Historic estate eyes top spot
Teapot races and Instagrammable spots are part of a push to make a historic Waikato estate one of the region’s top tourist attractions.
Woodlands Estate Historic Reserve is in Gordonton, about 20 minutes from central Hamilton, and features a homestead built in the 1870s.
It’ll become one of the top five Waikato tourist attractions if the trust developing it has its way – sitting alongside the likes of Hobbiton and Hamilton Gardens.
Upgrade plans have been signed off by site owner Waikato District Council, though fundraising by the Gordonton Woodlands Trust Board will also be needed.
‘‘Now we can actually move forward and talk more about what’s going to happen rather than what might happen,’’ board chair Kate Wilson said.
A steampunk ball in late May is one of the trust’s fundraiser plans, and will capitalise on the vibe of the Victorian homestead.
It’ll feature teapot races, Woodlands Estate manager Kirstie Alley said: remote control cars will have the body taken off and replaced with a teapot.
The estate gardens are another drawcard, and the trust hopes to add more Instagrammable spots for visitors. A rotunda would be an example. The estate gardens feature historic plants – including a London plane tree brought over by ship in the 1800s – and have a five-star rating from the NZ Garden Trust.
Currently, the site attracts somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people a year.
History is the site’s point of difference, but the trust doesn’t plan to show off old items in glass cases.
‘‘We will never be a museum,’’ Alley said.
Instead, people will get a taste of Victorian life, like they do at the Estate’s Pioneer Fundays, which run twice a year during school holidays.
For a gold coin donation, they can try everything from butter churns to making rope, and tractor rides to corn husking.
‘‘It’s not teaching history but you’re absorbing history just through interacting,’’ said Wilson, who owns the cafe on site.
‘‘For many, history is boring . . . but when we realised that this history behind here can be interesting and involving and get the community going, we realised that we had something quite different and special.’’
‘‘People love coming into the homestead because we let them go into every room,’’ Alley added. ‘‘We let them sit in the chairs. There’s no rope over the doorway stopping them.’’
The estate has also hosted entertainment from wool spinning to themed Confinement escape room events to calligraphy.
A village green which is part of the upgrade will hark back to Woodlands’ heyday as an estate by showcasing trades which would have been on site, Wilson said.
The estate covered 98,000 acres of drained swampland, and would have had its own tradespeople – from blacksmiths to butchers.
And the area could host a second function centre.
Even the children’s playground in the short-term plan for Woodlands will have a touch of the Victorian.
‘‘It’s not just going to be a swings and slide playground . . . It’s going to have a royal touch to it,’’ Alley said.
Waikato District Council has budgeted for the playground addition, and for parking improvements. Nga¯ ti Wairere is involved as a key partner of the estate, as it sits on land taken from local Ma¯ ori during the 1863 land wars.