Amber House, Bed and breakfast in Nelson City, New Zealand.

Amber House is a guesthouse in Nelson City with Victorian-style bedrooms featuring high ceilings, air conditioning, and private bathrooms with showers. It offers fiber internet, complimentary Wi-Fi, and secure parking for vehicles, bicycles, and kayaks.

Amber House is one of the older two-storey villas in Nelson, built in traditional colonial style with native rimu and mataī timbers. From 1906 to 1927 it housed Cabragh House School, a boarding and day school for girls and little boys run by the Hornsby family from Ireland. Edwardian photographs of the scholars and the school have been preserved.

From 1906 to 1927 the house was Cabragh House School, a boarding and day school for girls and little boys run by the Hornsby family from Ireland. Edwardian photographs of the pupils and the school survive. A small patch of original late 19th-century wallpaper, unfaded, was uncovered during renovations.

Amber House stands at 46 Weka Street in Nelson, a short walk from the city centre and close to the Maitai River. The house is a two-storey villa, so guests should expect stairs to the upper floor. Its west-side brick chimney and the old walnut tree in the back garden are both on the property itself.

The tall brick chimney on the west side survived the 1929 Arthur's Pass and Murchison earthquakes, the 1968 Īnangahua quake and the 1994 event without a single crack. Beds of shale and sand beneath the house may damp lateral waves, and the chimney may even pre-date the 1893 Nelson earthquake.