Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

Orongorongo 1956

Orongaronga House, near Wellington. Photo from "The New Zealand House" by Sir Michael Fowler and Robert Van de Voort.

Daddios' memoirs, will update, but as the tape-recorder has decided to chew up any tape put in it, it will be a bit difficult. The gist of it was that I always liked the look of this house, and its strange, unobtrusive elegance. When I showed a photo of it to my mother I was a bit surprised when she said that she had been there. I presumed that it must have been some horsey do, gymkana thing. From Daddios' memoirs it appears that on arrival in New Zealand in 1956 they had been recommended to go and see Dan Riddiford at Orongorongo near Wellington. Dan Riddiford was supposed to be 'our man' in New Zealand as Heaths Insurance representative. According to Michael Fowlers book "The New Zealand House" Orongorongo was designed by Charles T. Natusch of Napier. Charles Natusch did a number of large elegant houses that had a very (and very rare) "New Zealand" characteristic to them.

Letter - 1957

Last Sunday we paid a visit to the Riddifords - the people that Cousin Madeline knows - one was Yvonne Westmacott, Madeleine's God-Daughter. We had lunch with them in their very pleasant house at (Lowng?) Bay. All the gardens are lovely just at the moment - full of flowers of English varieties and full too of flowers we have never seen before. 

As previously transcribed -

Visited Mr and Mrs Dan Riddiford. near Wellington. Recalled on the day they visited one of the housemaids had just announced she was leaving to join the army. Remembers being asked by Mr Riddiford "Do you 'unt, or do you shoot?" Mentions that in England to hunt or to shoot involved one having "tons of spare time and quite a lot of cash as well . . . so I felt a bit ... infra - below him. I couldn't think of that style of living for myself." Dan Riddiford later became a Member of Parliament and Minister of Justice in a National Government. He served in the army during the war, and learned he'd been called "Black Dan" during war - "he got fairly depressed about things sometimes and so they called him 'Black Dan,' something to describe his moods.