The Metal Road to Ohauiti

by Guest Author Lucy Mullinger

View from the Amy’s new home, 1970s

“We were just out in the sticks, we really were”, or that’s how it felt for Trudie Amy, when she was persuaded to move to a rural section in Ohauiti just over 40 years ago. Newly married, Trudie and her husband Kenneth had originally planned to buy land in Judea, but changed their minds when they came across the property situated on the Poike block, originally known as Lot 3. (i)

“I told Ken I wasn’t living on a metal road but after a bit he persuaded me and we ended up paying $21,000 for a quarter acre and the house.” At the time, the $11 per week mortgage seemed steep to the couple. “We spoke to the lawyer and said there was no way we could pay it off, but he said ‘you’ll cope’ and we did.” The mortgage rate increased over the years but the couple managed to pay the lot off in 15 years, thanks to Trudy’s job  as a machinist for Expozay and Ken’s expertise as a metal worker for Forlong and Maisey. (ii)

Ken and some workmates at Forlong and Maisey

One of Ken’s favourite pastimes was driving about in his Hillman Hunter. “Poike Road was only about 10 foot wide at the time and my Hillman often skidded off the road. Whenever it did, I would contact the council and a grader would come in and sort out the road so it was drivable again.” When their only son started to learn to drive, he would take the Hillman up to Hollister Lane, which at the time was a gravel road with no houses on it.

Motorcycling in more carefree times

 Trudie also has fond memories of their son working in Maungatapu and flying home on his motorbike. “It was just a quick drive from Maungatapu, around in an S shape to Ohauiti, down the gravel road.” They also enjoyed spending a day trip at the strawberry farm situated in the dell on Hammond Street, where a main highway now travels through. "Everything was so different,” says Trudie, “it was all rural with views as far as you could see.”

The house they fell in love with over 40 years ago was, at one point, nestled amongst a working farm, with horses grazing next door. “They often were caught chewing on our trees,” Trudie laughs. At the top of the driveway, there was a section filled with plum trees. “The plums were huge and so delicious,” says Trudie. “Sadly, once the land got sold off the trees were removed.”

As their son grew up, the family began to welcome grandchildren, nephews and nieces to their home. “There were always children in and out of the house.”

Shopping centre floor

Over twenty years ago, land was earmarked for a shopping centre and Trudie remembers taking the children to visit the site, which was surrounded by farmland at the time. Ohauiti is loosely translated, by The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage to mean “place of little wind” and, while it did boast a school at one point, the suburb is now home to subdivisions and farms as you travel further up to rural Ohauiti.

Top end of Poike Road, in the 1970s (above) and now (below)

Images courtesy of the Amy family

References

(i) Charles Hollister-Jones bought 80 acres of Ohauiti land, under Lot 3 with William White, in 1939. According to the book Ohauiti, 1878 - 1980 the Hollister -Jones family originally paid ten shillings per acre.

(ii) Exposay was a swimwear business, which was founded in Mount Maunganui in the late 1960s and Forlong and Maisey, which was founded in Hamilton, employed metalworkers from its factory in Gate Pa. A keen metal worker and engineer, Ken spent many years working for the New Zealand brand metal working business, then moved to Fisher Vogue Lighting at Mount Maunganui, when Forlong and Maisey closed.