Ewelme Cottage

Ewelme Cottage was built in 1863 for the Reverend Vicesimus Lush and his wife Blanche, and it is one of the very few colonial homes in Auckland to have survived with its contents intact. Three generations of the same family lived here and almost nothing was thrown away, so the furniture, the paintings, the children's books and a library of more than eight hundred volumes are still in the rooms they were used in. Heritage New Zealand opens the cottage on Sundays through the year, and it makes a gentler stop than a large museum: small enough for children to take in, and quiet enough that the guides have time to answer questions. The garden and the old trees around it are part of the visit, and it sits a short walk from the Parnell Rose Gardens, so it pairs easily with an afternoon outdoors.