When Colin Davies contacted me to say Sir Christopher Parkin was not Ōtaki’s first person to be knighted, I thought I’d been caught out. In our January issue, we said Sir Christopher was believed to be the first person raised in Ōtaki to be a knight or dame. We still believe we’re right, but there’s a caveat. Colin pointed out Sir... Keep Reading
Carl Lutz loved his tractors – Fordsons to be precise. He also loved taking his tractors to the Levin AP&I show, an event he’d been attending since he moved to Ōtaki in 1935. But this year, Carl didn’t quite make it. He died one day short of his 99th birthday, and only three days before the show, where he’d organised for some of his... Keep Reading
A piece of Harrisons history ended when my dad, Arthur Bills, passed away on June 13. Without Dad, Harrisons wouldn’t be quite the same. Mum (Judy) and Dad bought Harrisons Gardenworld at Peka Peka nearly 40 years ago. They both loved growing and supplying the many plants that graced the gardens of the Kāpiti Coast and surrounding... Keep Reading
The 2024 Māoriland Film Festival (MFF) was by popular consensus the best yet. Having already organised 10 previous festivals, each growing in reputation and size, the Māoriland team had a challenge to live up to expectations. They didn’t fail to deliver. MFF 2024 was touted as the largest Indigenous film festival in the world. Anyone who... Keep Reading
The Te Horo Hall is a taonga – a treasure – for our community. The land it sits on was gifted by local farmers in 1914. They saw it as a meeting place for the growing area. The piles were built from local tōtara. Over the years various alterations and upgrades have occurred. Now, 110 years on, the hall requires significant seismic... Keep Reading
Times are tough. Here in Ōtaki, there are plenty of whānau feeling the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis, rising rental costs and the excessive cost of groceries. Our essential needs are defined as: air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sleep and health. I know that for some of us even meeting these basic needs can be tricky at... Keep Reading
Dianne (Di) Buchan QSM is best known in Ōtaki for her work to save the historic rotunda at the old children’s health camp, and her book about the camp called Sun, Sea and Sustenance. She founded and chairs the Friends of the Ōtaki Rotunda, and for seven years was a trustee of the Ōtaki Museum. Until recently she wrote a regular... Keep Reading
The story of Rewi (Dick) Roach is largely one written first-hand describing old Ōtaki. Rewi wrote prolifically – and eloquently – about his childhood days growing up in a family that struggled with loss, poverty and racism. Ultimately his story was one of hope and overcoming adversity, to make a mark in a world that put barriers in the... Keep Reading
I had a meeting recently with Stuart Niven, a Wellington-based urban designer of international renown. My brother Fraser brought him to Ōtaki so we could discuss the future of Ōtaki and how it might look – literally. Will we get multi-storey apartment blocks close to town and traditional quarter-acre sections chokka with town houses, and... Keep Reading
In pondering what I would write in my first column for 2023, the expressway kept popping up in my head. For someone who grew up on the Waitohu plateau with the sound of steam trains filtering through my bedroom window at night, I’m pretty familiar with Ōtaki’s transportation nuances. I don’t recall the sound of heavy traffic or regular... Keep Reading
Close, so tantalisingly close. As we inch towards the Christmas break, the team building the Peka Peka to Ōtaki expressway is working flat out to get it open. Whether they will by Christmas is a matter of much debate and a good deal of conjecture in Ōtaki. Everyone has the inside gossip – from reliable sources, of course. The reality is that... Keep Reading
Cometh the hour, cometh the Black Ferns mana wāhine. A courageous and athletic performance saw the five-times world champions through to a sixth Rugby World Cup victory against an England team full of behemoths and 30 rolling-maul international victories on the trot. Replacement lock Joanah Ngan-Woo pulled off a match-winning lineout, at... Keep Reading
GRACE HOETE chased down car thieves and got her car back. It got her thinking about how Ōtaki could collectively solve its crime problems. She organised a public meeting. In this article she shares her thoughts. Beautiful Ōtaki is a town easy to love, a place you can call home. It has the warmest of people, sand, sea and warm summer... Keep Reading
Samuel Campbell Doyle - b 28.01.1970 – d 01.10.2022 Sam Doyle packed everything he could into his 52 years. As a talented rugby player and remarkable teacher, he had many achievements – but as wife Tracey says, their girls were his greatest pride. Sam died early on the morning of October 1 after more than two years battling... Keep Reading
I was probably always going to be a rural real estate agent. Looking back, the signs and influences were there. I was the eldest boy in a family of eight children, brought up on a seven-day-a-week town milk dairy farm in Te Horo. The games we played often involved farms and property, whether it was paddocks of pegs down the hallway in winter,... Keep Reading
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