![]() ![]() The gold rush had drawn adventurers from around the globe so men vastly outnumbered women in the colony. ![]() She exclaimed over the health of the children and the handsomeness of the men, bronzed and stalwart – in splendid condition. Her first impression of Christchurch was of a very pretty little town, still primitive enough to be picturesque, and yet very thriving. They spent the following three years here, tucked under the vast reach of the Southern Alps. They immediately set sail for the fledgling colony where Broome had purchased a South Island sheep station, Steventon – yes indeed, named after the same vicarage of Jane Austen fame. Lady Barker’s New Zealand adventure began in 1865 when, as a 34 year old widow, she married Frederick Broome, eleven years her junior. Station Life in New Zealand provides a fascinating account of her years Downunder, the pages rippling with merriment as they bring back to life the now vanished colonial world of flood and storm, picnics and balls, exploration and peril. Lady Barker travelled the world during her lifetime, from her native Jamaica to India, Australia, Trinidad, Madagascar and New Zealand and left behind twenty-two books chronicling her adventures. Beneath that demure Victorian façade beat a heart as wild and courageous as any Rider Haggard hero. ![]() Don’t be misled by the tightly pulled hair and the unsmiling visage of Lady Mary Anne Barker. ![]()
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