Sun-baked Queenstown holiday haven Kelvin Heights Peninsula has a colourful and chequered history, as a new book records. Sue Fea caught up with the author.
Kelvin Heights Peninsula is known for its lakefront ''million dollar'' real estate row, winter sun and golf. But that is recent history. The peninsula has a rich and colourful past, a story now recorded by long-time peninsula resident and retired county clerk George Singleton.
The 74-year-old with strong southern roots and a love for preserving history is full of entertaining stories about days gone by on his beloved peninsula. He's channelled much of his energy during the past seven years into unearthing and documenting an area of Queenstown steeped in history.
Tomorrow the Kelvin Peninsula Community Association, of which Mr Singleton is a past chairman, will unveil the result of his efforts, Our Place in the Sun. Packed with historic photographs, the coffee-table-style book is a colourful account of the area since Wakatipu pioneer William Rees first built his homestead at the Kawarau Falls, now the site of Queenstown's Hilton Hotel.
The book, Mr Singleton says, was born out of ''a facetious remark'' he made back in 2006.
''The then chairman of the association, Peter Willsman, asked me to recount the happenings at Jardine Park and I said `the whole peninsula needs documented', to which he replied, `you can do it then','' says Mr Singleton, with a laugh.
The association originally intended the book to be published in 2008 to mark the 50-year anniversary of farmer Grieve Jardine's first subdivision of the peninsula block in 1958.
However, good things take time: ''It's been sitting around for a few years,'' Mr Singleton says.
Countless reports, newspaper clippings, Lakes District Museum and library treasures have been crafted together with many an historic tale.
''It's taken thousands of hours. I've picked a lot of brains.''
One of the sharpest brains Mr Singleton picked was that of the late Jessie Jardine, before she died in 2010, aged 95. A third-generation Wakatipian, she was the wife of the late Dickson (''Cap'') Jardine, brother of Grieve, whose parents farmed Kawarau Falls Station. The family lived at the original Falls homestead built by Rees in the 1860s.
One of the district's pioneers, Mrs Jardine knew every nook and cranny of the peninsula.
Mr Singleton searched high and low along the shores around Kawarau Falls to no avail for the legendary cave where Donald Hay was thought to have sheltered. The first European to land on the peninsula, Hay sailed around Lake Wakatipu on a flax raft in 1859.
''Jessie assured me there was no such cave, so we've settled for a rock overhang instead. She was a tremendous help and hugely encouraging,'' Mr Singleton says.
The swift and deep water of the mighty Kawarau River is a force to be reckoned with and back before the immensely challenging construction of the Kawarau Bridge, completed in 1926, lives were lost crossing its powerful path.
It may appear old and rickety now, but the Kawarau bridge is testament to the hardy crews of men keen for work during the depression years, who endured arduous conditions to construct what was actually a dam for a gold company. They chipped away by hand, without the aid of electricity or machinery, which was being rationed at the time.
The Kawarau Falls were blasted away between 1922 and 1924 to make way for the new Kawarau dam.
''In those days the lake was 2m higher. They blew the falls up to build the dam and as part of their Wardens Court approval they had to build a class 2 bridge on top ... and it's still a class 2 bridge,'' jokes Mr Singleton.
Scaffolding was drawn from the nearby Kawarau Falls Station blue gum trees.
Ironically the Lake County Council of the day had just started building a bridge downstream, which was abandoned when the gold company built one instead. But even with access opened there were few houses on the peninsula until the 1960s.
The association, known for fiercely protecting its beautiful environs from over-development, was not formed until the 1980s, by which time about 250 homes had been built.
However, even before its time, intensive commercial development struggled to make inroads, the large Hilton Hotel, which opened several years ago, the only successful example.
Many have tried.
Club Med met strong opposition when it aired plans to develop a resort on what is now the Wakatipu Yacht Club site. Rowan Court timeshare was an innovative plan for a Kelvin Heights subdivision proposed by developer John Reid in 1967. He also planned a commercial town centre with motel blocks and a restaurant. A separate plan for 61 shops, apartments and offices followed. A gondola was even proposed across The Narrows from Queenstown in 1986. None of these got off the ground.
So far one of the country's most picturesque golf courses, a croquet green and a yacht club are the only signs of development that have taken hold on the beautiful peninsula, their stories and histories all recounted in the book.
But one of the most interesting stories for Mr Singleton has been the tale of persistence by peninsula farmer Frank Mee, who has been farming the area around his Deer Park Heights tourism operation since 1960.
''He had such a struggle to get a licence for that deer park. He had to fight officials and he never gave up. He was probably one of the first in New Zealand to farm deer, but the Department of Agriculture wouldn't allow any wild deer, they all had to be bred in captivity.''
Few may be aware that Mr Mee turned his farm lease in so the golf club could secure its present land. He also donated two sections towards their clubhouse fundraising efforts, Mr Singleton says.
Another gem within the book's covers would have to be the history behind Ah Bow's cottage, a delightful lovingly restored white stone cottage just past the Kelvin Peninsula turn-off, heading south to Kingston. It is believed to have been built by William Rees or his successors, the Boyes brothers.
Boating legends, pre-European and European settlement, early farming days in a harsh and rugged environment, the history behind Lakeland Park Christian Camp and Jardine Park, it's all there as well as how Kelvin Heights and Kelvin Peninsula got their names.
We have commercial launch operator Jock Edgar, who began making brief tourist stopovers on the peninsula beach with his launch named Kelvin, to thank for that.
- Our Place in the Sun is on sale for $34.50, available from Hilton Queenstown or the Kelvin Peninsula Community Association via email: talk2kpca@gmail.com
