Woodlands Estate

On Thursday, Peter, John and Lee and I visited the Woodlands Estate. Sadly, Bryan had worked the night shift the night before, and took advantage of the quiet house to get some sleep!
The estate had been reclaimed from swamp land, and the home and gardens were just beautiful!
We did have some rain, on and off, but we were able to duck under cover until the rain passed. Just like in the tropics, the rain moves in and out pretty quickly.
After our tour, we enjoyed a beer at the cafe on the premises.

The Woodland Estate.

Another view. The french door along the front gave the house a very open feeling.

This is the Kauri room - kauri wood is used in the floor, wall paneling and ceiling. A most elegant room!

The dining room. To the left of the railing are stairs down to a cellar which was used to store food and wine. It was pretty damp and cold down there.

The coal burning stove in the kitchen! That looks like lots of work!

Huge tree in the grounds of the estate.

One of the bridges over the lake.

A second bridge.

The house seen from the back of the grounds.

I decided to have a NZ beer, so ordered a Waikato Draught - turns out it's a heavy, dark "man's" beer! But it was pretty good.