Remembering Florrie

Florence Louisa Ward Story by Claire Pinfold and Ronda Thompson, for Paekakariki.NZ Paekākāriki resident Florrie Ward passed away on 19 March 2020 aged 103. Her daughters, Claire Pinfold and Ronda Thompson, share with us her extraordinary life and character. We also feature the remarkable docu-animation film in which she and her twin sister Pearl aged 79 … Read more

St Peters Hall – Movies

PAEKĀKĀRIKI MOVIES 1930’s By Geoff Roberts, Paekākāriki Old Boy 1930s Movies were shown in St Peters Hall, which was located on the corner of Ames Street and the township, with St Peter’s church on the other side. To begin with, a Mr Tootle from Seatoun east side of Wellington city had the weekly contract to … Read more

Robert Sydney Kent

When the Manawatu Railway Company approached the Government for assistance in building the line they were granted, instead of cash, large land endowments along and adjacent to the proposed line. Some of these endowments were purchased from time to time by Francis Smith, and the property eventually extended from White Pine Gully at Tunapo to … Read more

Arthur Bly

Long time resident of Paekakariki I arrived in Paekakariki, July 1917, with my parents. Dad was on the railways, not then he joined the railways latter on. In the old days when they used to pull the old jiggers. He came from Otaki, he used to be a bushman. I was born in Waikanae, and … Read more

From Porirua to Paikakariki

From Porirua to Paikakariki—a distance of about fourteen miles—the traveller by the coach road passes Plimmerton and the well-watered flats bounded on either side by the higher hills which feel the flocks of the settlers; and thence through a beautiful country, varied by grassed and wooded uplands, from the recesses of which hundreds of Australian … Read more