The day this photograph was taken was obviously a good day for a drive up the mountain. Stratford-based photographer John Reginald Wall has beautifully framed the scene through a canopy of trees, capturing a snow covered Mount Taranaki and a line of cars parked outside the Stratford Mountain House.
Built in 1899, this house was the first to be erected on the Stratford side of the mountain. In 1977, the main building was demolished to make way for a new complex. In early 2010, then owner Karl Reipen decided to transfer the building to a charitable organisation after struggling to sell it. From hundreds of submissions, South Taranaki iwi Ngāti Ruanui was selected to take over responsibility for the Mountain House.
This photograph, dating from the 1930s, is one of 23 gifted to Puke Ariki by George Collinson. George and his father Lawson used to operate Collinson Studios, which grew out of Wall’s photography business after it passed through the hands of Murray Thompson along the way.
