Otamatea Marae

 One advantage of being back in the Kaipara region last year was that I got to go on road trips so I could take photos of places I hadn't seen in the 8 years I lived here.  Otamatea Marae is in the small country town of Maungaturoto and was established around 1946 as the ancestral marae for the Ngati Whatua people.

The wharanui (meeting house) was originally the whare runanga (assembly house) at Shelly Beach which opened in 1887. It was relocated to Tanoa to sit next to the Kakaraea Church in remembrance of the 1825 battle of Te Ika a Ranganui (the Musket Wars).

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Abandoned house in Maungaturoto

Out on the gravel road about 15 minutes out of Maungaturoto my daughter and I spotted this abandoned house on the side of a hill. When I see houses like this I wonder who lived in it, how old it is? From what we could see it was completely burned out inside.

21 days until we move up north. More stuff has been getting donated but I do wonder why people say they want something if they aren't going to pick it up. Our town has a local Facebook page where people give things away for free and people say they want it, then a name gets drawn and that person picks up the item. Sometimes people just don't pick the item up, which I think is rude and I had that happen to me on Wednesday. I do think if you give someone a date and time to meet them and you don't turn up then that's kind of like bad manners, the least you could do is to tell them you can't make it. Is it just me or is there just a lack of common courtesy these days?

Oh and we've had rain - yay! Not alot but just enough in bits and pieces and it has been so much cooler at night.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Coates Memorial Church

On our last trip out to Matakohe just before we drove home again I talked the other half into walking down the drive next to the museum so I could have a look at this church.

The Coates Memorial Church opened in 1950 and the architect was Horace Lovell Massey (Massey is a well known name in the Kaipara region).

Inside it's very clean, tidy and well maintained. Mr Massey was also part of a firm named Massey, Morgan, Hyland and Phillips who also designed the nurses home at Napier Hospital (1925) and the Fallen Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Hastings (also 1925). From the research I've read he also designed many other churches, crematoriums and fine houses.

Matakohe is a farming area which was first settled around 1860 by farmers and labourers from England, there were no roads or trails - the only link with the outside world was the sea right through the Kaipara inlet.

A big Kauri gum industry developed here around 1867-1870 by the settlers and from memory the earliers grave we saw was from the 1880s. The name "Coates" as per the name of the church is another well known one for the area - in fact one of our last prime ministers was Gordon Coates who lived in nearby Maungaturoto.

Some information taken from the Maungaturoto - History of the Kaipara Facebook page.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Kakaraea Methodist Church

This is a place I've been wanting to photograph for a long time. Located about 20 minutes or so out of Maungaturoto in the Kaipara along gravel roads the Kakaraea Methodist Church was first opened on Sunday March 29th 1874 and built under the direction of missionary Rev. William Gittos for the purpose of being the central church for his mission to the Maori in this region.

Unfortunately the entry door was locked so I couldn't take decent photos of the interior, so this one I had to make do with through one of the windows.  Apparently the church has special significance as the land it stands on was deliberately picked because of it's tapu (sacred) status in connection with the death of Hautatu (Chief Arama Karaka) and others at the battle of Ranganui (part of the musket wars). Otamatea Marae which is nearby and is the meeting place for the local Ngati Whatua tribe - it is still used today for events and tangis (burials).

Linking up with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday.

Return to Piroa Falls

Normally the 1st September is considering to be officially the first day of Spring but it feels very mild here, so much never-ending rain but on the one day last week it temporarily stopped we managed to visit a local spot.

Piroa Falls is a place I use to take my children to when we lived in Maungaturoto, a town about 15 minutes away. A popular spot over Summer, lots of local people cool down here.

Over Winter it's dead quiet, too cold to be swimming here - it's nice to see it so pristine and clean at this time of year. I'd forgotten the gravel road we drove on to get there and how beautiful the scenery is.

I hope it stays that way but I know as the weather warms up and more people come here it will be more and more used. Sometimes I wish places like this were never discovered so they could remain untouched.

St Alban's Anglican Church - Whakapirau

A couple of years ago I drove out to Whakapirau (a maori place name pronounced Whok-a-pee-row) and took some photos of the St Alban's Anglican Church. This historic building was first built from Kauri around the area in 1896 thanks to the local community fundraising and from what Heritage.org.nz says the land underneath it was originally part of a block that was tapu (sacred or forbidden) by koiwi after the battle of Marohemo in 1825. The tapu was then lifted from the land by a gathering of koiwi and the bones were used to fertilise local vineyards in the area. more information here.

I would love to get back out here and take some more photos of the cemetery nearby which is also historical. Beautiful place with a beach 5 minutes down the road and a small settlement of houses.

More our world Tuesdays here :-)

Getting back out with my camera this time to Tanoa

This weekend for us kiwis has been Labour Weekend, the true beginning of Spring and what a weekend its been. Yesterday was such a beautiful warm day that the teens and I drove out to see one of my besties...Liz over at Mad Bush Farm who lives in Maungaturoto - a town about 20 mins from here. A decision to drive out to Tanoa on the Kaipara coast was greatly received, anything to get 4 teenagers out of the house and into the fresh air right?  This was the scenery that greeted us - wow, right?

Apart from two fisherman pushing their boat out from the shore and a ferry, the Kewpie Too doing a cruise around the area we were pretty much the only ones there.

There is a beautiful historic house out at Tanoa -

Batley House was built in 1866 and is now owned by locals Rex and Rae Roadley, apparently it has been restored nicely to virtually how it use to originally be apart from the addition of a modern kitchen.

Hows this for a stunning view?  Cool, calm clear water and green hills as far as the eye can see. This is one place we will be going back for seconds! oh and btw I have 5 days to go until I get my cast off - awesome!

Coffee in my old town of Maungaturoto

so after not blogging for quite some time, lost my mojo I've come back and have lots of new photos to share. This one is from this morning when I was in my old home town of Maungaturoto having coffee with a friend. Here's the view from one of the outside tables - was a hot morning outside, unusual for Autumn but people were very busy going past doing their daily stuff.