Background

Note: Posts in this style are to provide current background information for casual readers.

 This is the house we live in in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

It was designed by a locally famous architect, Frank messenger, about 1902, and built a year or two later (records were lost in a fire in the twenties).

Thirty years ago it was moved a few metres back on the land, repiled, reroofed, rewired, and the return verandah added.

The kauri frame, floorboards, some weatherboards, the front sash windows, front room ceilings, some internal doors and a few walls are still original, but much alteration has taken place.

Our location is close to the Central Business District of the city. Macdonalds is two minutes' walk, several supermarkets are within five minutes, banks, shopping, library, cinema, and other amenities are 10 or 15 minutes away.

What we pay in extra rates for living near the centre of town is more than made up by the reduction in petrol costs over a few months.

New Plymouth
is a rural city of around 50,000 people, with the only port on the west coast of New Zealand.

Major industries are dairying, oil and gas, forestry, engineering.

Photograph by Glen Coates, Kahu Publishing, www.kahupublishing.co.nz

The district takes its name from the prominent volcanic cone, Taranaki, around 2500 metres high.