School Rules

Converting a South Otago school and principal’s cottage into a wedding venue and guest accommodation was a passion project for this creative expat.

- Sharon Stephenson

1| BACKGROUND

When British expat Jade McNab and her Kiwi husband, Lyndon, got married in 2012, they were disappointed with the lack of wedding venues near their home in the remote, windswept Catlins in South Otago.

So when the 130-year-old Port Molyneux School came up for sale a few years later, the couple jumped at the chance to turn it into a stylish events and wedding venue. It helped that the backdrop is stunning with the property encircled by lush green hills on one side and lapped by the wild Pacific Ocean on the other.

But having been closed for 16 years, the school buildings were in a bad way, as was

the neighbouring headmaster’s cottage, but Jade and Lyndon could see the buildings’ raw potential as a venue and accommodation.

“Someone had been living in the cottage and it was pretty run-down, but most of it was in its original condition,” says Jade.

The couple, who met while working in Canada’s ski fields, were living half an hour’s drive away from Port Molyneux on Lyndon’s family’s sheep and beef farm. And although Jade enjoyed life on the farm, the former Londoner missed her career as an interior designer.

“Doing up the cottage and converting the school into a wedding venue was a chance to use some of those design skills,” she says.

2| THE LAYOUT