A group of Otago Polytechnic stonemasonry students have been using their new-found skills to restore century-old stone walls on the Otago Peninsula. The dry-stone walls were originally built in the 1880s with local basalt, stonemasonry lecturer Steve Holmes said.
''There's great value in having the skills to maintain these culturally important and functional walls, which are found in many parts of the world.
''This was an opportunity for students to test the traditional skills we teach. Sections of the walls had collapsed and the property owner invited us to repair them. We stayed on site, in the way the original stonemasons would have.''
Mr Holmes trained as a stonemason and worked on remodelling stone houses and barns and landscaping with stone in England's Lake District. He now leads the one-year stonemasonry course in Cromwell.
''For someone interested in stonework, Central Otago is an obvious place to be,'' he said.
''The region is renowned for its rich cultural heritage and historic stone buildings, dating back 150 years to the gold-mining era. There's a fascinating legacy here of the different regional styles that early European settlers brought with them from the other side of the world.''
