Motoring on to Manaia

A  never ending stream of Volkswagens and Combi vans drove south towards us along SH3 as we made our way to Manaia.  We wondered what they had all been doing in this neck of the woods – we had never seen so many on the road all at once.  Mr Google informed us that the Volkswagen New Zealand National Rally was held in New Plymouth over Easter, so of course, that was why we saw them all on the road.  They were all heading home.  

  

We left Mowhanau with Geoff and Eileen and arrived at the POP in Manaia mid afternoon.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze getting in through the gate and we parked ourselves on the site.  The POP owners run the local Country and Western Museum and arrived after the museum was closed to hook us up to the power. 

Just us two at the  POP at Manaia

Manaia is named after Hukunui Manaia, a paramount Maori chief of the district, and was settled by Europeans in the 1880s. It  was the administrative centre of the Waimate West County and Manaia Town Board until they became part of the South Taranaki District Council in 1989.   The town is surrounded by some of the richest dairy land in the country. In the 1940s and 1950s the number of dairy factories per kilometre of road was the highest in New Zealand. To help transport milk to the factories, the Waimate West County began a major road-sealing project in 1916 and a few years later had some of the country’s best rural roads. 

We took a short self guided walk around the town checking out the interesting historic buildings. The World War 1 Memorial Band Rotunda was built in the Octagon 1922 in the town centre.  The local brass band performed here every Friday night right up to the 1950s.  It is flanked by two memorial obelisks made from Scottish granite.  The Constabulary Monument was erected in 1890 and commemorates the Pakeha casualties in the 1868-69 Taranaki wars.  The second obelisk was erected in 1921 in memory of those who died in WW1.

Memorial Band Rotunda and Obelisks

  The old Post Office building was built in 1912, and designed by government architect John Campbell, who also designed both the Auckland and Wellington Post Offices, Parliament Buildings, Government House, and the Public Trust building in Wellington.  The locals of Manaia got up in arms when it was discovered that there was another post office close to Auckland also called Manaia.  They refused to consider a name change, and the Auckland Post Office was renamed Dunbar.   The Manaia Post Office closed in 1991 and is now a private residence.

  The former Manaia Post Office

This rather cute Oddfellows Hall building peeping over the hedge not far from where we were camping has now been turned into a private home.

The former Oddfellows Hall 

To tell the truth, there was only one reason we decided to stop overnight in Manaia – because this is the site of the famous Yarrows bakery, founded in 1923, and operated by three generations of the Yarrow family.  It is the largest privately owned bakery in New Zealand, and provides employment for a great number of locals.  We took a morning walk around to the bakery to stock up on goodies before we left the area.  What did we buy?  Some lovely fresh bread, a sticky bun for lunch mock Cream donuts for later,  Christmas mince pies, and a “just out of the oven” fruit cake. That should keep us going for a while. The friendly staff were interested in our travel plans.  “Do call in on your way back home”, they told us.  Perhaps we will.

 

Mmmm, fresh baked goodies

So it’s goodbye Manaia, and on to Bell Block, New Plymouth.