Dear Members,

1. Museum Live Heritage Day

As advised in a previous email, we'll be holding another Live heritage Day, our first since 2019, on Sunday, 29 January 2023 beginning at 11.00 am. 

We have a number of stalls, demonstrations, and exhibitions already organized or in the process of being organized, including spinning and weaving, quilt making, a sewing machine demonstration, and for children (and the still young at heart) a range of traditional games and "sporting" events (3-legged, egg-and-spoon, and sack races.) However, the committee is still on the lookout for more. So if you have an idea about something which might be suitable or, preferably, are willing to organize something, please let me know as soon as possible. 

At previous live heritage days, a popular attraction, particularly with children has been the vintage fire engine. Unfortunately, that will not be available this time around but if anyone knows someone with a vintage car(s) (or has one themselves) that they might be willing to bring along to the Museum for the day, please get in touch with me.

There'll also be a stall selling homemade cakes, biscuits, jams, and preserves so we're looking for donations of such produce (nothing store-bought). If you can help out with items suitable for the stall, please let me know, again a.s.a.p. In addition, we'll have Devonshire teas and drinks for sale and of course, a sausage sizzle - what would any event in New Zealand, heritage or otherwise, be without a sausage sizzle?

We'll also need several gazebos and/or tents for the day, especially if the weather doesn't cooperate. If you are able to loan us something suitable, please let me know.

It will be important that the Museum looks at its best for the day, so we'll be holding a working bee to tidy up the grounds during the week leading up to the heritage day. This is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 26 January beginning at 10.00 am. I'll confirm both that date and time closer to the day.

2. 50th anniversary of Waiheke Island Historical Society and Champion Cottage maintenance

This year marked 50 years since the foundation of the Waiheke Island Historical Society and with it, the foundation of our Museum. Unfortunately, with the uncertainty of the past couple of years, this important anniversary slipped by unacknowledged and uncelebrated. However, over the next couple of weeks, the Gulf News will be doing an article on this, so keep a lookout for that.

It is anticipated that the article will also feature the campaign currently being organized by the Committee to raise funds for repairs and maintenance to our cottages, especially to Champion.

As many members will appreciate, age inevitably brings with it an increasing need for repairs and maintenance and while the Society may still be a relatively youthful 50, the same is not true of the buildings which make up our historic village. 

Champion Cottage, built in 1932  and moved onto the museum site in the early 1990s, is now a nonagenarian and really beginning to show the signs of its age. Without urgent maintenance, we would be lucky for it to survive long enough to become a centenarian. Unfortunately, the necessary maintenance is not going to be cheap. We have had several professional estimates of the likely cost of repairing and repainting the cottage and both were well in excess of $30,000.

While we could undertake temporary repairs by replacing the worst rotted boards and filling others with resin, this would be, at best, only delaying the inevitable. Champion Cottage might reach its centenary but by then it would be well and truly on its last legs. Moreover, even though Keane and Goodwin are more recent builds, time is also beginning to catch up with them. Thus the Committee is faced with the need to plan for the ongoing repairs and maintenance of our buildings are going to require. 

It is doubtful that, even with a major influx of visitors, we would be able to afford this solely from the revenue derived from donations or by increasing membership numbers. Thus, for the longer term, we are exploring ways in which we can be recognized officially as a heritage site and hence become eligible for funding available through both the Government and Auckland Council. 

One idea we are currently considering is to give greater prominence to our cottages as examples of that widely recognized but disappearing architectural form, the New Zealand holiday bach. Interestingly, if one looks up Bach (New Zealand) on Wikipedia, both the photographic examples given are from Waiheke, so we may well be able to capitalize on that association of Waiheke with the New Zealand bach.

If we succeed in making ourselves eligible for some form of heritage status that may go some way to solving the problems we will face when it becomes necessary to carry out repairs and maintenance on Keane and Goodwin. However, it's not going to be a solution to our current problem with Champion, hence the need for a fundraising campaign. So keep an eye out for announcements regarding this and, if perchance over the holiday period you encounter a philanthropically minded billionaire visiting the island, take the opportunity to impress on him or her the worthiness of our cause.

3. At the Museum feature in Gulf News and Waiheke Weekender

Keep an eye out on both  Gulf News and Waiheke Weekender in coming weeks for what we hope will be an ongoing feature in those publications, an At the Waiheke Island Museum column. Each column will highlight and briefly discuss an item from the Museum's collection. Sometimes it might be an artifact currently on display. At other times, could be one of our old photographs shows a well-known Waiheke location alongside another photograph showing that location as appears today. We have already submitted three articles and several more are in preparation.

4. Kate Bryant's Christmas Wreath making workshop at the Museum last Sunday

Thanks to Kate Bryant for the Christmas wreath-making workshop she organized at the Museum last Sunday. As the photograph below shows, some excellent wreaths were produced. Unfortunately, a short lead-in time meant that we were unable to give it the publicity needed that, combined with a lack of cooperation on the part of the weather, meant it wasn't as well attended as we would have hoped. However, given the quality of the work produced and the pleasure gained by those involved in producing it, I hope that Kate will be willing to make this a regular attraction Christmas attraction at the Museum. If so, we'll be able to give it much more extensive publicity next year.

I'll send out a further email update on the Live Heritage Day early in January but in the meantime, I hope everyone has an enjoyable festive season and that the weather begins to cooperate so we can all enjoy a proper Waiheke summer.

Regards and best wishes,

Logan Moss

President, Waiheke Island Historical Society