One man's great legacy

LYNDA PAPESCH

Timara Lodge

Timara Lodge

Timara Lodge

Timara Lodge

Timara Lodge

« Previous« PreviousNext »Next »

Built for one of Marlborough's pioneering families, Timara Lodge has been lovingly looked after for decades.

Timara Lodge arguably boasts one of the most beautiful settings in Marlborough. In private ownership and operated as luxury accommodation set among 240 hectares of land, including 10ha of one of New Zealand's most beautiful English gardens and a large man-made lake, the lodge sits next to the sprawling Spy Valley vineyard and winery.

Built in 1924 at Hawkesbury, near Renwick, as a gentleman's residence for Marlborough identity Redwood Felix Goulter, Timara Lodge has remained in private ownership, despite being opened to paying guests since 1985.

An engineer, surveyor, farmer and local politician, Mr Goulter undertook a grand tour of Europe in 1910, gaining ideas for his own home while he was away. His diary records that he was "much struck with the engineering of the St Gothard tunnel", and on the way from Switzerland to Vienna he wrote that the country looked "beautifully green with luxuriant pastures".

Two years after Mr Goulter's death in 1934, Lake Timara – as the property was then known – was bought by Veysey Robinson who passed it on to his son, Gordon. Along with his wife, Norma, Gordon farmed the property for several years, adding the swimming pool in the early 1960s.

The property changed hands again in 1965 when Southland farmer Len Sutton bought it to farm sheep. It passed to his son, Graham, and wife Mo, who in 1985 opened Timara to paying guests.

The Suttons added an extension with new kitchen and family areas to the western end of the lodge and keen gardener Mo started a transformation of the gardens, adding flower borders, hornbeam hedges and a long walk lined with mop top Tasmanian blackwoods.

- The Marlborough Express

Newest First

Oldest First