Station Life in New Zealand
Written by Mary Anne Barker
Narrated by LibriVox Community
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Station Life in New Zealand is a collection of cheerful and interesting letters written by Lady Mary Anne Barker (nee Mary Anne Stewart) that is a New Zealand "classic". These letters are described in the Preface as "the exact account of a lady's experience of the brighter and less practical side of colonisation". The letters were written between 1865 and 1868 and cover the time of her travel with her husband (Frederick Broomie) to New Zealand and life on a colonial sheep-station at their homestead "Broomielaw", located in the Province of Canterbury, South Island of New Zealand. Although these letters are written with great humour and fine story telling, her life was marred by tragedy while in Canterbury through the illness and eventual death of her baby son.
The first four ships of settlers that colonised the Canterbury region had only arrived in 1850. Consequently, little was known about, for example, the irregular Canterbury weather patterns that would dominate the lives of Lady Barker and her husband for those three short years. She describes the regular predations of the Canterbury nor'wester (a type of Fohn wind), including its role in completely blowing away her attempts at establishing a croquet lawn, the devastating effects of snow storm that killed over half of their sheep, and of a great flood that not only flooded Christchurch but demolished her poultry and nearly drowned her husband.
Lady Mary Anne Barker was a strong horse woman and very keen for all sorts of "adventures". She describes instigating a bitterly cold late autumn overnight camping trip to the top of their nearest hill, Flagpole, followed the next morning by a serene sunrise over the Canterbury plains. In other letters, she describes her pride and enjoyment at joining and keeping up with nine men, who doubted her abilities, for long hours of walking in untracked, untamed bush with the aim of hunting wild cattle; and her joy at setting ablaze the tussock grasslands on their sheep station in spite of the risk to her eyelashes. As one of the few women in her part of Canterbury at the time, she also helped provide the neighbourhood with books to read, and baptism and schools for children. Lady Mary Anne Barker and her husband returned to England at the end of 1868. (Summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan)
Related to Station Life in New Zealand
Related audiobooks
B. J. Harrison Reads The Master of Ballantrae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDancing at the Rascal Fair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Englishwoman in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Young Man on a Bicycle and The Goldini Bath Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Princess Passes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHis Dog Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waverley, Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinds of Chance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorth to Yesterday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Who Went to Alaska Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mary Louise Solves a Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristmas, A Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBullock Creek: Barry Crump Collected Stories Book 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of Mevagissey: Tales for the Red Lips Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLilac Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Dress Makes of Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tales and Tails of a Yorkshire Vet: All in a day's work for Peter Wright Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stickeen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masterman Ready Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trail of the Lonesome Pine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finn The Wolfhound Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirst Dog on Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFast in the Ice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDamon Runyon Theater - Big Umbrella & Earthquake: Episode 14 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Men on the Bummel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLad: A Dog Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swingtime for Hitler: Goebbels’s Jazzmen, Tokyo Rose, and Propaganda That Carries a Tune Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church, and the Great Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lafayette in the Somewhat United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Station Life in New Zealand
2 ratings0 reviews