After an 18-month delay, a long-running restoration project to turn a 19th century smithy in Duntroon into a living history museum is back on track.
A group of local farmers bought the former Nicol's Blacksmith building in 1975 and transferred ownership of the 1890s weatherboard building to the Nicol's Blacksmith Charity Trust.
However, trust chairman John Hore said after the Christchurch earthquakes it had been difficult to find a structural engineer to write a planned report to further the project.
Plans were now being drawn up so quotes for restoration work could be obtained.
"We have had all the artefacts cleared out and catalogued. There were 1600 items in total so it is looking very empty at the moment.
"We were delayed in getting our report on the state of the building and what we needed to do to restore it.
"There is a lot of work to be done on it. All the walls are rotted out around the base.
"It is just a matter of getting some plans drawn up again."
Once plans had been drawn up, fundraising activities would start again, he said.
There was no clear cost estimate, but the project was likely to need "tens of thousands" of dollars.
The building was listed as a category 1 building by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust four years ago, and Mr Hore said the long-term aim would be to turn the building into a museum of living history.
"The dream is to have a craftsman working there full-time. We want to take educational groups through and we want them to see the sparks and hear the ringing of the hammer and anvil."
