Kuriheka (11): farm equipment
The legendary "Kuriheka", a magnificent 32-room C18th/C19th Oamaru-stone homestead, houses one of the most significant private collections in NZ.
Kuriheka's founder Colonel Joseph Cowie Nichols CBE (who served in both the British and NZ Forces) bought the 12,545ha Kuriheka Station in 1885. He gathered together a collection that is eclectic and often internationally significant.
It boasts Chippendale and Sheraton furniture, paintings by renowned artists, the world's largest private war-medal collection, 550-year-old books, indigenous pre-European artefacts, royal suits of armour, and C7th Near Eastern ceramics, a large assortment of Aboriginal weapons, maori weapons (including a pre-European taiaha, a cloak given to him by Chief Iaumata of Otopu in 1884), and weapons and tools from many Pacific cultures.
The war medal collection (with 620+ medals), is believed to be the largest such private collection in the world. A large number of Maori Land War medals and medals from conflicts in China are displayed, as well as a full collection of British campaign medals from the Battle of Waterloo up to/including WWII.
Following WWI, Nichols collected a variety of field guns which are now mounted around the local war memorial on the farm. A bronze memorial plaque on the cairn (which was built in 1922) states it is a memorial to "servants of Kuriheka" (estate staff and workers) who fought in WWI, and records the service of 83 persons and the death of 21 of those.
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Kuriheka Estate has a Heritage NZ Historic Place Cat.1 listing (No.347).
Kuriheka (11): farm equipment
The legendary "Kuriheka", a magnificent 32-room C18th/C19th Oamaru-stone homestead, houses one of the most significant private collections in NZ.
Kuriheka's founder Colonel Joseph Cowie Nichols CBE (who served in both the British and NZ Forces) bought the 12,545ha Kuriheka Station in 1885. He gathered together a collection that is eclectic and often internationally significant.
It boasts Chippendale and Sheraton furniture, paintings by renowned artists, the world's largest private war-medal collection, 550-year-old books, indigenous pre-European artefacts, royal suits of armour, and C7th Near Eastern ceramics, a large assortment of Aboriginal weapons, maori weapons (including a pre-European taiaha, a cloak given to him by Chief Iaumata of Otopu in 1884), and weapons and tools from many Pacific cultures.
The war medal collection (with 620+ medals), is believed to be the largest such private collection in the world. A large number of Maori Land War medals and medals from conflicts in China are displayed, as well as a full collection of British campaign medals from the Battle of Waterloo up to/including WWII.
Following WWI, Nichols collected a variety of field guns which are now mounted around the local war memorial on the farm. A bronze memorial plaque on the cairn (which was built in 1922) states it is a memorial to "servants of Kuriheka" (estate staff and workers) who fought in WWI, and records the service of 83 persons and the death of 21 of those.
==========
Kuriheka Estate has a Heritage NZ Historic Place Cat.1 listing (No.347).