Hokianga is the abbreviation of the Māori name Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe – the landing place of the Polynesian explorer and navigator, Kupe. He had sailed across the ocean in his waka ‘Matahoura’ from the Tahitian Island Hawaiki. After landing near Pakanae, he made his way to the Hokianga Harbour. As legend has it, he was captivated by how beautiful the light of the setting sun was on the mountain peak that he named the harbour Te Puna i tea o marama, ( The spring of the world of light ). It is said that he stayed many decades with his family and crew, nourished by the abundant kaimoana before returning back to the Tahitian Islands.
Rawene, first named Herd’s Point after Captain James Herd, sailed from Sydney to the Hokianga in 1822 to obtain kauri spars, returning again in 1826. On this second voyage Herd represented the forerunner of Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s New Zealand Company, and as agent for Wakefield’s company he ‘purchased’ the Rawene Peninsular from the Māori Chief Moodewi ( Muriwai ), and Awhitu.
There is a great deal of quite complex historic detail regarding the settling of this region, and all of it is well-worth ‘your’ further, future investigation.
Rawene is acknowledged as being New Zealand’s third oldest European settlement.
Week Five: – The time has come to say goodbye …
No quote by others this time, but perhaps a succinct departing thought of my own.
- ‘What I leave with materially and spiritually, was not always what I planned to make or feel. But what the locale, and the residency itself, has helped me produce and become, has had a much greater meaning and impact on me.’
As I make plans to pack away my paintings, materials, paints and brushes, I can actually feel the simple ‘Gothic-style’ timber spaces of this old Wesleyan church, settle peacefully around me.
What began as a project of creating paintings and subsequent reflection, has become something more subtle: a conversation between past and present, between faith, craft, and the slow rhythm of Hokianga life, the tides, the spectacular dawns, the skies and this so unrushed pace of ‘real life.’
The locals often wave when they pass the church, and when I go out for a wander, a coffee or supplies. Almost without exception, they stop for a chat — wonderful and honest small talk— and yet somehow these conversations often lead to longer ones. Most have the time of course! There’s definitely a kindness here that doesn’t ‘announce’ itself, and there’s no expectation that it needs to be paid back in some way.
Two older local women – one living up the road and the other down the road - meet in the middle on their walks, and talk animatedly on the public bench right outside the church. I’m smiling to myself inside the church as they have had no idea that I’ve been a witness to their regular routine and their friendship.
I can hear the birds on the corrugated tin roof, peeking away, and this old church does creak. I’ve even left the easel on occasion to answer what I thought was a knock on the vestry door …lol… and I have, at times, begun to talk out loud my thinking, and as if on cue, the church creaks its own conversation! None of this has bothered me. In fact, I’ve grown to really embrace it.
I found outside, and after the nasturtiums had had a beating from the caretaker’s weed-eater, an original piece of concrete foundation, discarded during the restoration process. I thought about it for a week, then asked the owners if I could paint the church on it. So with permission I did, and laughed about the fun I was having all day, that day I painted – ‘Under a Wesleyan Sky – Foundation of Faith.’
The work I take with me carries this place within it. Rawene has shaped not only what I’ve painted, but who I have been while making it. And as I return to city life, I know that a part of this quiet region will travel with me — not as an ending, but hopefully as a way of ‘seeing,’ that will keep unfolding long after I’ve gone.
This last week has been a chance to cement the fledging friendships I’ve made.
I’ve been residing here long enough to have the Restoration Heritage Advisor Aranne, to a meal here in the church, receive several local residents as pop-in visitors, coffees with others, and been invited into a couple of homes. I also took a rare whole day off and took myself to Opononi, Omapere and into the Waipoua Forest to see again the magnificent giant kauri, Tane Mahuta. Not realising that it closed at 3pm, I managed to avoid a departing tourist bus just before closing and get Henry, ( the gate-keeper), all to myself. He told the myth of this wonderous giant, and the mythology behind his design for the lovely entry protective gate that locks this giant treasure away for safe keeping. It was a very special moment just for me … and of course my many questions!
Being on my own, I could stop many times anywhere I wanted to and take the photos I love to take. Altogether, and there are literally many many hundreds, they really do tell lots about the people who reside up here, even without meeting them. If you have read my previous blogs the photos in this blog, will actually make sense. Also, yesterday’s afternoon was so glorious across the Waima River and so different as was this morning’s dawn, so different from any of the others of my 6 weeks here.
Goodbye Rawene and all the treasures and magnificence this wondrous Hokianga region holds for the inquisitive visitor. Linger long enough and you will be rewarded by all this, and much much more.
I plan to return for all this again in the future. My gratitude for everything ‘you’ have given, and for everything I have received…
So, it’s just - ‘bye for now’ - not ‘goodbye.’
Linda Gair 2025
