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St Patricks's
Church
The church is open each day and there are a steady flow
of people that visit and enter comments in
the visitors book.
There are information panels about the Church and old Burkes Pass
just inside the door and also brochure on the Heritage Walk.
There are also postcards, heritage seeds and the
Spinsters Ball tea towels for sale
Available for Weddings and other occasions (see weddings page)
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Newly
registered as Category One with the NZ Historic Places
Trust. This means the New Zealand Historic Places Trust recognises this building has national significance as a
rare remaining and very early example of a union church in New Zealand. It
noted that that the church has been used as a church since its construction
and that it has a high degree of integrety and is
on its original site and includes original furnishings. Jane prepared a
large document to the NZHPT for this.
It looks great now that it is painted. Nov 2011.
One large tree on the left has been removed and the tall
trees to the northwest have been reduced in height by arborist John Baxter in Jan 2012 in horrible
weather. Helpers were the Corcorans, Hemmingsens, Batchelors and
Max (who spent about 3 days with his big chainsaw cutting up the stump and
took about 1 tonne of cones back to Timaru for
sale.) Next step is a work party to split all the wood for sale to defray
expenses.
The Church has also been inspected by an engineer for
structural soundness for insurance purposes (Sept 2011)
New mountain beech trees have also been planted at a
working bee in Sept. 2011 to the north west to eventually replace the big
pine trees (in the distant future)
Automatic outside lights were installed Dec. 2010
(designed, built and installed by Graham) They are LED type and weakly
illuminate the church by night.
An alarm was installed on the donation box July 2011
(designed, built and installed by Graham)
Security Cameras installed Jan 2012. (by Graham)
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Musterer's Hut
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The old bus
shelter has been converted to a place for heritage information and
displays using a musterer's hut theme.
There has been lots of progress. It has been
relocated , and a floor, fireplace, chimney and veranda , added. Max
Willets (twomm@xtra.co.nz)
is the project coordinator and he has done a great job. There is now a book
of old local stories and a temporary display of photos on the wall.
The old
limestone trough has been moved under shelter in the lean to and a classic
large picture of Tom Winter's Blacksmith's shop place above it.
A road side
wooden sign has also been erected with "open"
when he hut is open - which is usually daily.
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Anniss Cottage
 
before....
...as at april 2007
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Phase one to protect the old cob
walls with a roof has been completed and a
fence has been built (by the Fairlie Lions) to keep out stock.
Work was carried out at Easter 2007 on windows and front door along with
some cob reconstruction. By the Batchelor and Hemmingsen
family and there has been on going work by Jane
and whoever she can encourage to do more cob work. There is a lot of cob work to be done over the next few years.
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Cabbage Tree Flat
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About 300 trees were planted in
2005. Most of them have been planted in 3 fenced
off areas. The very cold winter in 2006 knocked them around a bit but they are growing well now.
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Heritage Walk 
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The heritage trail is a
marked grass track that extends from the cemetery to the cob cottages
with boardwalks (built by the Tekapo Lions)
over the wet parts. A brochure about what to see on the trails is available from the church. Work is being done
now on placing information displays on the
trail.
A new sign across the road from the Church helps to
define it. It is planned to put two new signs at each end of the walk.
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Web
Site and Face book page
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The web site has been up for 10
years but needed updating. This has just been done Jan 1012 but there are
plans for a total design makeover (by Graham)
We have also been “playing
around” with facebook to see if that helps
with communication. The jury is still out on that one!
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