Keirunga Homestead

Description

Keirunga Homestead

From the Hastings District Council website –

Without immediately removing themselves from the house, on 15 August 1910 the Gardiners sold ‘Stadacona’ to Charles Ord Tanner and his wife Mary Davina Ann Tanner. It was the Tanners who changed the name from ‘Stadacona’ to ‘Keirunga’, which translates as ‘house on high’. In 1929, after Charles Tanner’s death, his widow sold the property to George Nelson.

George Nelson was born in England in 1871 and came to New Zealand as a young engineer. Mr Nelson had a fascination with Kew Gardens in England and this influenced his development of the Keirunga grounds. He collected oaks from all over Hawke’s Bay and spent a great deal of time landscaping the area.

In 1961 Mr George Nelson decided to gift 18 acres 1 rood and 37 perches of Keirunga Gardens to the Mayor, Councillors and Citizens of the Borough of Havelock North, to include the house and its garden after his death. Council accepted the gift and in 1964 when George Nelson died, a condition in his will stated that the homestead and the remaining two and a half acres was to be offered to the Havelock Borough Council for a nominal sum. This they purchased bringing the total area of Keirunga to 17 acres, the original area first surveyed in 1906.