Authors CK Stead, left, and Kevin Ireland make a pilgrimage to Frank Sargeson House in Takapuna on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / File
Authors CK Stead, left, and Kevin Ireland make a pilgrimage to Frank Sargeson House in Takapuna on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / File
From bases of childhood through to literary boltholes, some of the great Kiwi writers' homes are waiting for your take on their influence, writes Michael Lamb
We've always been voracious readers. The 19th century saw a huge growth in public libraries yet, amazingly, it took until the 20th century for our writers to fire up and crank out a half-decent novel.
With many so big names on the literary roll call these days - think Shadbolt, King, Curnow, Mahy, Crump and many others - we still have remarkably few writers' homes preserved as cultural hot spots.
We need to visit and support the ones we do have, so here's what is available for your post-lockdown literary tourism.
CK Stead wrote that Frank Sargeson's bach was for several crucial decades of the 20th century … the still point around which the literary consciousness of New Zealand seemed to revolve."
Sargeson installed himself in the tiny cottage on Auckland's North Shore in 1931, or at least the original version of it. He liked the way the quiet road ran down to the "no-man's land of mangrove mud-flats that belonged to the inner harbour." These days the road is more of a motorway, spooling up cars before hurtling them over the harbour bridge.
Frank Sargeson House in Takapuna, Auckland. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
He was a famously keen gardener; he typed his short stories, plays and novels on green paper on an Olivetti typewriter that is still sitting ready for action by his daybed. He dished out Lemora (a long-gone brand of NZ fortified lemon and grapefruit wine) by the flagon to his many visitors, including waifs and strays like Janet Frame, who shacked up in a hut out the back and wrote Owls Do Cry.
Sargeson lived at the bach for 50 years. He was one of the first to reflect an authentic "Kiwi" voice in literature. He hosted his ad-hoc literary salons that inspired a generation of writers, such as Kevin Ireland and Maurice Gee. And he took to walking the other way from the mangroves, to Takapuna beach.
14A Esmonde Road, Takapuna. Visiting Frank Sargeson's bach can be booked by contacting the North Auckland Research Centre at Takapuna Library on 09 890 4924.
The Ngaio Marsh House. Photo / Christchurch City
Ngaio Marsh House - Christchurch
Queen of crime Dame Ngaio Marsh was a true original. Her interests pushed beyond her remarkable literary output to include theatre (Shakespeare was her ruling passion and a bust of the bard features among her possessions), painting (mostly South Island landscapes) and even running an interior design company in London's toney Knightsbridge.
In between sojourns to Blighty, she lived life at her home in Cashmere, Christchurch. The house was designed for Marsh's parents by her mother's cousin, leading local architect Samuel Hurst Seager, and built in 1906.
Called Marton Cottage, these days it is kept very much as Marsh lived in it, with her china and cutlery laid out on the dining table and her dresses in the wardrobes. The lively trove of Marshabilia includes oddities like theatrical masks and reference books on poisoning (fair enough given her day job), though I couldn't confirm the rumour that her much-loved Jaguar XK120 is still parked in the garage.
37 Valley Rd, Cashmere. To book your visit including guided tour call 03 337 9248 or email ngaiomarshhouse@gmail.com
Pupils attend a writing workshop at the Katherine Mansfield House, Wellington. Photo / File
Katherine Mansfield House - Wellington
Katherine Mansfield needs no introduction, or at least, she shouldn't. Arguably our most famous writer over the long haul of history, the house of her birth in Thorndon, Wellington, is where you can inhale her literary fragrance.
It was built for her father in 1888. Perhaps more presented than preserved, in the sense that much work has gone into renovations and somewhat overtly staging the Mansfield experience (such as the toys in the Children's bedroom to reference her story The Dollhouse), it is nonetheless a beautiful immersion into her world.
The Doll's House: The Mansfield garden is delightful, on a good Wellington day. Photo / Supplied
To quote the lady herself: "The Venetian blind was pulled down but not drawn close. Long pencil rays of sunlight shone through and the wavy shadow of a bush outside danced on the gold lines … " (taken from her 1917 story Prelude.)
The garden is delightful (on a good Wellington day), following a wrap-around timeline of the author's life. Of course, there are souvenirs at the end. Exit through the gift of her writing, which is where the real magic lies.
25 Tinakori Rd, Thorndon, Wellington. Open Tuesday to Sunday. Guided tours by arrangement
Ōamaru. These days you might think steampunk and Victoriana but the modest house on Eden St must also be on your visitor's to-do list.
Their website offers the idea that the writer's childhood home has been conceived through a little play on the surname: "The house is not a restoration, it has become what is now called a re-framing, a combination of known facts and recollections. In many ways, the house is as the first lines in To the Is-Land: … with its mixture of fact and truths and memories of truths … "
Janet Frame's modest house on Eden Street, Oamaru. Photo / File
While the "re-framing" might be a little clunky, everything here is done with a sensitivity one suspects Frame would have approved of; the curators are friendly and knowledgeable and you'll leave with a trove of stories and warm insights into her world of lino floors, shredded newspaper for toilet paper and perhaps the sound of a mouse in the scullery.
56 Eden St, Ōamaru. Open 2-4pm daily, from November 1 to April 30
Dunedin's Broad Bay attracted many creative figures. Photo / DunedinNZ
Brasch Cottage & Caselberg House - Dunedin
Dunedin poet Charles Brasch is a big name in New Zealand literature. His papers take up 25m of shelving at the Hocken Library, to which he also left a huge art collection. He was good mates with Denis Glover with whom, in 1947, he founded Landfall, our most esteemed literary publication.
His home at Broad Bay attracted creative figures such as Janet Frame, Colin McCahon, Douglas Lilburn and James K Baxter, among many others. He bequeathed it to John and Anna Caselberg, who have established it in trust as a retreat for writers and artists.
A New Zealand Sea Lion at Dunedin's Broad Bay, home to many wild and creative types. Photo / File
We're sneaking this one in as bonus because it's not generally open to the public, however it does have events, open days and workshops. So if you're heading to Dunners, check their Facebook page or visit caselbergtrust.org for updates.
Brasch Cottage & Caselberg House - Broad Bay, Dunedin
'Few visitors to Jerusalem will end up there by chance': Jerusalem or Hiruharama on the river Whanganui. Photo / Getty Images
James K Baxter & The Jerusalem Convent
Consider this one more of a pilgrimage, which is how James K. Baxter saw it when he made his way to Jerusalem - or Hiruhārama - back in 1969.
There he established a commune supported by the twin pillars that sustained him: Catholicism and a deep love for Māori culture. The aim was, in his words, to live "without money or books".
The commune only lasted a few years before it unravelled through its own anarchy coupled with the displeasure of the local authorities, but Baxter's name has become synonymous with the place.
These days you can visit and stay with the Sisters of Compassion in the Old Convent… " an oasis of calm in a turbulent world" as their pamphlet says. It also says - and I like this - "few visitors to Jerusalem will end up there by chance."
'Few visitors to Jerusalem will end up there by chance': Jerusalem Church, Whanganui. Photo / Getty Images
The spirit of James K Baxter is in residence: he died in 1972 and he was buried in the village, after a full tangi.
The Jerusalem Convent, Jerusalem RD6, Whanganui River Rd, Whanganui 4576. Check compassion.org.nz for details
The Sofa Selection
Here's a colourful selection of books that grab aspects of New Zealand with a (mostly) literary feel for when your travel plans need to be temporarily placed on hold.
In Search Of Ancient New Zealand, by Hamish Campbell and Gerard Hutching. The discovery that Aotearoa sits on a massive continent called Zealandia only adds to the rich geological history of our country. This book may not be literary, but it is literally foundational and a wonderful primer into the deep origins of our land and landscapes.
The Shell Guide To New Zealand, by Maurice Shadbolt. What persuaded the author of Season of the Jew and one of our literary leading lights to knock out a tour guide for a certain large oil company we will never know. These days that would feel a bit like Eleanor Catton writing a few chapters for Lonely Planet, sponsored by Roundup. Shadbolt's lively yet understandably dated narration is full of charm and sharp observation. Even better, you can find copies kicking about in second-hand bookshops and op shops for a pittance.
South Sea Vagabonds, by J W Wray. If you know someone who "doesn't read books", this is the book for them. Johnny Wray's extraordinary tale takes him from losing his stifling office job, to building his own boat in his backyard using timber scavenged from around Auckland's Waitematā Harbour (the keel was part of an old steamer he found buried on a beach). He dreams of atolls and palm trees and takes off on the definitive Pacific adventure. The 1930s post-Depression settings add to the romance and the yarns are endless, enchanting and often very funny. A sample: arriving on the Kermadecs, Wray finds a bounteous orange grove. He decides to load up and sail back to Auckland and sell the fruit to fund his further voyages, except the trip takes so long he and the crew eat every single one. A timeless classic and one of the greatest NZ books.
Australia and New Zealand, by Anthony Trollope. First published in 1873, this presents the high-profile English writer's rather tangential thoughts and reflections on his extended trip (large parts of it on horseback) around NZ. Although written in a rambling, almost diaristic style, it is still intriguing to have an outside eye - and a writer's eye at that - take in the people, culture and landscapes at a time when few books on the place were being written, plus it's free to read online with Google books.
Died in the Wool, by Ngaio Marsh. Do the time warp back to rural New Zealand during the 1940s in this Ngaio Marsh classic set on a high-country South Island sheep station. This is one of only two books Marsh set in New Zealand, which makes for a delightfully retro - some might say rather too colonial - view of her homeland. But what could be more Kiwi in a crime novel set-up than a dead body found in wool bale?
Check alert level restrictions and Ministry of Health advice before travel. covid19.govt.nz
