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John and Anne Batt
Married and Gone to New Zealand - John and Anne Batt seek a new life in Nelson in 1842My great grandparents lived in two small adjacent villages in Hampshire: Barton Stacey and Chilbolton – just three...
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Tahunanui - the school by the sands
The story of Tahunanui School mirrors the rapid development its seaside location and the nearby beach into an established community and popular summer holiday destination.1View of Tahuna from Paddy's...
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Cyril Spear's Words of War
The diaries of a Nelson Evening Mail journalist provide some of the most compelling accounts of World War I to be written by a Nelson soldier.Cyril Saunderson Spear (born 7 August 1878) was employed at...
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George Lawrence
George Lawrence and the elephants of WakefieldThe Waimea South Historical Society was recently gifted two intriguing photographs, of elephants bathing in the Wai-iti River and penned beside the...
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Te Rae o Karaka or Karaka Point
Te Rae o Karaka Historic Reserve occupies a narrow headland that juts out into Totaranui (Queen Charlotte Sound), between Waikawa and Whatamango Bays. It is situated on what is now known as Karaka...
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Ropoama's Spring
Ropoama Te One, a rangitira of Te Atiawa, was one of the signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi, and one of the main signatories to the Waitohi Purchase, by the New Zealand Company, in 1850.After the...
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Resolution Bay or Atapu
It has been suggested that the Māori name for this bay should perhaps be O-Tapu, (a sacred place) or Ata-po (early dawn). Captain Cook named it Shag Cove, but later explorers gave it the present name...
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Resolution Bay or Atapu
It has been suggested that the Māori name for this bay should perhaps be O-Tapu, (a sacred place) or Ata-po (early dawn). Captain Cook named it Shag Cove, but later explorers gave it the present name...
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Curious Cove
Kahikatea Bay is named for the giant trees which once grew there, down to the shoreline.Aerial view of RNZAF recreation camp in Curious Cove. Defence Department imageThe land was first offered for sale...
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Marlborough's first newspaper
Timothy Millington and George Coward, two Englishmen who came to Marlborough via Australia and Nelson, started the Marlborough Province’s first newspaper in Blenheim, or the Beaver, on 6 January 1860....
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The Picton volunteers
In early Pakeha settlement, the tradition of a voluntary military service was carried over from England, and a Volunteer Corps was formed in New Zealand, mainly because of the perceived threat from...
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Nelson City Luncheon Club
One of Nelson's older Institutions - the Nelson City Luncheon Club voted to cease activity at the end of 2016. The Club had been active for 72 years but in the later years had seen a drop in...
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Nayland Pool
The school, the pool and the boilerThe close relationship between Stoke’s Nayland Park Pool complex and Nayland College could be said to have started with a chat over a drink in the Nelson City Council...
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Upstairs Downstairs
Broadgreen’s Domestic and Ground staff of the 1860sAs was befitting an affluent middle-class family such as the Buxtons of Broadgreen House in Stoke, paid staff looked after domestic and ground work in...
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Fleeing war torn Italy
Post World War II Italian immigration to NelsonThe desire to leave war-torn Europe resulted in a wave of post-World War II Italian immigration to New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s.Many came to join...
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The Saxton legacy
Bridging Nelson City and Tasman District, Saxton Field is a major regional sporting facility, but the land it sits on used to be part of a large farm originally owned by early settler and gentleman...
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The Hale family and the second Colonial landscape
The work of early nurserymen can be seen in Nelson and all over New Zealand. Their work marks significant milestones from the Queen’s Jubilee to the commemoration of the lives of public figures. It...
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Jesse Ernest Hounsell Memorial Sundial Tahunanui
The site currently occupied by Natureland at Tahunanui Beach Reserve is located within an elliptical circle. You used to be able to drive completely around this circle and it was always referred to as...
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Pethybridge Memorial Rose Garden Motueka
On 26th November 1964, a memorial plaque and rose gardens were dedicated to Charles Edward Pethybridge, by G W Johnston Chairman of the Tobacco company W.D & H.O Wills (NZ) Ltd.. Charles had just...
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Protecting Nelson Haven
Public pressure and commonsense saved Nelson HavenA large part of Nelson Haven might have been ‘a place of sprawling ribbon development’ on reclaimed land at Wakapuaka, if a group of Nelson people...
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