Challenge 9: Blast from the past

Roll life back a hundred years and you wouldn't recognise yourself, or your surroundings. No designer jeans, sunnies or fluoro gear - no KFC or McDonalds! Forget trainers and anti-shock CD players. There were no gyms - your life already had plenty of exercise. (Hands up those for wood chopping. You'd have to heat your home, your water and cook you food using it!)

A lot more time would have been spent doing daily chores. Most women would have been hand washing bedding and clothes with soap, twisting water out and hanging them to dry - okay on a sunny day, but there were no electric dryers then. Reefton, in 1886, was the first place in the Southern Hemisphere to have electricity; but Christchurch didn't get it until 1902. Think how many time-saving devices were unavailable: vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, microwaves. You can also forget about texting on your celly (although there were telephones), or emailing on your computer!

Leisure time was limited. If you wanted to listen to music you'd have to be able to play it yourself. There were no movies, radios weren't widespread until after 1910 and New Zealand didn't have TV until 1960. Instead, people got together more for entertainment, to play cards, to picnic after church on Sundays and help each other with farm work. They'd travel on horseback, in horse-drawn carriages, or on early bicycles. Some places you could go by train.

Horses pulled farm machinery. Cars weren't common here until Ford's 1908 Model T and tractors weren't invented. Overseas travel took weeks by sea (planes were still dreams) so going on an OE really was a big deal and articles would appear in local newspapers telling how 'Mr and Mrs John Smith of Nelson travelled to London to attend their son's wedding.'

Of course there were good things to be said for this era - no car smashes, traffic jams on motorways (no motorways!), and no pollution from car exhausts. On the other hand, you'd have to watch when crossing the street that you didn't step in horse manure! The unpaved streets got pretty muddy - not too good when skirts were long. The rivers were quite filthy because most factories and hospitals just dumped waste into them - there were no Greenies around to keep an eye on things.

Wealthier girls didn't have to earn money. Once they left school they were dependent on their father until they got married, and after that, on their husband. However, working class girls laboured in factories like woolen mills or as servants, often in miserable conditions with miserly pay. However, New Zealand women changed history. They petitioned Parliament (a men's only institution then) until it passed a law in 1893 to allow women to vote in elections. New Zealand women were the first in the world to be given this right.

Of course, some advances have a downside - the discovery of nuclear power, for example. Check out some libraries or on the web and decide for yourself. You may like to try these:

• The Way We were is a book series of historical photos for every area of New Zealand
  
  
• For a first-hand view of colonial life, Constance Astley's Trip to New Zealand 1897-1898.
  
  
• Gwenda Turner's Christchurch is a really neat book packed with photos, illustrations, and things like old tram tickets.

Check on the web. Try putting timeline into www.searchnz.co.nz. Most libraries have a time line of historical events on their websites.

• Try www.nzhistory.net.nz to find out more about women getting the right to vote.
  
  
• Or www.akmuseium.org.nz
  
  
• Or www.reefcottage.co.nz to find out more about the electrifying town of Reefton.

So, go on - have a blast! You'll be amazed at what you find.