The addition to the tiny 1923 cottage has kept the building's character, while letting in more light and expanding the living space, kitchen and number of bedrooms. The couple said the old coal range had to stay and the plans for an extension had to fit around an old grapevine and fruit trees. ''It didn't have a proper kitchen bench, there was just a cooker, zip heater, a water heater and that was it.''Īn architect drew up plans for the Packers, working around some ''no go'' areas. They came up for the summer and planned a few changes to the building.
They had considered building a holiday home in Central Otago but decided this house fitted the bill and they could shift in straight away. ''There were no other houses in the street then and there was just scrub next door.'' ''It was springtime and the wattle was flowering and the plum tree in the garden was in full bloom and there was a ''For Sale'' sign on the house so we thought: let's have a look,'' she said. Her husband, a consultant surgeon, carried out clinics at Wanaka once a month and on that particular weekend they detoured into Bannockburn on the way home to Dunedin. ''It was serendipity,'' Mrs Packer believes. Neither Helen nor Stephen Packer had ever been to Bannockburn when they detoured into the historic Central Otago town 17 years ago. Lynda van Kempen takes a closer look at the character-filled home and grounds that are the holiday base for three generations of their family. It was meant to be - that's how Stephen and Helen Packer sum up their purchase of a corrugated iron-clad house in Bannockburn.
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