Your Home and Garden – November 2003

A century ago, Greg and Linda Marshall’s home boarded one of New Zealand’s premier tourist attractions. Back then, Te Aroha was a bustling spa town, humming with visitors who came to bathe in healing waters and drink the sparkling mineral water that bubbled out of the ground. According to the Marshalls, growing numbers of tourists are rediscovering the picturesque Te Aroha Domain with its geyser, hot pools and gardens adjacent to their property.

“It was ‘location, location, location’,” Linda says of their decision to buy the 110-year-old kauri villa beside the domain gates. “We loved the thought of living at the foot of the mountain, while having the bush at your back door and our little town just at your front door. Being able to walk to the cafes and the supermarket makes it a unique place to live.”

While the house was structurally sound, it had not been renovated for decades. The kitchen still housed the original coal range together with a more modern stove, while an old copper was stowed in the the washhouse. Both antiques have since been retired to a museum in Katikati, where visiting children learn to bake scones in the range and wash clothes in the copper. Read the rest of this entry »