Highwic

Highwic is the Gothic colonial villa of a prominent colonial stock trader. The home was occupied by the family until the 1970s and the bought by Auckland city council and renovated as a museum. The rooms are decorated in a period style with some family belongings original to the house.
When I arrived it was a quiet summer afternoon so the docent had the time to explain all about the family and life of the house. You could really imagine living here with the bustle of children (21 in total), balls in the living room and tennis on the lawn. That being said, knowing that a wealthy family in Auckland only had this kind of a home reminds you of how precious everything was in New Zealand at the time, so far from Britain.
I toured the home and then strolled the gardens. I’d recommend a picnic lunch and a visit if historical houses are your thing. If in doubt come, it’s a beautiful piece of history.

I brought my Mum here last mother’s day because I had seen they were doing a high tea event kind of like what The Langham does. I was initially attracted to the idea because their ticket prices were only $ 39 as opposed to the Langham’s $ 75 ticket price. I ordered four, one for each member of my family and it only came to $ 150 odd which I thought was really reasonable. If you want something a little more special you have the option of making it a champagne high tea which puts the ticket price to $ 59 but my Mum doesn’t really drink and she really enjoys her tea so I stuck to the normal ticket. When we got there we were able to look around the historic house for a while which was pretty amazing and we enjoyed it. For the event, the room was beautifully decorated and we were shown to our table immediately. Because we were only a group of four we had to share with another family which was fine because they didn’t have much space in the room. There was a tea menu and it was unlimited so I tried all the different tea’s they had to offer. The food was also very lovely, it arrived on a big teared cake stand savoury first followed by sweet. The staff were attentive and efficient you would never have guess that this was Highwic’s first mother’s day event. I was very impressed overall and I would definitely come here again for mother’s day.

Highwic House is a wonderful illustration of what enrichment heritage buildings can bring to a community. Smack bang in the middle of the busy Newmarket shopping precinct, it seems a rather incongruous place to find such a place, but it has stood the test of time in this location, its been there since 1862!
Up a steep driveway and surrounded by a lovely manicured lawn and trees, its hard to believe that you are still in one of Auckland’s most bustling areas.
The day I was there, I was there solely for a visit to the ‘museum’, the inside of the house itself has been preserved as would have been back in the day, which provides a interesting insight into this specific time period. I loved all the old antiques and things.
My friend who came with me actually commented that she had been before as her cousin had his wedding/​reception at Highwic and she thought it was an amazing venue for that sort of thing. That it is.