Menzies Bay - Banks Peninsula
The homestead Rehutai was built for John Menzies and his wife in 1894 in a bay on Banks Peninsula, known then as McIntosh Bay. John Menzies, born in England, moved to Lyttleton in 1860 and while farming in Southland the keen carver learnt Maori designs from the local iwi. Menzies used the skills he learnt to decorate a variety of local buildings, including the hallway of Rehutai, which he designed to resemble a Wharenui (the 'big house' commonly found on a Marae).
With the loss of his other work in fires, Rehutai is the only remaining example of his integration of Maori design into a Pakeha dwelling.