Reo Moana

Mount Maunganui main beach. R.J.Rendell photographer
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

It was not only in Napier that Art Deco and the various styles of Spanish Mission architecture appeared in New Zealand in the 1930s.  Most towns still have some flat roofed, stucco dwellings sometimes with decorative motifs and some quite plain. Originating in the south west states of North America the Spanish Mission style was popular in new world countries especially where the climate is similar to California. It first arrived in New Zealand with the construction of the Auckland Grammar School building in 1913 and the style became popular in the following years in domestic architecture. The characteristic pastel coloured walls, clay tiled parapets, arched windows, balconies, tiles and wrought iron appear in various levels of detail.

Reo Moana. Limmer family collection

There are few of the original bachs and holiday homes left in Mount Maunganui that were built prior to the Second World War. They suddenly disappear and a new building appears on the section. A way of life has gone; the casual holiday life style of recycled furniture and furnishings from home, walked in sand on the floor, beach cricket, board games and no computers.

Reo Moana in 2020. Photos: Lee Switzer

Barbeque on back lawn. Limmer family collection

One such relict is “Reo Moana” which translates as “language of the sea” situated in Marine Parade, once part of a street scape that included the Oceanside Hotel. The dwelling appears to be the last of the old Mount in the block. Taller buildings dominate the east end of Marine Parade and Reo Moana lost its rear view to Pilot Bay.

Family holiday. Limmer family collection

In April 1937 a Tauranga architect, Thomas S Gray, called for tenders for the erection of flats at Mount Maunganui for G H Streiff a dairy farmer of Te Aroha. [1] Streiff had bought 22 perches of land at Mount Maunganui from Tauranga County Council in 1935. [2] Gray designed a Spanish Mission style building of two flats, side by side, standing on the sand dune with the lower floor dug back into the dune and a second storey above. A parapet hides the flat roof and the stucco walls are painted white. There is a narrow balcony in front of each flat with steps at each end of a curved wall. The front door and windows of both flats are symmetrical and three bands of plain plaster on the stucco below the roof line are the only reference to the “speed lines” inspired by aerodynamic design and typical of the period.

Max Sing & Vic Limmer with Vic's kingfish. Limmer family collection

Originally the flats were mirror images of each other but changes to internal walls have left the east flat with four bedrooms while the west has only two but a larger living area. Terracotta coping tiles provide a contrast in material and colour in the centre section of the parapet.  Coping tiles originally protected the top of walls from rain water but in this case the effect is purely decorative. In more recent years a concrete front fence topped with terracotta pipes repeats this effect.

Streiff used the west flat for himself and his family and let the other to holiday makers. He was born in Milan, Italy the son of Abraham Streiff a Swiss who immigrated to New Zealand. [3] The son was appointed Swiss consul in Auckland. [4] His wife Florence was the sister of Lord Ernest Rutherford and she died in 1944. [5] Streiff continued to use his beach house and swam every day. At midday he took the ferry to have his dinner at one of the Tauranga hotels. The Limmer family from Hamilton rented the east flat for their holidays and eventually they purchased it. They changed the front window to ranch sliders then later to French doors. The flats were on a cross-lease title. The Sing and Barnes families were later owners of the west flat after Streiff’s death. The whole building is now owned by the Limmers and has provided many holidays for five generations of the family.

Reo Moana in 2020. Photos: Lee Switzer

References

Informant – Mrs. Beverley Limmer
[1]  Bay of Plenty Times, 3 April 1937
[2]  Bay of Plenty Times, 25 April 1935
[3]  My Heritage family tree.
[4]  Thames Standard, 7 July 1913
[5]  Birth, death & marriage indexes Dept of Internal Affairs.