Hopukiore

Ocean Beach and Hopukiore (Mt Drury) from Mauao, Mount Maunganui, c. early 1950s
Postcard, unidentified publisher, collection of Justine Neal

Hopukiore, at 40 metres high is much smaller than its famous counterpart, Mauao but it’s history is just as fascinating. From the late 1500’s the Ngati Tauaiti had a marae there, along with another marae on Moturiki. The name Hopukiore means to catch kiore (rats), the bones and the teeth of which were used for carving chisels and tattooing instruments. The area was used as a carving school and a wahi tapu (sacred site) for ta moko (traditional tattooing).

Ocean Beach, Mt. Maunganui, c. 1970s-1980s
Postcard published by Pictorial Publications Ltd, Hastings
Collection of Justine Neal

On the eastern side of Hopukiore there are at least five caves, some of which are known to have been used for burials. The 1820 battle fought between Ngapuhi and Ngaiterangi resulted in a large number of deaths for the Ngaiterangi. Te Waru’s (Ngaiterangi) chivalrous treatment of Te Morenga (Ngapuhi) after the battle led to peace between the two tribes and the Ngaiterangi dead were honoured with burial in the caves of Hopukiore.

East Cave, Hopukiore, 2025
Photograph by Justine Neal

The caves were also used by the men of the 80^th Regiment under Major Bunbury when they were sent from Auckland to deter hostilities between Arawa and Ngaiterangi, occupying the hill from December 1842 to March 1843. One cave was enlarged and shelves installed for munitions storage and a door was fitted. Another two caves were used for general storage and a bakehouse.

Hopukiore (Mt Drury) and Mauao, from Marine Parade, Mt Maunganui, c. 1950s
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo 99-028

In the 1980’s two young local boys were amusing themselves using old boxes to slide down the slopes of Hopukiore,  After a while, as they happened to have a small torch with them, their attention turned to the caves and they decided to do a little exploring. On entering the cave it felt cold and damp, the floor was hard packed dirt and there was enough headroom to walk. The cave narrowed, then came a shoulder height drop but they were still able to walk down to the next level. The cave narrowed again, it appeared to be solid rock in front of them but the torch showed that in one place the rock overlapped leaving a narrow gap to squeeze through. There was no way an adult could manage it but the boys thought they would be able to. At that moment they had a couple of choices and sensibly decided the way back was the safest one.

In 1853 Hopukiore was given the extra name of Mount Drury, named after Commander Byron Drury who arrived in Tauranga in 1852 on board the H.M.S Pandora to complete a coastal survey of the Bay of Plenty started in 1848.

Hopukiore (Mt Drury) from the quarry on Moturiki, Mount Maunganui, 1921
Postcard by unidentified publisher
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0197/08

In 1913 a railway line that had been built to the railway workshops (situated between Salisbury Avenue and Rata Street) was continued up the main street, curving round the northern end of Hopukiore to service the quarry on Moturiki. A crushing plant had been built on the foreshore of Hopukiore to deal with the stone coming from the quarry.

The big swing at Mount Drury (Hopukiore) playground, Mt Maunganui, January 1967
120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 13 Jan 1967
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-14286

Mrs. Gilchrist in the book ‘A History of Mount  Maunganui’ by Don Cunningham remembers the Public Works picnics:

“When they got the rail through a bit they would have open carriages with seats across and you’d come down to the Mount from Te Puke. The railway line went right along where the Main Road is now. We would all get off at the foot of Mount Drury on a platform and then take our picnic baskets into the big pine trees.”

Tunnel of the Mt Drury (Hopukiore) Railway Line, Mt Maunganui, December 1966
Crop of 120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 28 Dec 1966
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-14079

From 1960 to 1975 there was a miniature railway as part of a children’s playground. There was a man-made tunnel that it went through at the base of Hopukiore and that’s where it lived. There were doors at each end that were kept locked when it wasn’t in use. It only used to run in the summer. Since 2008 there has been a playground on the western side of the reserve.

Mount Drury Tower (Hopukiore), Mt Maunganui, February 1963
120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 26 Feb 1963
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-4488

In 1958 the Harbour Board Signal Station was erected on the summit of Hopukiore, the ideal place with its sweeping views out to sea. It served as a communication tool for navigation and relaying important information to the ships. It has been inoperative for many years now and at the present time only the signal station mast and a shed remain on the site.

Hopukiore (Mount Drury) with Soundshell, taken from Moturiki (Leisure Island), c. 1970s
Silver gelatin snapshot print by unidentified photographer
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0040/25

In 1967 a Soundshell was built on the flat surface at the base of Hopukiore on the Moturiki side. The seating was provided by man-made terraces or by spreading a towel or a blanket on the grassy slopes. It proved very popular with locals and visitors alike, and was regularly used for concerts and events, such as the Miss Mount Maunganui contest on New Year’s Day. The Soundshell was demolished in 1999 and the area reverted back to grass.

Mount Maunganui 5,000 Club junior pageant at the Soundshell,January 1967
120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 4 Jan 1967
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-14153

In 1978 the Council decided to extend the Grace Avenue frontage of Hopukiore by buying the small cottages that had been built there. These worker’s cottages were relics of the days when Moturiki had been quarried by the Railways Department and coincidentally several of them came on the market at this time and others were obviously reaching the end of their useful life.

Radio mast and shed, Hopukiore, 2025
Photograph by Justine Neal

The Council employed a land agent whose job was to enquire from the landowners if they were interested in selling. Unfortunately, he rather overstepped his job description by threatening them that if they did not sell the Council would take the land under the Public Works Act. Eventually the cottages were acquired by the Council and the land incorporated into the reserve. It just took a little bit longer and without the help of that particular land agent.

References

2019 Tauranga Reserves Management Plan
Tauranga City Library
Tauranga Heritage Collection
Explore Tauranga
The Weekend Sun, 22 February 2013
Sunlive, 10 May 2021
A History of Mount Maunganui, compiled by Bruce Cunningham & Ken Musgrave, 1989

Leita and the Summer of ‘67

From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

“B1164 4/1/67 Leita Lawn & Elizabeth Robertson resting at Soundshell”
Glassine envelope and 120-format cellulose acetate film negative
Bay of Plenty Times/Gifford-Cross Collection, Tauranga City Library

Leita – it was the name scribbled in green pencil on a crumpled glassine envelope that jumped out at me. For the last eighteen months I have been engaged part-time as a contractor, working through boxes of negatives from the Bay of Plenty Times/Gifford-Cross collection in the Tauranga City Library, rehousing the negatives in archival enclosures, transcribing metadata from the envelopes and digitizing the photographs. After digitization and processing, the images eventually appear online as the Gifford-Cross Collection on the Library’s web site Pae Korokī.

After handling many thousands of envelopes one could be forgiven, perhaps, for becoming a little jaded and glossing over much of the content, but this first name is pretty unusual. I’d only ever come across one “Leita” and she was a friend of my brother’s in Zimbabwe, half a world and half a lifetime away. So my eye was drawn to it, and then I saw her surname – “Leita Lawn.” She was married but I also knew her brother, and thus that her maiden name was Lawn. Likewise I was aware that her brother was originally from New Zealand, and had returned here. Could it be the same person?

Leita Lawn & Elizabeth Robertson after a performance at the Tauranga Soundshell, 3 Jan 1967
120-format film negative, Gifford-Cross Collection (Ref. gca-14151), Courtesy of Tauranga Library

To cut a long story short, I got in touch with Leita through my brother, sent her the digitized image, and she confirmed that she was indeed one of the two girls pictured.

“I was one of Max Cryer's first batch of singing children. I'll forward this to Elizabeth and the others. Two years after this my family had settled in what was then Rhodesia. Not long after Max died, I listened online to a radio interview given by someone who was on that tour with us.  Such a blast from the past - like your photo!”

Print from microfilm, Bay of Plenty Times, 4 Jan 1967, Courtesy of Tauranga City Library

A quick look at the Bay of Plenty Times on microfilm at the Library revealed the photograph was one of several taken that day at the Mount 5000 Club talent quest semi-finals at the Tauranga Soundshell. Other acts included the Nicholas Sisters (winners of the second heat, instrumental medley), Bill Swinton (second placed, vocal solo) and David Pearson and Peter McGregor (third, piano accordion and double bass duet).

Town Cryer, LP by Max Cryer and the Children (Leita Lawn, Judy Waite, Elizabeth Robertson, Sonia Carter, Bruce Matthews, Garth Jacobsen, Graeme McMahon, Neil Rowlands) (Spotify)

Max and the children, Auckland, 1966
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Footprints Ref. 06997

Leita continued:

“I'll attach a photo of us recording that Town Cryer album - one of me looking cross-eyed, Elizabeth just behind me. We only ever did one or two takes - all in one go, sharps and flats included ... I feel sad when I look at Sonya and Graeme in that photo. My mum and I went to Sonya's funeral not a year later after she drowned during a fishing trip with her father and his friend. And then Graeme died just a few years later.”

The caption for the photograph in the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection includes a reference to the planned tour which would include the appearance in Tauranga:

Entertainer Max Cryer and his group of young singers from Otāhuhu record 'Eidelweiss' for the Zodiac label at Stebbing Recording Studios in Auckland. The soloist at the microphone with Max is Neil Rowlands. The group had been asked to record songs for an LP, 'Town Cryer', after a successful appearance at the TV Festival Review earlier in the year. Future plans included an appearance on the Christmas edition of Revue 66 and a tour of beach carnivals over the New Year holidays. Photograph published in the South Auckland Courier Central Edition, 30 November 1966, p. 26

Max Cryer and the Children on Revue 66, Auckland Town Hall, NZTV, 1966
Photo courtesy of Max Cryer Collection and audioculture.co.nz

Cryer, who died in August last year, recalled to Audioculture in 2017:

“Suddenly everyone wanted to know. We were hired by big department stores, shopping malls, beach carnivals, movie premieres and TV shows. Of course, as time moved, the children grew up and were gradually replaced. But each and every one of them was a cheerful singer, lively but well-behaved not precocious, and never nervous. Over time, we recorded nine albums with hardly ever a studio second take.”

Reunion of Max Cryer and “the children,” Bombay Hills, 2011
(Leita with her hands on Max’s shoulder)
Photo courtesy of Bruce Matthews

“We old ‘children’ from the original group had a lovely reunion with Max about ten years ago at Bruce’s alpaca farm in the Bombay Hills.”

Leita now lives in a Bronte-like cottage in the English North Pennines.

References

Geraden Cann & Glenn McConnell (2021) Max Cryer remembered as ‘showbiz through and through’ after dying at 86, on Stuff, 26 Aug 2021, https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/300392377/max-cryer-remembered-as-showbiz-through-and-through-after-dying-at-86

Gareth Shute (2019) Max Cryer, published on Audioculture, 4 Jul 2019 https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/max-cryer

---

This archival item has been digitised and will be available to view on Pae Korokī. For more information about this and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Brett Payne, Digitisation Contractor at Tauranga City Library