Country Churches of NZ 131. St. Peter's, Queenstown, Central Otago

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

ST. PETER'S, QUEENSTOWN

For hoteliers and restaurateurs tourism has blessed Queenstown (where the second language is Japanese).

For historians its gems lie buried in a sea of gift shops, bistros, bars, tour coaches, motels, banks and bureaux de change.

I am therefore not contrite for leaving out everything around St Peter's to show it as it must, in essence, have looked on the day it opened in 1932.

Redolent of the archetypal English Gothic parish church, it was designed by J. McDowall Smith of Dunedin.

Its random rubble walls are stones from the beaches of Lake Wakatipu. It replaced an 1863 wooden church that was removed to Omakau, north of Alexandra.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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