St Peter's Church Te Kopuru

 Te Kopuru, just out of Dargaville is one of those old kiwi towns filled with old villas and bungalows from when it was first settled in the mid 1800s.  Last time we were up that way I got B to stop next to an old church I saw from the roadside. St Peter's Anglican Church is on the Heritage List and was built in 1902. 

It has a square belfry tower with a pyramid shaped roof and a wooden cross on it's northern side. It was designed by priest/architect Henry Barnard Wingfield who came to NZ when he was a boy and settled in Dunedin with his family. He studied architecture before being ordained in 1897. In 1899 he was appointed the first vicar at Pokeno, South of Auckland and in 1904 he was appointed to St Alban's in Balmoral, Auckland where he served for 22 years. In 1926 he was appointed vicar this time to the Holy Trinity Church in Devonport, Auckland remaining there until his retirement in 1931.

He devoted his time to ecclesiastical architecture and has been credited with the design of St Mary's Church Pokeno, St Alban's Waingaro, St Bride's Otorohanga and St Peter's Te Kopuru.

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Quirky villa in Te Kopuru

In mid 2010 I worked in Dargaville for about a year, sometimes I'd drive around the area looking for interesting things to take photos of. This vintage villa in Te Kopuru is loaded with decorations and is owned by local Leon Searle, he use to be a fisherman but is now retired. The garden is mostly full of fishing floats (buoys).

Moving along...this week has been full of surprises for us. Our landlord dropped by with a letter saying we have 45 days to find another rental property. Talk about bad timing. When we signed up for this one last year they asked us to sign a 1 year lease which we thought was a  bit suspect so we refused. Looks like they only wanted us here for that period of time, apparently they want to move in as owners which legally they can do so we are trying to find somewhere new before we go on holiday.

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