New Zealand 1850's using Howick Historical Village

Over on another thread, someone mentioned Howick Historical Village:

fencible.org.nz/main.htm

I’d never heard about this before.

I reckon, opportunism is the better part of creativity. I’ve always wanted a better evironment for a LARP in a different milieu, and there one is on our doorstep. A really immersive NZ 1850’s environement.

So I reckon we should seize the opportunity and run some games in that era, by getting LARPS to work out some sort of deal with the village to run a couple of events a year. I think funding would be available if it was culturally educational (which just means giving a feel of the time to the participants). LARPS could build up a wardrobe of suitable NZ 1850’s gear to compliment all the medieval fantasy stuff we have at the moment.

We could do straight-up historical drama with colonists and Maori. We could do ghost stories. We could history with Maori legend worked in. The Nightmare Circle could run Cthulhu gaslight. I could run Tryst in a historical setting.

There are heaps of possibilities for such a great environment, and it’s something that could only be done here in NZ.

I’d love this - I liked the sound of the Victorian larp in Wellington, although it would be too hard for me to get to and find time for.

I think, if we can get incorporated and a decent membership, it would be a very good possibility to apply for funding (council, or Lion Foundation) to pay for a 1850-1900 costume wardrobe in order ot run a ‘Historically Educational’ LARP - provided we can get the village’s approval. They may even join in to provide the historical information to make it more authentic…

The only thing is the timing - by the time we get incorporated, negotiate with thevillage, and apply for funding, it may be Easter and the weather would be disimproving…

Steve

the sugestion has been put forward to do A Circle game there, but I am slow. soon I hope. the place is rather nice, although not amazingly huge, but there are building that one can enter, and even static things outside, like seats, and water pumps and things like that. The place would be wonderful, ifd only they had some kindof accomidation, we woudl run week end games there. but, the though has been there to do a circle day game, short, sweet, wth out all tht pesky build up, and plot related stuff that have now. It might be nice to run a… but that would be telling, woudlnt it.

I have an idea, we shall see what happens.

Raoul

I studied Highwic last year in History at school.
It is popular for old style LARP kind of things - mainly weddings etc. When I went there, however, there are ALOT of restrictions on where you can go and what you can do. There is lots of orginal stuff in there and for obvious resons you can not touch any of it. i.e. There are lots of ropes. If it was a day game based around a party of a ritch nobelman (I think I’ve still got my notes from it about who used to own it etc) it would be ok, as it would mostly be outside and in the open ball room. However, something like Nightmare circle I don’t think would work because (although I’ve not been to a NC game) games like this would require hiding and running around.

If anyones keen to do something here I have plenty of information I could pass on about the place though, and would probably be keen to get involved in a game :slight_smile:

I think it’d be important to establish a good working relationship, clear boundaries, all that sort of thing. What they allow for a group of schoolkids and what they allow for an allied group may vary, especially if we can demonstrate ongoing value to the village.

I’ll have to mosey on out there some time for a gander.

I’m really liking the idea of a new frontiers type era for LARP. This time period is New Zealand’s answer to the Wild West. Check out some writing from the time, in the box halfway down this page:

fencible.org.nz/whitestore/whitestore.htm

So evocative of a difficult life in a new land. Scraping a living from unknown soil and relying on the locals to help you survive. And from a Maori perspective, it’s like an alien incursion story. Funny-coloured people turning up with way-out technology that changes everything. A meeting of very different cultures. Plus there’s potential for stories with Maori spiritual themes worked in: tapu, karakia, even taniwha or patupaiarehe. So many possibilities.