Originally transcribed as G Gardiner
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Flora Gardiner was born in 1859 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of James Gardiner, a miner, and Margaret Ross. (See 107 M Gardiner)
She came to Otago with her family in 1864 and they spent about three years at the Nokomai diggings before moving to Queenstown in 1869.
After Flora’s father died in 1880 she helped her mother run Rossford House, a boarding house in Gorge Rd, Queenstown where she signed the suffrage petition.
Flora married Hugh MacKenzie in May 1906 at her uncle’s home in Dunedin. Hugh was a widower with nine grown children and was the runholder of Walter Peak Station across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown.
Both Flora and Hugh were 'highly respected members of the Presbyterian Church, Queenstown'. Shortly after their marriage 'it was unanimously decided by that body that Miss Gardiner’s many years of cheerful and able service to the church could not be overlooked'. The launch Thelma was hired and a group of 13 ladies and gentlemen went across the lake to make a presentation to the couple. 'On the arrival of the Thelma at Beach Bay the party were launched into quite a tragic situation. It was found that Mr McKenzie and his six stalwart sons were absent in the hills gathering the sheep into their warm winter quarters.' Flora and her step-daughters made the party welcome and she was presented with a silver mounted biscuit barrel, an oak butter dish and knife, a cruet and a silver sugar coal scuttle.
Hugh died in 1933 in Dunedin and Flora remained at Walter Peak until shortly before her death on 17 December 1947. She is buried with Hugh in the Queenstown Cemetery.
She 'was one of the stalwarts of the St. Andrew’s Church for all through her life she engaged in one or more of its activities and she retained her personal interest till the end. Of a kindly disposition Mrs Mackenzie was known for her benefactions to many a worthy cause.'
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Queenstown Lakes District Council http://cemeteries.qldc.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au