Life a er lockdown
Add a touch of culture to your post-lockdown travel plans with a visit to one of our great Kiwi writers’ homes, writes Michael Lamb. And while we’re waiting, get away from it all from the comfort of your sofa.
We’ve always been voracious readers. The 19th century saw a huge growth in public libraries yet, amazingly, it took until the 20th century for our writers to fire up and crank out a half-decent novel. With many so big names on the literary roll call these days — think Shadbolt, King, Curnow, Mahy, Crump and many others — we still have remarkably few writers’ homes preserved as cultural hot spots.
We need to visit and support the ones we do have, so here’s what is available for your postlockdown literary tourism.
Frank Sargeson House — Takapuna
CK Stead wrote that Frank Sargeson’s bach was for several crucial decades of the 20th century … the still point around which the literary consciousness of New Zealand seemed to revolve.”
Sargeson installed himself in the tiny cottage on Auckland’s North Shore in 1931, or at least the original version of it.
He liked the way the quiet road ran down to the “no-man’s land of mangrove mud-flats that belonged to the inner harbour.” These days the road is more of a motorway, spooling up cars before hurtling them over the harbour bridge.
Sargeson was a famously keen gardener; he typed his short stories, plays and novels on green paper on an Olivetti typewriter that is still sitting ready for action by his daybed. He dished out Lemora (a long-gone brand of NZ fortified lemon and grapefruit wine) by the flagon to his many visitors, including waifs and strays like Janet Frame, who shacked up in a hut out the back and wrote Owls Do Cry.
Sargeson lived at the bach for 50 years. He was one of the first to reflect an authentic “Kiwi” voice in literature. He hosted ad-hoc literary salons that inspired a generation of writers, such as Kevin Ireland and Maurice Gee. And he took to walking the other way, from the mangroves to Takapuna beach.
14A Esmonde Rd, Takapuna. Visiting Frank Sargeson’s bach can be booked by contacting the North Auckland Research Centre at Takapuna Library on 09 890 4924.
Ngaio Marsh House — Christchurch
Queen of crime Dame Ngaio Marsh was a true original. Her interests pushed beyond her remarkable literary output to include theatre (Shakespeare was her ruling passion and a bust of the bard features among her possessions), painting (mostly South Island landscapes) and even running an interior design company in London’s toney Knightsbridge.
In between sojourns to Blighty, she lived in Cashmere, Christchurch. The house, Marton Cottage, was designed for Marsh’s parents by her mother’s cousin, leading local architect Samuel Hurst Seager, and built in 1906.
These days it is kept very much as Marsh lived in it, with her china and cutlery laid out on the dining table and her dresses in the wardrobes. The lively trove of Marshabilia includes oddities like theatrical masks and reference books on poisoning (fair enough given her day job), though I couldn’t confirm the rumour that her much-loved Jaguar XK120 is still parked in the garage.
37 Valley Rd, Cashmere. To book your visit including guided tour call 03 337 9248 or email ngaiomarshhouse@gmail.com
Katherine Mansfield House — Wellington
Katherine Mansfield needs no introduction, or at least, she shouldn’t. Arguably our most famous writer, the house of her birth in Thorndon, Wellington, is where you can inhale her literary fragrance. It was built for her father in 1888. Perhaps more presented than preserved, in the sense that much work has gone into renovations
and somewhat overtly staging the Mansfield experience (such as a collection of dollhouses to reference her story The Dollhouse), it is nonetheless a beautiful immersion into her world.
To quote the lady herself: “The Venetian blind was pulled down but not drawn close. Long pencil rays of sunlight shone through and the wavy shadow of a bush outside danced on the gold lines …” (taken from her 1917 story Prelude.)
The garden is delightful (on a good Wellington day), they play an informative video, there are souvenirs. Exit through the gift of her writing, which is where the real magic lies.
25 Tinakori Rd, Thorndon, Wellington. Open Tuesday to Sunday. Guided tours by arrangement
Janet Frame House — amaru
amaru. These days you might think steampunk and Victoriana but the modest house on Eden St must also be on your visitor’s to-do list.
Their website offers the idea that the writer’s childhood home has been conceived through a little play on the surname: “The house is not a restoration, it has become what is now called a reframing, a combination of known facts and recollections. In many ways, the house is as the first lines in To the Is-Land: … with its mixture of fact and truths and memories of truths …”
While the “re-framing” might be a little clunky, everything here is done with a sensitivity one suspects Frame would have approved of; the curators are friendly and knowledgeable and you’ll leave with a trove of stories and warm insights into her world of lino floors, shredded newspaper for toilet paper and perhaps the sound of a mouse in the scullery.
56 Eden St, amaru. Open 2-4pm daily, from
November 1 to April 30
Brasch Cottage & Caselberg House — Dunedin
Dunedin poet Charles Brasch’s papers take up 25m of shelving at the Hocken Library, to which he also left a huge art collection. He was good mates with Denis Glover with whom, in 1947, he founded Landfall, our most esteemed literary publication.
His home at Broad Bay attracted creative figures such as Janet Frame, Colin McCahon, Douglas Lilburn and James K Baxter, among many others. He bequeathed it to John and Anna Caselberg, who have established it in trust as a retreat for writers and artists. We’re sneaking this one in as bonus because it’s not generally open to the public, however it does have events, open days and workshops. So if you’re heading to Dunners, check their Facebook (Caselberg Trust) page or visit caselbergtrust.org for updates.
Brasch Cottage & Caselberg House — Broad Bay, Dunedin
James K Baxter & The Jerusalem Convent
Consider this one more of a pilgrimage, which is how James K. Baxter saw it when he made his way to Jerusalem — or Hiruha¯rama — back in 1969.
There he established a commune supported by the twin pillars that sustained him: Catholicism and a deep love for Ma¯ori culture. The aim was, in his words, to live “without money or books”. The commune only lasted a few years before it unravelled through its own anarchy coupled with the displeasure of the local authorities, but Baxter’s name has become synonymous with the place.
These days you can visit and stay with the Sisters of Compassion in the Old Convent… “an oasis of calm in a turbulent world” as their pamphlet says. It also says — and I like this — “few visitors to Jerusalem will end up there by chance”.
The spirit of James K Baxter is in residence: he died in 1972 and he was buried in the village, after a full tangi.
The Jerusalem Convent, Jerusalem RD6, Whanganui River Rd, Whanganui 4576. Check compassion.org.nz for details
Check alert level restrictions and Ministry of Health advice before travel. covid19.govt.nz