.
The thing that intrigued me was the story behind the cottage. I cannot remember the names of the original builders but here roughly is their story. We'll call them "Mr and Mrs Smith" and Mr Smith's brother. They arrived in NZ after a sailing ship journey from England in 1858 and settled on a block of farm land. The two men set to and built the cottage. The family lived there for four decades, raising their children there and no doubt growing old together! It would have been a bit of a squash and life would have been pretty tough. The thing that intrigued me is that they farmed just 25 acres of land and presumably made a viable living off it! How? How come we do not see 25 acres as an economical unit these days? We have all sorts of advances in farm technology. It seems to me to be a marvelous feat to have just 25 acres of land (granted that it is very fertile and in a climate that is great for growing things) and make a decent sort of living!
Why can't we do it today? As I thought about it, life was simple and very direct. My guess is that Mr Smith milked a few cows and sold his milk to locals near by. He would not have health regulations, health inspectors and dairy farm inspectors breathing down his neck. It would be dished out via a ladle into billy cans, not treated and put into sterilised bottles or other containers like today's milk. There would be no "middle-men" and super-market chains making their profits from it. He probably did the same sort of thing with his produce, fruit and meat. His farm vehicle would be a faithful horse that did not need petrol, oil and mechanics and by the time it was worn out, it may have reproduced itself several times over. Life was tough but oh so simple then.
I looked at this cottage, its construction, its door locks and fences and thought "I have been born in the wrong age. I would loved to have worked, and lived in this way!" (We once were called the "self-sufficient Browns" when we lived in an old cottage, milking goats, growing veges and keeping hens. I recall that when the door lock broke, we were so poor that I constructed a wooden door lock just like the ones in Mr Smith's cottage) ...... but....
As I sped on (at a 100 kph of course) toward Nelson, I realised that had I lived in the late 1800s I would not have had the pleasure I get from driving car, cornering and mastering the gearbox and motor. Nor would I be able to write something, knowing that my words could be read the same day on the other side of the world. Maybe I would prefer this age after all.... but I still admire "Mr and Mrs Smith" and wish that life was a bit more straight forward than it is today.
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