Visitors to Joseph (Jos) Divis' humble home in Waiuta never made it past the small living room. It was where he entertained guests before reitring to his private rooms.
What would the famed photographer and West Coast miner make of the dozens of visitors who poured through his home at its official "opening" last week?
The Department of Conservation's senior heritage ranger, Tom Barker, believed Divis would have approved of the restoration project.
"I think he would have liked it because he was a man ahead of his time. He travelled, he went out and saw the world... I think he'd be really happy with his legacy."
The Divis house is now registered as an Historic Place after an 18-month restoration led and funded by DoC. The cottage was officially opened by Divis' great-niece, Veronika Schmidtova, who'd travelled with other family members to attend the ceremony.
With her daughter, Dominika, translating, Veronika said she was "truly touched and cannot even explain how I am feeling".
As a child, Veronika recalled her grandmother regaling the family with stories of Divis and his adventures in New Zealand, including how he had once sent home to the family a rock with a gold vein running through it. Unfortunately, the treasure had been lost over time.
Speaking to the assembled group of visitors who'd gathered for the opening, Dominika Schmidtova said Divis' real wealth was the body of work he left behind, "thanks to his great hobby and talent for photographing, he left us here with treasure"
Nearly 400 images are stored in the National Library, which currently hosts an exhibition of his work.
The photographs tell the story of life in what was the South Island's biggest gold mine at Waiuta, between Reefton and Greymouth.
Divis initially travelled from Bohemia to Blackball in 1909 before finding work at the flourishing Waiuta mine in 1912, bringing his photographic equipment with him. He became one of the first photographers to document working life underground while capturing daily life above ground, celebrations and community gatherings.
Author Simon Nathan said, "Jos was the man who helped to make Waiuta remembered ... he took every aspect of life in the village."
Former Waiuta resident Helen Banks said her father features in a Divis image taken at the town's jubilee in 1951.
"It's wonderful to have this as a memory of what he looked like as a young man. I know many families treasure the photos that Divis took," she said.
Carpenters working on the restoration have also found treasure, including the remnants of an early 20th-century child's shoe under the hand-shaped floorboards, believed to have belonged to one of the Jones family, who lived in the house before Divis.
They also found a suit box flattened in one wall cavity to provide insulation. Divis' name and address are visible on the packaging, which was sent by a tailor in Christchurch.
The house itself is now thought to be comprised of four individual buildings, and it's possible they were transported to the site ready to be built.
"It may have had a life prior to coming to Waiuta," said Tom Barker. "We found in one of the rooms a newspaper from Taihape stuck to the walls ... it's one of those things that's going to stick in my head until I figure out how it got here."
The 100-year-old gold miner's cottage is now open to visitors to Waiuta, a Tohu Whenua site.
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