Exciting new online era for homestead | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

"We're bringing Adela Stewart into the 21st century," chuckles Athenree Homestead Trust chairperson Barbara McKernon.

Last year, the Waihi Beach Community Board gave the trust an $1125 grant for a website, which has been created by former Katikati resident Bradley Goldthorpe, an advertising firm website technician based in Wellington.

The grant covered setting up the website but not the domain name lease and website hosting costs totalling $139 a year, which the trust has paid.

At a Katikati BA5 meeting at the homestead tomorrow, two trust members will present a play depicting Adela Stewart - who built the homestead with her husband Hugh - daydreaming about the future and how tasks could be done in a more efficient way.

Visitors will see the website go live at the meeting "with a ceremonial pressing of the button".

Mrs McKernon said the website will bring the homestead into the modern age. It will be "a central communication point for the public"as volunteers tackle raising more than $350,000 to complete stage two of restoration.

The trust is soon starting an appeal for the Adela's Pioneer Kitchen Fund, "and people will be able to donate on the website".

The $393,000 project will transform the homestead to be much closer to the original building. "And we wanted to begin it yesterday," Mrs McKernon said.

Reinstating the wing includes Adela's pioneer/farmhouse kitchen, a scullery, pantry, dairy, bathroom, a bedroom above and a school room. It also involves work on a brick water tank adjacent to the kitchen.

While the kitchen is understood to have boasted a 20-seat round kauri table in Adela's day, the trust will put in a smaller version, "but we hope to re-create a Welsh-style dresser in the kitchen that Hugh Stewart made himself".

This wing was demolished more than seven years ago when it collapsed after a tree fell on it during a storm. "To me, this website had to come before the appeal because we need that focus point for communication," Mrs Mckernon said.

She hopes to update a daily blog and place a thermometer target on the website, which will update funds raised for the appeal, on a monthly basis.

"Anyone interested in this project can now be directed to the website - and everyone is welcome at the launch tomorrow from 5.15pm."

Go to www.athenreehomestead.org.nz