15 November 2013

From arias to eras past - Wellington home and garden tour with a difference

Home and history enthusiasts will get the chance to peep behind the doors of some of Wellington’s most fascinating properties on November 24 – on a rather different house and garden tour.

The Kelburn House and Garden Tour will see owners of 14 stunning properties open them as a fundraiser for Kelburn Normal School. To mark the school’s centenary year, organisers have selected houses with a special place in Wellington’s history.

Visitors will be see the gracious house, set in idyllic woodland gardens, which Kirkcaldie and Stains co-founder John Kirkcaldie built for his family in 1908 and the wartime home of legendary Kiwi broadcaster and cook ‘Aunt Daisy’ (Maud Basham).

There are homes designed by eminent architects William Gray Young, Bernard Johns and Joshua Charlesworth, who designed Wellington Town Hall.

There is also one of the earliest properties by arts and crafts architect JW Chapman Taylor which, intriguingly, has an even older farmworker’s cottage in the garden, which serves as a very upmarket toolshed.

Visitors will also be able to see the original exteriors and stunning contemporary interiors of the original Upland Estate farmhouse – and follow the winding path up to one of Wellington’s most elevated gardens once owned by Walter Dinnie, an early Commissioner of New Zealand Police and judge in the Maori Land Courts.

Organiser Sloane Bayley said: “Not only are all the houses absolutely gorgeous, with myriad fantastic design features, they all have a story to tell. It’s going to be an unmissable event not just for those with a passion for home design, but also for anyone who is interested in the history of Wellington.”

The route, ranging from Upland Road, to Kinross Street, also takes in the Victoria University Hunter Building, which will be open to home and garden ticket holders for the day, and the historic Mount Street Cemetery.

Refreshments and musical entertainments will be available at Kelburn Normal School and at a number of the houses, including Wellington opera singer Tania Dreaver singing during a Romantic High Tea at a spectacular home in Rawhiti Terrace.

Tickets cost $35 and are available through Eventfinder or from the school office; Juliette Florist, Kelburn; Thorndon Green Garden Centre; Florence Boutique; or Tinker Tailor in Karori Road.

ENDS

About opera singer Tania Dreaver

Tania Dreaver had a rewarding nursing career before running away to the stage to become a singer. Tania graduated Trinity College of Music London and was a finalist in the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Competition with accompanist Andrew McMillan.

She has made international performances that have included three years with Opera New Zealand in the Chapman Tripp Chorus, and four years with Holland Park Opera in London.  She has engagements as a soloist in companies in both UK and New Zealand, roles performed include "Third Flower Maiden" for Parsifal under conductor Nicholas Braithwaite, “Dido” from Dido and Aeneas, and “Flora”, from Verdi’s La Traviata.

She is also enjoys singing Jazz and Blues with Ruth Armishaw as ‘Divalicious’.

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