#Go virtual cottage free

However, she found it difficult to adjust and took her own life on 14 July 1953. Unable to stay at the cottage by herself, Annie was taken to live with relatives in Timaru. He had been returning from a provisioning trip. Henry died on the side of the track in August 1951 aged 83. The ceremony was followed by a wedding feast of roast goat, potatoes and bread with toasts of whisky and water. The couple were married at the cottage on 5 April 1932 by both Anglican and Presbyterian ministers.

#Go virtual cottage free

She always dressed in Edwardian-style clothing for visitors who were required to signal their approach with a loud “cooee!”Īlmost 20 years after fleeing, Annie’s first husband died and she was finally free to wed. Annie however remained a recluse leaving the hut only once for an urgent operation at Nelson Hospital. Henry was in regular contact with the outside world through his mining ventures and trips out to Motueka and Takaka for supplies.

From about 1936 a battery driven radio took pride of place in the living room.Ĭhaffey spent many years mining and trying to encourage commercial interest in the local asbestos deposits as well as searching for other minerals. Shelves around the walls and in the bedroom were laden with preserves, jams and pickles. The floor was covered in deer skins and the few pieces of furniture had covers and white doyleys. The large smoky fireplace over which all cooking was done had given the walls and ceiling a brown patina. The cottage had a tidy homely interior with walls papered with pages from magazines and mining journals. The little money they needed was earned by taking rainfall readings for the Meteorological Service and Henry’s gold fossicking. The couple were largely self-sufficient Henry would hunt deer and goat, and a well tended garden supplied various fruits and vegetables. The couple stayed as virtual recluses in the tiny hut for nearly 40 years. Escaping an abusive husband, Annie left her two teenage sons in Canterbury and fled with her lover Henry to the mountains of the Cobb Valley. As well as being a relic of early interest in asbestos mining, Asbestos Hut is associated with Annie Fox and Henry Chaffey who lived in the hut for nearly 40 years.įrom 1914 they lived in this isolated cottage. Asbestos Cottage was built by prospectors looking for asbestos in the area.