Early history
The Whakatipu Waimāori / Lake Wakatipu and Head of the Lake area are of great significance to Kāi Tahu. A deed of recognition acknowledges the area and the cultural, spiritual, historical and traditional significance of Whakatipu Waimāori. ‘The name “Whakatipu-wai-māori” originates from the earliest expedition of discovery made many generations ago by the tupuna Rakaihautu and his party of the Uruao waka. Rakaihautu is traditionally credited with creating the great waterways of the interior of the island with his famous ko (a tool like a spade), known as Tu Whakaroria (renamed Tuhiraki at the conclusion of the expedition).’ A tipua (demi-god/metaphysical being) named Matua is believed to live in the lake, it is his somnolescent breathing that causes the rise and fall of the lake. Whakatipu Waimāori once supported nohoaka and villages that were the seasonal destinations of Otago and Murihiku / Southland whānau and hapū for many generations. Here they exercised ahi kā and accessed mahika kai and providing a route to access the treasured īnaka and kōkopu pounamu located beyond the head of the lake. Waka and mōkihi were the key modes of transport for the pounamu trade, travelling the length and breadth of Whakatipu Waimāori. There were numerous tauraka waka (landing places) on the lake and the islands upon it (Matau and Wāwāhi Waka). Consequently, there are several recorded archaeological sites relating to Māori activities in the vicinity of Paradise where Ari / Mt Alfred and Ōturu / Diamond Lake are the physical manifestations of tīpuna.
The tīpuna had an intimate knowledge of navigation, river routes, safe harbours and landing places, and the locations of food and other resources on the lake. The lake was an integral part of a network of trails which were used to ensure the safest journey and incorporated locations along the way that were identified for activities including camping overnight and gathering kai. Knowledge of these trails continue to be held by whānau and hapū and are regarded as taonga. Mahika kai, ‘places where food was produced or procured’, were a major focus of the Ngāi Tahu settlement and was well documented within the Wai 27 claim. The traditional mobile lifestyle of the people led to their dependence on the resources of the roto (lake). The mauri of Whakatipu Waimāori represents the essence that binds the physical and spiritual elements of all things together, generating and upholding all life. Europeans learned of the inland lakes from Māori. Chief Te Huruhuru provided Edward Shortland a map of the inland lakes in 1844. In 1848 the land in which Paradise came to be situated fell within the boundary of Kemps deed.
European settlement
European explorers and pastoralists became aware of the Whakatipu Waimāori in the mid-1850s. In 1853 Nathanael Chalmers was guided inland by Tūtūrau chief Reko when he saw Whakatipu Waimāori / Lake Wakatipu. In 1857-1858, the first Pākehā made it to the Head of the Lake and in 1860 William Rees and Nicholas von Tunzelman established their pastoral run on the edge of Whakatipu Waimāori / Lake Wakatipu where Queenstown would later develop. The magnificent landscape was noted in the Otago Witness, where it was prophesized the Lakes would be, ‘extensively visited for the mere purpose of viewing the grandeur of the scene.’ The influx of people following the gold rushes in the early 1860s saw Queenstown develop as a township and by the 1870s there was recognition of the tourist appeal of the Wakatipu area, and the need for accommodation.’
Early tourism
The history of Paradise House is tied to the development of tourism in the Queenstown area. Lake Wakatipu, with its connections initially to Kingston and Invercargill provided the main communication link with the outside world. In the 1870s tourists were few, largely of local origin, and little catered for. By this time, however, there was talk in the local paper about tourists and a tourist season. Paradoxically, there was a reduction in the quantity of hotels and accommodation, as goldminers moved on to the West Coast gold rushes. The number of hotels decreased from twenty in 1866 to twelve by the early 1880s and were vying for business from the travelling public. Part of the competition was offering special services such as guides and horses, including trips to the Head of the Lake. By the mid-1870s tourists were staying at Kinloch at Bryant’s Glacier Hotel, with Bryant letting out rooms, and providing meals and a guiding service for visitors.
The Queenstown area, promoted as the Cold Lakes and Glacial District of Otago, became part of the wider national and international tourist circuit both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was the rather colder equivalent of the Hot Lakes District in the North Island. By 1875 tourists from Europe the United States and Australia visited New Zealand. Status oriented classes were looking for more distant and less public resorts. Generally tourists were wealthy, and in the 1880s characterised by health and pleasure seekers. The Southern Lakes were included in tourist brochures alongside other attractions such as Te Aroha Hot Springs, Rotorua, Hanmer Springs, Te Anau and the Southern Alps with the Hermitage and Mt Cook. Accommodation houses were built in some isolated areas to provide for tourists. Other significant local examples include Glade House (built in 1896 at the Head of Lake Te Anau), and the Hermitage Accommodation House. Both were later taken over by the Government. Paradise was also to become part of the tourist circuit.
The North and South Island tourist areas benefited from the expansion of rail and the improved communications. On 10 July 1878 Whakatipu Waimāori / Lake Wakatipu was linked by 490 miles of rail to Amberley via Dunedin and Invercargill. With the Dunedin and Invercargill rail links extending to Kingston, and the ability to connect with shipping services, Steamer links to Glenorchy, and transport to Paradise House provided the essential rhythm of life for staff and guests. During the summer months tourist traffic was busy, ‘since the weekend trips were inaugurated hundreds of people have had the opportunity of viewing this region … where not even tens had seen it before.’ The Gardiner’s Reliable Tourist’s Guide to Wakatipu District and Lakes reported that steaming time was three hours. The Head of the Lake became the scenic attraction with the building of the first hotel at Glenorchy in 1880. For most visitors, it was a day excursion except for those who wished to climb Pikirakatahi / Mt Earnslaw, or who favoured a longer visit in the area. Glenorchy was also a service centre for scheelite mining.
William Mason’s Eden Grove
Paradise House, originally known as Eden Grove, was designed by New Zealand’s first architect William Mason as his rural retreat. Mason had a rich and successful career that started in England and Australia and saw him become a significant figure in the development of New Zealand architecture. His first wife’s nephew, Joseph Fenn, had taken up land at Paradise Flat, thought to be named for the native Paradise duck / pūtangitangi (Tadorna variegata). Mason was charmed by the area and had taken up sections and built a house for Kate, his second wife. In 1883 he commissioned local carpenter and joiner, Frederick Finch, to build the eight-room house which he called ‘Eden Grove’ for under £160 ($30,122). The Masons resided there until the early 1890s. While its name alluded to the site, Mason had owned a house of that name in Auckland. Stacpoole describes Eden Grove as a four-roomed house built on a slightly elevated site facing Diamond Lake, with a distant view of Rees Valley. When Mason had been living in the house for a couple of months, he had a visitor who recorded his experience. Caught in a summer thunderstorm, Auckland artist Charles Blomfield (1848-1926) made for a small house in the distance,
‘On receiving a kind instruction to enter I saw at once that this was something more than a shepherd’s hut or runholder’s shanty. The house was well built and furnished with grace and comfort; handsome pictures hung on the walls, and a well stocked library filled up one side of the room. Feeling surprised at such signs of refinement in a place so far from civilisation, and no doubt showing my surprise on my face, I soon learned that the owner of the house was Mr Mason, a retired architect, who has chosen this spot for his summer home.’
After a few years of farming Mason decided to open Paradise as a tourist resort and in 1885 David Aitken (1840-1928) and his wife Jane (Jeannie) Bartlett (1859-1935) moved into the staff cottage. To cater for tourists Mason added on fifteen bedrooms. When the Aitken’s left to farm in Rees valley, the Harris’ ran the guest house for two years. In 1890 Mrs Mason asked the Aitkens to return to Eden Grove, offering them the lease on the accommodation house with an option to purchase. At this time Mason’s poor health forced him to move to Queenstown where he stayed at Eichardt’s Hotel for a time. In 1894 they returned to Dunedin and William Mason died there in 1897.
The Aitkens era 1890-1943
When the Aitkens took over Eden Grove the house could accommodate 60 people and provided the base for perhaps thousands of people’s experiences of the remote wilderness surrounding the House. David, Jeannie and their children James, Isabella (Poppy) and John (Jack) were the centre for life in Paradise. Reading the pages of the Visitors Books the Aitkens become a larger-than-life presence, noted for their hospitality and their hard work. Their openness, humour, and sheer ability to make people feel part of the family made a stay at Paradise House a memorable experience, a special place in an outstanding landscape. There were many return visitors who recalled their experiences with fondness. David and the children guided their guests on their wilderness expeditions. Jack was associated with the New Zealand Alpine Club. The family’s local knowledge was very important. The children were valuable helpers in the daily operation. After the death of David, Isabella was said to have, ‘taken on more than her fair share of the management of the business.’ In addition to her domestic duties, and the ‘conduct of the post and telegraph bureau’ she also did a ‘considerable amount of guiding work.’ She also conveyed the passengers to and from Glenorchy. She was a ‘genial personality and gained the love and esteem of hosts of friends amongst tourists as well as the local population … she never had the privilege of taking a holiday; she actually died in harness.’
The road to Glenorchy was Paradise’s physical connection to the outside world. The steamer docked at Glenorchy where a service industry grew up providing accommodation, excursions, and guiding to the surrounding mountains. As the area grew in popularity, provision of transport to Paradise became an important part of the local economy. The buggy ride to Paradise took one and a half hours. The trip through the landscape, the journey narrated by the buggy driver, led tourists into a kind of mythical place; passing through Heaven’s Gate and over the River Jordan into Paradise. The descriptions and language set the scene for their experiences at Paradise House. Guests enjoyed the word play, commenting on their stay, and their walks around the property to other divine places such as the Rock of Ages and the Garden of Eden. Tourists visiting Paradise were enthralled by the scenery. The Visitors Books are full of superlatives describing the mountains, the lakes, the weather, the sand flies, the food, and other guests, everything except physical details of the Guest House itself.
Gardiner described Mr Aitken’s accommodation house as an ‘excellent one…in every respect.’ Advertisements for Paradise House note that the proprietor had ‘made considerable additions to his House, affording ample accommodation for visitors wishing for a quiet holiday amongst Forest, Lake and Mountain scenery of beauty unsurpassed.’ The rates were 30s per week, or 6s per day. George Moore describes the Aitken’s ‘pretty little white cottage with its tidily trimmed hedges of New Zealand fur ‘micacarpa’ cropped till they look like green walls.’ Moore also describes the living area and bedrooms of the House as ‘nice, clean and comfortable looking and we have a nice sitting room, well supplied with books.’
The Annexe was built in the 1890s, with a tourist guide of that time noting that the David Aitken’s had ‘made considerable additions to his House.’ This included a honeymoon suite with a four-poster bed. The front annexe was also where the boys of the family used to stay. Sometime after 1910 the roof of the homestead was remodelled and extended to the edge of the guest wing roof. The pitch was raised, and the roof form changed to double hipped. The kitchen area was probably extended at this time too.
As the family and the community expanded, further accommodation was built. The Big Cottage was built for Jack Aitken and his wife to live in when they got married around 1912. In 1914 the Garden of Eden Cottage was built to house the Ross family who worked at the local Sheelite mines. Later it was utilised as temporary accommodation for miners.
The School House operated at Paradise in the 1920s teaching the Aitken children as well as children of the sheelite miners.
Paradise House grew much produce on the property, an indication of the importance of the surrounding grounds. These included a substantial vegetable garden as well as fruit trees and berries. Visitors in the 1890s often commented on the Devonshire cream and strawberries – ‘all are suffering from a surfeit of strawberries.’ Jeannie would sell milk, eggs and surplus fruit and vegetables to the miners. Hops were grown on the front veranda, and still come up today. Yeast was made from potato water,
‘Grandmother used to make her own bread [,] half filling two four-gallon kerosene tins with flour, a bottle of yeast with some sugar in each tin, stirred around, then covered with thick blankets, and stood by the warm stove overnight.’
The kitchen was the centre of activity on boat days, heightened by the big lunch crowds but always busy through the season. The two double oven stoves, fitted with large wood burners produced great joints of roast meat, cauldrons of soup and old-fashioned iron pots of vegetables and fruit pies. Cold desserts could be found in the outside safe.
Paradise House was inseparable from the appeal of the gardens and grounds, and the surrounding landscape. Guests also provide some insight into the surrounding gardens. George Moore describes sitting on the seat under the veranda,
‘[with the] bright little garden in front of us and the evening air bracing, although perfectly still and then we took a turn around the houses. What a lot of little attachments, stables, cow sheds, poultry houses, etc. sheep, geese, hens etc. and at the back without any fence, the beech wood, all so fresh with its bright green foliage ... we go into the little parlour, where a bright hanging oil lamp gives us a good light and we settle down to read.’
Throughout the Visitors Books comments are made about the exceptional atmosphere and family involvement. Hyperbole may be normal in Visitors Books, but it seems like this place really was, as one guest put it ‘more like a home than a boarding house.’ Many visitors returned over the decades. A retrospective written in 1947 described the place as a ‘playground for thousands of tourists and honeymooners.’ It was certainly an attractive place to visit by locals and those from abroad.
Heffernan notes the variety of ‘professors of this and that’, doctors, medical and otherwise, school principals, teachers, surveyors and artists stayed at Paradise. These included Charles Blomfield, Francis Hodgkins, Kitty Geisow, Margaret Holloway, Evelyn Page, James Peele, Susannah Joachim, and Margaret Stoddart, along with Mr Moultry with his students. Photographers from Dunedin such as the Burton Brothers, and Muir and Moodie visited. J.D.S. Roberts, a freelance photographer for the Otago Witness and the Weekly News stayed in 1937, spending three days with a half plate camera. He returned in July of the same year for winter shots.
Paradise was part of the network of linked walks. The Government recognised the importance of these links, noting that the most important work in the Wakatipu district was the ‘opening-up of a route whereby visitors may reach Te Anau from Lake Wakatipu and vice versa.’ In 1912 the first group ‘other than guides’ undertook the new Te Anau to Wakatipu track. Side trips were important for the tourist business. David and Jack Aitken guided in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fergie Heffernan took over in the 1920s with a buggy and drag. There were eleven riding horses available at that time. Routeburn and Rees Valley trips were popular with riders. As transportation styles changed, Paradise adapted and Jack Aitken transported tourists in various vehicles from around 1919 first in a Model T Ford. The road between Glenorchy and Queenstown opened in 1962, ending the transport services in Glenorchy and in November 1970 the TSS Earnslaw service was withdrawn.
Paradise House was also a meeting place for the scattered farming community. A church service was held once a month in the dining room, with the Presbyterian and Anglican ministers taking turnabout. Occasionally the Salvation Army officer would come on a bicycle, which he had travelled with on the steamer. Fergie Heffernan used to take the ministers up Rees Valley for an afternoon service, and back to Glenorchy for the evening service. Records show that a Post and Telegraph Office was in operation at Paradise from 1894 until at least the 1950s. Paradise had its own franking stamp. The telephone line is believed to have been put in by Joseph Fenn. The Post Office was located off the dining room in a separate addition with a lean-to roof and was approximately 2.5m square. It is possible the letter slot at the front door with its large box on the inside and elegant raised and diamond moulded access door was fitted at this time for posting mail.
After David Aitken died in 1928, money was tight. The Depression added to the problems. Jeannie Aitken allowed miners to stay at the House for no charge and consequently the Aitkens owed a lot of money to the storekeeper in Glenorchy, Jack Thornton, and sold the property to pay off the debt in the early 1930s to his widow Johanna. According to Barbara Heffernan in an interview in 1997, the Aitkens gave up the Guest House operation because they ‘couldn’t attune to the modern ways’; the boarding house was no longer fashionable.
The Veints era: 1943-1949
Charles Lloyd Veint and his wife Muriel bought the property and continued to run Paradise as a guest house in the late 1940s. Lloyd Veint’s son Jim recalled their period at Paradise as a busy time, helping for the visitors, including as a young child, guiding groups of tourists to the scheelite mine. In the forties there were only two weekly steamer trips in winter, and three in summer, so the numbers of guests were limited, and the property did not provide a good living.
The Miller era: 1949-1998
Veint sold the Paradise House to Thomas Hugh Miller in October 1949, and bought the farm next door, Arcadia. Miller had come from Bermuda and was a widely travelled businessman. The family moved to the White Star Hotel in Queenstown for three months, heard about Paradise House and bought it. Miller had ambitious plans to transform Paradise into a luxury lodge built of stone and logs to cater for hunters, fishers, and honeymooners. This was at a time when there was a shortage of accommodation in the Glenorchy and wider Queenstown area. Miller’s plans never went ahead. They used Paradise House as a private dwelling, but continued to accommodate visitors at Paradise, where they camped or stayed in the various cottages and huts around the property. In 1967 Thomas’s son David Miller took over the ownership of the property. On David Miller’s death in 1998, a nationwide appeal was launched for a new owner, which caused much excitement and attention. Miller had been trying to give away the property since 1982, the criteria being that the property should remain ‘open for all to enjoy; it must remain free from commercial development; and it must never be sold.’ Just before David Miller’s death in 1998, the property was transferred to the Paradise Trust to protect the unique qualities of the place. The Trust continues to administer Paradise today.
Paradise Trust (1998 - )
The Paradise Trust deed notes the primary object of the Trust is to ‘own, manage and make available Paradise for the present and future benefit and wellbeing of: residents of and visitors to the Queenstown Lakes District; Children; specific groups of people with a particular disability or need; and the public in general.’ The purposes of the Trust include the continuing availability of the place for local visitor accommodation and for educational purposes, and also to make Paradise accessible for people with disabilities. The intention of the Trust is to avoid any development or use which would substantially change the existing character and experience of Paradise. The Trust deed states further objects were ‘the preservation, conservation, protection and management of the open space natural resources, wildlife, birdlife, indigenous vegetation, flora and fauna of Paradise; the provision of opportunities for public use and enjoyment of Paradise and the encouragement of sustainable educational and recreational use of Paradise; to carry on any other charitable object which may seem to the Trustees capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with the above objects or calculated directly or indirectly to advance the objects of the Trust or any of them.’ In relation to future development the powers of building and development ‘shall be limited to low impact, non-intrusive development and building of a scale similar to that which already exists on Paradise.’
Paradise has an important link to outdoor education, with local schools using it as a base for school camps. Tertiary institutions have a long-standing link to the property, with both the University of Otago School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences as well as the University of South Australia using it as a base for several decades. The landscape values were also recognised in the use of the area as the setting for Peter Jackson’s movie of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Paradise Trust, with the support of the Community Employment Group, commissioned a conservation plan for Paradise in 2002 and ecologist Brent Fagan completed a study of the flora of Paradise with a landscape plan by landscape architect Mary Wallace.
The fire of May 2014
On the morning of 23 May 2014, a lightning strike caused a devastating fire which destroyed the recently restored Paradise House. Years of gifted artworks, furniture and several visitor’s books were lost as well. New visitor’s books have been created and the significance and value of Paradise to new and returning visitors alike, shine through,
‘We are honoured to be the first guests to stay since Paradise re-opened. Coming out here is like taking a step back in time. From the beautifully restored buildings, the animals …[and w]hat a wonderful place and an example for us all on how to preserve a place and wonderful environments. Thank you. It really is paradise.’
The visitor’s books also reveal the long-standing connections with returning visitors. After the fire the Trust received cards and letters of condolence from families as well as gifts of furniture, artefacts, paintings, and money. Environmental work continues with Paradise Trust contributing to the work of the Wakatipu Wildlife Trust which was established in 2018 to join up local groups interested in predator management. Bird life is returning and flourishing in the area again thanks to the predator control programme, weed control and replanting programmes. In 2019 the longstanding relationship with the University of Otago ended after over 40 years. In September 2020 Paradise was the recipient of an Otago Community Trust grant of $80,000 to help restore the historic barn.
