Dedicated to democracy, enjoying and restoring the Mahurangi, meaningful climate action, and curiosity—
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Early end to 1800s Mahurangi boatbuilding
This substantial boatbuilding activity at Mahurangi declined in the late seventies and died in 1880. The reasons do not appear to be local. It was not due to lack of human or material resources. The original major builders had died or grown old, but…
Paris climate accord not the half of it
Not all agree it’s a bad thing Trump’s made good on his campaign promise to pull the United States out of Paris. One climate researcher argues that the Trump circus could do less damage outside of the tent, than in it. But regardless, a bad-tempered…
Gordon Browne and his spar station
Gordon Davis Browne was both the first recorded timberman and the first Pākehā resident on the Mahurangi, although he stayed for only four years. His credits extend far beyond the bounds of Mahurangi—from his pioneer timber station of 1826 in the…
Criteria for crossing Pūhoi River revisited
The principal objective of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail is to provide primary access to Te Muri. Based on vehicle counts, Wenderholm Regional Park receives an estimated 225 362 visitors per year, and Mahurangi Regional Park 59 595. It is probable…
Healing unhealthy health-board ballots
The first requirement of a voting system is to reflect voters’ preferences. First-past-the-post does one thing and one thing only: it reveals voters’ first preferences. But in the real world of human interactions, second and subsequent preferences are…
Representing hundreds and thousands
On average, each of Auckland region’s part-time local board politicians represents 9500 people. But a report prepared for Auckland Council argues for the number of local boards and local board members to be halved, which would double the number each…
Mahurangi elegant punt
On the Mahurangi, getting to work, to school, or to social events; meeting the steamboats, cream launches or neighbours; or bringing home necessities such as firewood, usually meant rowing, often for miles at a time. Some of the more epic rowing stories are told in the next chapter. For the shoreline families, a good…
Lifeline of the north
The Northern Steamship Company was the brainchild of Captain Alexander McGregor, another shipwright, mariner and entrepreneur of the Nova Scotian breed, who had come to New Zealand by way of Australia. In 1847 he built a small schooner, the Random, in the bay that bears his name. He then…