This is a rare opportunity to see inside the historically significant Pavitt Cottage in Robinsons Bay, Banks Peninsula. Relax after your tour with a country afternoon tea in the garden provided by the local community.

The Pavitts arrived on Banks Peninsula unexpectedly in 1849 on the ill-fated Monarch. The entrepreneurial family teamed up with architect Samuel Farr to design and construct the first waterwheel powered sawmill in Canterbury in the heavily wooded Robinsons Bay. The mill itself is gone, as are the primordial native trees, but their cottage remains as a symbol of pioneering culture and a stark reminder that the industrial scale deforestation of Banks Peninsula began here.

In 2000 the cottage was acquired by John Fernyhough, a Pavitt descendant, who faithfully restored it and left it in trust for all the family descendants to enjoy.