Harmen’s History Blog.: 2010

“If these walls could talk”
THE STORY OF WAIMA LODGE

Perhaps this is what they might say…

“I am a dream house. My name is Waima Lodge, I was built in 1920 by my first owners, Maurice and Sarah Kelly. They were inspired to live at the foot of the Waima Tuhirangi range, my owner wanted my roofline to reflect those lofty, beautiful, multi pitched ridges that preside over the valley where I stand. I believe that I was designed by the famous colonial architects, Cresswell and Trewithic, in Auckland city. My heart is made of kauri and Totara from that same ancient forest. No house was made from finer materials. I know this because Maurice was the son and grandson of timber merchants. As a merchant himself he could afford to lavish the best on his beautiful Sarah (of whom he was very proud). Sarah was a real Ariki, the Great Grand daughter of Eru Patuone who signed
the Treaty.

I have many stories to tell and I have seen many changes in my 90 years.
I am now a grand old lady with strong bones and elegant features.

I was very happy in my early years providing comfort and shelter both physical and spiritual to my lovely family. There was Maurice and Sarah, their children (though adults) were Arthur, Paikea, Inez, Marjory, and Audrey. I presided over all their weddings standing proudly behind many family portraits.
Many important people, leaders, chiefs, politicians, artists and musicians from all parts of the world came to eat in my formal dining room the sumptuous meals that Sarah prepared for them with produce from her famously diverse garden.

The 1930’s were a wonderful time for us all, the adults and their spouses lived in my 4 bedrooms. The cook and the gardener lived in my little cottage and helped Sarah with all her activities.

During the summer all my windows were opened to let the cool breeze waft through my rooms, the front door held open by the large greenstone adze that Mr. J Webster gave me. In the winter my beautiful brick fire places crackled with the heat of the fires that warmed my heart.

Every Sunday a gentleman dressed in black with a white collar came to minister his faith with the local people who would congregate in my lounge hopefully hanging on his every word. Afterwards the children who came eagerly ate the delicious smelling baking that Sarah offered them.

Once I remember an airplane flew low and loudly overhead. Several weeks later a photograph came with the postman, it was a picture of me taken from high above where the hawks fly! That picture still hangs in my lobby today.

Through all this time the Waima River flowed past my garden toward the Hokianga Harbour and the Tasman Sea, such a constant and interesting companion to me, whispering stories of where she came from and where she was going.

Time wore on and my beloved Maurice and Sarah, Geoff and Inez, passed away and other people came to me for shelter, they worked in my garden and lived in my rooms, unaware of my proud beginnings. I began to show my age and I began to worry that the rain and the rats that gnawed away would get the better of me.

In 2005 when Julie & Harmen first met me I was feeling very depressed and I was terribly shocked when they started to pull out my windows and doors. When they replaced them I began to feel a great deal better and after a coat of my original colour I began to look like my old self again. All my interiors were redecorated, my bathrooms and kitchen were modernized and I felt positively grand once more. What it is to be loved!

I have rewarded their family, friends and their many local and international guests with the level of comfort and security that I once did for my first family and to a level that Julie and Harmen had never experienced before.

Unfortunately the time came for Harmen and Julie to move on, they told me that they are seeking a new family to live with me.
I hope that my new owners will care for me as Julie and Harmen have done and enjoy the life that I know I can provide for them. The air that wafts through my rooms in the summer, the water that runs so plentifully is still as clear and pure as it was all those years ago.

One year ago my new owners came to live with me.
How fortunate can an old house be? Patu and Erina Hohepa have returned to their turangawaiwai, Dr. Patu, Jimmy Hop’s younger brother was born in the house that I can see just over the next paddock next door. He even wrote a book in which he mentions me with my old family in its pages.
Patu and Erina have an extended whanau in the Waima Valley so at last my rooms are again reverberating with the happy activity of my new family. Erina bought me a brand new roof which Harmen and Julie could not afford so now I will be able to keep dry and secure for a further century or so.

I believe that I am now in the hands of those who truly belong here, who’s children will continue to appreciate and care for me.

Harmen Hielkema & Julie Holton, June 2011