MAHURANGI – A Peek Back In Time 

Recently Hugh Gladwell contacted WW re the above photos taken in and around Mahurangi in the early days. Hugh talks us thru them below –   

‘The top photo is the launch LAVINIA shown in front of Rodmersham the old house just inside the eastern headland of the harbour
The second is another unnamed launch heading down the Mahurangi River

The third is Sarah Lushington who owned Rodmersham in the late 1880s sitting on a pile of ballast out of the family yacht MURITAI which is behind her.  She is greeting her housemaid Mrs Brown who lived further up harbour at one time under an upturned boat The old house is much grander than it looks and little changed over almost 150 years. It was built in 1886 out of unreinforced concrete with walls a foot thick with sand from the beach in front, shingle from Motuora and lime from the kilns up the river. It has a large billiard room, servants quarters at the back upstairs and is straight and square with not a hairline crack visible anywhere. It has been in the same family ownership for about 5 generations’

So woodys can we learn more about LAVINIA and put a name to the mystery launch.