MOUNT VERNON: A TIME CAPSULE

This grand old lady would have plenty of stories to dish if walls could talk. The two-storey homestead at Mount Vernon Station was built in 1882 by local settler John Harding, a staunch prohibitionist and one of the first colonists to put down roots in Central Hawke’s Bay. The homestead’s architecture was inspired by (and named after) the historic Virginia home of United States President George Washington.

In its 19th- century heyday, Mount Vernon extended across more than 6000 hectares, including a large sheep and cattle farm, an on-site orchard, and a formal garden filled with imported plants. “Gardens were considered a status symbol back then,” says Tim, who has since unearthed Harding’s receipts from nurseries as far away as San Francisco. Mount Vernon was empty until the 1950s after being severely damaged during the Napier earthquake; it remained in the Harding family until Tim bought it in 2017.

Today, the villa sits on 14 hectares of grounds, including a vast orchard (passed on from the previous owners), a tennis court, an organic veggie garden, a pool, and stables for Tim’s three polo ponies.