A Day with a Lady

Since arriving in South Canterbury from her childhood home in Hawkes Bay, Fiona Elworthy (nee McHardy) embraced the opportunities that her position as matriarch of a large established Canterbury family provided.

She became actively involved in local issues, and also shared with her husband the guardianship of Ancient Waitaha Rock Drawings in Caves among the Limestone Cliffs and Ti Kouka trees on Craigmore.

An interests in the arts, ignited by an early Rudolf Steiner education, and a year at a Finishing School in Europe, lead to the establishment of the Aoraki Arts festival which was held every two years at Craigmore.