These buildings at Matanaka, near the coastal township of Waikouaiti, are the oldest surviving farm buildings in New Zealand that are still in their original position. Today the farm is owned and administered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, and the buildings are registered as Category I and are considered quot;historically outstandingquot;.br/br/Matanaka Farm was founded by the Australian whaler Johnny Jones, who had bought the land and an adjoining whaling station in 1838. In April 1840, he brought out about twelve families from Sydney on the Magnet to settle the farm. The first buildings, including the stables, were built in 1840, using materials brought from Sydney. Jones himself moved into the farm's homestead in 1843 with his wife, Sarah Sizemore also known as 'Cherry', and the now extant nearby Cherry Farm (psychiatric hospital) was apparently named after her. The farm passed through numerous owners and families over the next 140 years before being gifted to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 1976 and gazetted as an historic reserve in 1981.br/br/The name Waikouaiti is Māori, and is believed to come from phrases meaning quot;small bitter watersquot; (wai-kawa-iti) or quot;braided streamletsquot; (wai-koua-iti). Waikouaiti was the first European settlement in southern New Zealand to be mainly based on farming and one of the first enduring European settlements in Otago. From 1837 there had been a whaling station confusingly also called quot;Waikouaitiquot; nearby on the south side of the estuary at what is now called quot;Karitanequot;.