The House of the Spirits

The landscape of the King Country is dotted with limestone rocks but also rustic sheds, picturesque barns, and sometimes abandoned houses.

The latter are somewhat unusual from my perspective. They are left untouched to weather and eventually collapse. We drive by two often in our travels:

 
 

John wants me to research the histories of these weathered structures, write about their stories and photograph them seriously.  While we do not understand the cultural issues that may be associated with this practice, it is thought that in the early days when a person died in a house that it was abandoned.  We really don't know if this is true, "rural legend," or simply misinformation.

Isabel Allende's novel "The House of the Spirits" drifted into my mind as I was thinking about this. It makes me smile to think the spirits may have kept their homes for eternity.

 

 

Comments

[Tina]

I was very interested in your blogs, my father grew up in Pio Pio in the 1940s. He said the house looks very familiar but just cant place its location. He also said told me at Paemako when a relative died in a house on a nearby property his Granny took him down there to help her dismantle it, the house was more like a small batch and after he had stacked the timber and roof iron Granny made him wash his hands in a running stream nearby while she chanted over him, this was to rid him and protect him from any spirits that may still be part of the house that he had touched. I thought this was an interesting story he told me as a result of your blog, so I wanted to share it with you.

[Karen]

Hi Tina, thanks for sharing that from your father. Our farm is in Paemako. One of the houses I photographed is on Troopers Road, the other on the main road into Te Kuiti.