Mahurangi and Makaurau heritage vessels
Most coastal and harbour communities were maritime communities, but until all-weather roads reached Warkworth in the 1930s, Mahurangi remained one
Buffalo off spar station misses festival but makes history
Pictorially, at least, hmss Buffalo and Gordon Davis Browne’s spar station will make a fashionably late arrival to Auckland Heritage Festival 2019, which concludes at the end of Labour Weekend. Given that Browne’s Mahurangi spar station was the first European…
Bay where no ships has been 60 years with no name
It was almost certainly a good thing, that 60 years ago the name of the Auckland region’s first European settlement slid unnoticed into the next bay north. Had the bay been known by a descriptive name, such as Spar Station Cove, or by any name…
hmss Buffalo arrives at Mr Browne’s establishment
His putative youngest brother was Charles Dickens’ friend and illustrator, Hablot Knight Browne, aka Phiz. Putative, because Hablot was in fact the nephew of the founder of the Auckland region’s first European settlement, Gordon Davis Browne…
Local lawyer helps the Kestrel come home
Where Fairburn Walked Ross Mullins 1987 Ferry me across the shining water Take me home again Rock me rock me gentle on the harbour I will feel no pain Warkworth lawyer Hugh Gladwell is helping revive another regional icon. Mr Gladwell and Peter Thompson were the prime...
Very, very well-deserved re-launch luck
Event Saturday 16 May 2009, 10.30am onward Wharf Street, Warkworth The fine forecast for Saturday is staggering good luck. Given the months of fine weather Warkworth enjoyed this summer, contrasting with the recent weeks of early winter cold and rain. But this luck...
Official invitation to the Jane Gifford Re-Launch and Homecoming Celebration
Event Saturday 16 May 2009, 11am onward Wharf Street, Warkworth The Jane Gifford Restoration Trust cordially invites everybody to the re-launch and homecoming celebration for the 101-year-old scow Jane Gifford. The trust plans a huge welcome-home celebration,...
Jane Gifford re-launch with a little help from our friends
Event 11am to 2pm Wharf Street, Warkworth ‘We’re having the re-launching and homecoming celebrations for the Jane Gifford a fortnight on Saturday there.’ ‘Hang on Hugh, I’ll just pull over.’ ‘We’re wondering if the Friends would be prepared to mobilise its Mahurangi...
Finding Fred Anderson’s punt and sailing with the scow pilot
Must have been in the late 1960s I think. Lindsay and I found the punt ashore in Lagoon Bay. We took it back to Rodmersham where Lindsay’s father, Gladwyn Wynyard, recognised it as one that Fred Anderson had built for himself years before. He rang Mrs Anderson who...
After-match looked dicey but Deacon saves dance
For a while there, the vendors had inveigled their way in. Invariably, there is somebody looking to cash in on the event, but it was the strongly-held view of the generation that revived the Mahurangi Regatta that it should be a good old-fashioned…
Research up the river
New Zealand River Recreation Use Survey As oyster farmers, a huge perk of the job was having craft at the ready that were also perfect for recreation. Visitors to the family at Mahurangi West only had to pass an innocent remark about how beautiful the harbour looked...
Mahurangi punt – one of two icons
Punts are an absolutely integral, and unique, element of the settler history of Mahurangi. The centrality of these craft is graphically captured in the 1903 photograph of Willie Hamilton rowing a fully laden Mahurangi punt past the cement works established…