Havelock Post Office and the Rutherford Pickering Memorial

Built in 1875, the Havelock Post Office is a fine example of a small-town public building of the nineteenth century.

Havelock has renown as the place where the famous scientist Ernest Rutherford spent part of his childhood and the school where he received his early education is still standing, used as a youth hostel. Opposite the entrance to the Marina you can find the Pickering/Rutherford/Havelock Memorial.

Another memorial here pays homage to the lost schooner 'the Ronga' and her captain and crew. The schooner made her last voyage from Lyttleton to Marlborough on May 1 1906, and though a good looking and hardy 93 ton vessel working the timber trade was said to have been difficult in ballast. Nine men were lost, all single and resident of Lyttleton, including the captain, a norseman named Ned Peterson. Superstitious reports were that Captain Peterson had voiced concerns about the voyage upon which she sunk and that the Ronga had trouble leaving Lyttleton, moreover that she had recently received a new coat of white paint and her name had been painted over. Nevertheless the Ronga has here a memorial which is more than can be said for many other lost ships of the pioneering days.

The former Post Office now houses the I-site.

Rutherford is buried in Westminster Abbey in London next door to Sir Issac Newton, there is another memorial to him at Brightwater, a science museum at his former lab in Christchurch, and buildings named after him at Victoria University, and Manchester Universities.