OUr STORY

Restoration of The Peninsula

For the past 20 years, with the help of many volunteers, we have been restoring the natural habitat around the estuary shore. The work involves clearing invasive weeds and replanting with salt tolerant native coastal vegetation.

Further inland we are enhancing and expanding a remnant of the native coastal forest which in pre-European times would have covered much of the peninsula. Black beech, hard beech, rimu, totara, titoki, matai, and kahikatea are just some of the trees we are propagating and planting.  We like our guests knowing that with each visit to The Apple Pickers’ Cottages, a percentage of the room rate goes towards regenerative planting on the property.

Both the saltmarsh on the shore around our peninsula and the coastal forest remnant are recognised as Significant Natural Habitat areas by the department of Conservation and the Tasman District Council.

The Cottages

The cottages were built in the 1950’s as accommodation for apple pickers. When the main part of the orchard was sold in 2001 (it’s now a vineyard) we decided that the cottages and their beautiful location at the end of the peninsula would be perfect as a peaceful retreat for people looking for somewhere a bit out of the ordinary. Over the past 18 years they have been lovingly renovated without losing their original features and charm.

The Orchard History

The orchard at Apple Valley Road was planted around 1917 and the cottages were built in the 1950’s to accommodate apple pickers at harvest time. Over the years there have been many apple pickers from all over the world who have worked here.  Probably the most famous were artists Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston who worked here in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Toss Woollaston’s  painting “The Red Shed on Jacksons’ Orchard” was painted here about 1945. Top right is the same shed in Autumn 2017. My family bought the orchard in 1967 and grew apples and pears here until 2001.

Orchard Life at Matahua in the 1950s

Waimea Inlet

The Waimea Inlet and surrounding lands have been occupied since the 1500s. A large but fluctuating Maori presence was associated with the Waimea Pa and 35 archaeological sites have been recorded, including 27 Maori midden or oven sites. The inlet was an important food gathering place for Maori, who used its rich resources hundreds of years before European settlers started farming its edges. The waterways of the estuary provided sheltered canoe routes, landings and camp sites, and access to the rich marine, estuarine and river resources. The main archaeological sites are on each side of the tidal outlet  at the western end. Mapua, Grossi Point and the western of Rabbit Island were places of “extensive and intensive occupation”.