Historic Houses

On Wednesday 16 July, Mama, Uggie and I went to visit some historic houses in Auckland.  The first place was called Highwic which is in Newmarket.  It's a fine historical place in Auckland for people to visit.  Alfred Buckland built it for his 2 wives (the 1st wife died and then he married again) and his 21 children.  When they first lived there, there was no power.  The boys slept in a dormitory and the girls slept in their own rooms.  It took them 5 hours in a horse and buggy to go to their holiday house in Bucklands Beach - now days, that would take about 30 minutes.

The second house we went to was called Alberton, which is in Mt Albert.  It is a romantic timber mansion and it has towers and 18 rooms.  The maids slept up in the attic rooms.  They used to get up at 4.30am or 5am to light the fires.  The maids were not able to be seen by the family doing their work, so they had to get up to light the fires early so they weren't seen.  They went to bed about 11pm at night, so they only got 5.5-6 hours sleep a day.  They only had one day off each month.  The Kerr Taylor family lived there.  Mt Taylor is Glendowie is named after the family.

The meat store at Highwic

The Drawing Room at Highwic

The children's lounge at Highwic

Outside Highwic

Alberton

Looking down a well in the wash room at Alberton