Paua House

The Paua House was a tourist attraction in the southern New Zealand town of Bluff, but now on display at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch.

The Paua House was originally just a standard New Zealand bungalow located at 258 Marine Parade, Bluff.

[1] The house was owned by elderly couple Fred and Myrtle Flutey, who built up a massive collection of ornaments and trinkets made from the iridescent shells of the pāua, a New Zealand species of abalone often used for souvenirs and items of kitsch.

Over the course of some 40 years, the couple adorned the house with these ornaments, and also with the cleaned shells of pāua found by the Fluteys on the local beach.

By the time of the couple's deaths (Myrtle in 2000, Fred on New Year's Eve 2001)[2] the walls of their lounge were covered with over 1,100 shells,[3] In 1979, New Zealand photographer Robin Morrison visited the house, and included it in his book The South Island of New Zealand From the Road (1981).