People are also encouraged to bring the whānau for a peaceful picnic on the lawn and take part in some optional games, while also taking time out to stop and smell the roses.
Visitors to Te Waimate at Christmas time will be in good company. Evolutionist Charles Darwin washed up at Te Waimate Mission on Christmas Eve in 1835. Darwin, who was travelling around the world on the Beagle, had arrived in the Bay of Islands a few days earlier and headed out to Te Waimate to catch some of the scenery.
When he came across Te Waimate Mission he reached for his pen: “At length we reached Waimate. After having passed over so many miles of an uninhabited useless country, the sudden appearance of an English farmhouse and its well dressed fields, placed there as if by an enchanter’s wand, was exceedingly pleasant.”
Darwin raved about the crops of barley and wheat he saw at Te Waimate, and was overwhelmed by a huge range of familiar produce – “every fruit and vegetable which England produces” – including asparagus, kidney beans, cucumbers, rhubarb and much, much more.
“Darwin wasn’t that complimentary about the rest of the Bay of Islands, but he was clearly delighted by what he found at Te Waimate Mission,” says Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Hokianga Properties lead, Lindis Capper-Starr.
“We find Te Waimate still has the same effect on visitors today. It is a little oasis of genuine beauty and tranquility and people often remark about it being a hidden gem.”
Enjoy Te Waimate’s Christmas offerings on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from December 13 to December 29, between 10am and 5pm. Children under 18 are free with a paying adult – $10. Garden access for picnics is free.
