My Account
One person who qualifies more than most as a ‘local folk’ is the matriarch of the Rathe family. Born at the Warkworth District Hospital, Ngaire Rathe has spent most of her 82 years within view of the Whangateau Harbour. Although reticent to comment on the proposed marina on Rathe land at Omaha Flats, Mrs Rathe was more than generous in sharing with Jannette Thompson a few of the stories of her busy life …..
What are your earliest memories of Whangateau?
Calling out to the Ashton kids to go swimming. Our favourite spot was between Birdsall and Ashton Roads where my twin brother Max built a diving board. There wasn’t a mangrove in sight in those days. We used to often go floundering in that area with a lantern and spear, fish for sprats which we’d fillet and eat in fritters, and catch eels which we’d cut into slabs and cook. We grew or caught just about everything we ate. Every second day, Mum would make bread using lemon yeast. We were forever cutting firewood to keep the stove going to cook and heat the water. We also used to trade for goods at the Big Omaha Store. On wet days we’d collect a special kind of fungus which we’d dry in the loft. The Chinese would give us a good price for it.
As well as cows and chooks, we had lots of fruit trees and we’d pack boxes of fruit like plums, apples and lemons, and send them off to the markets in Auckland. Big Omaha was a big peach growing area until the blight made the farmers cut out all the trees.
When did your family move to Whangateau?
My parents were Kate and Harry Evans. Dad was a baker who always wanted to be a doctor, but who ended up being a farmer. He got his nursing medal when he was 70 and working at Cornwall Hospital. My parents purchased the Saddlers farm in Ashton Road after the World War I. It was 200 acres but there wasn’t much flat country so it was hard work. Dad still managed to find time on Sundays to walk to Leigh to conduct the Methodist church service and be home in time to milk. We walked everywhere in those days. I think that’s why my old knees are giving out now.
Where did you go to school?
Max and I started at the Big Omaha School, in Schollum Road. When it came time to go to high school in Warkworth, I had to ride a bike along those rough metal roads between Whangateau and Matakana where I’d pick up a ride in Alice Jones’ school van. Max started a mechanical apprenticeship with Walden Motors, in Matakana, so he rode with me. The high school was so overcrowded we had to sit in the passageways. When World War II broke out I decided I’d had enough of school so I joined the Land Army. After the war we moved to Mt Eden where there was a picture theatre and dance hall nearby, and us country bumpkins decided to live it up. A friend and I also had a wonderful summer picking tobacco in Nelson.
Why did you move back to Whangateau?
Jack Rathe told me I was too fat for his liking, but then he got my phone number from my brother-in-law and turned up in Auckland for a date. The Rathe’s had a farm on Takatu Road and after we were married, he used his gratuity from the war to buy a tractor. He worked contract fencing, sowing manure, and whatever he could get. He was farming with his brothers, Bob and Reg, on 280 acres between Takatu and Jones Roads. The land had been well and truly gone over by the gum diggers and some of the holes they left behind were the size of houses. It was a big job filling them in. Jack and I had five kids – Lois, Lu, Brett, David (Jet) and Brenda. Eventually we moved onto our own land at Omaha Flats where the cows used to wander along the road at milking time, and the only vehicles we saw were the milk tanker and the mail truck. When plans for the Omaha development came to light, Jack said ‘over my dead body’. Then, when they did build the causeway, he had a bet with Stan Jones that no-one would ever build a house there. Jack died on Christmas Eve 21 years ago after falling from Penney’s boat, in Matakana. He was 64.
What about the shop at Omaha – was that hard work?
The first shop we owned was at Leigh which we ran for about three or four years. Before Jack died, the kids had started putting the farm into horticulture. Eventually they put up a purpose-built shop where the Omaha Gallery is now. The shop was 10 years of hard work. One year we planted 15 acres of squash for the Asian market. The buyer went broke and we never got a cent. It cost us more than $50,000. We grew strawberries, watermelon, beans, oranges, carrots, kumara, corn and flowers, and in the season we were planting 200 lettuces a week. About this time Lois and her husband were thinking of building a camping ground down by the estuary but the County Council wouldn’t let them. The rules and regulations were impossible.
Are your days quieter now?
I love my house in Pt Wells because I’m surrounded by all the familiar landmarks. My friend Noelene Wainwright and I go out to the sales at Wellsford, where I’m still buying and selling cattle for my kids. I’ve been in choirs for 50 years and was a founding member of the Kowhai Singers. I also belong to Probus and the Nor’East Excursions travel club. And there are always the grandchildren and great grandchildren. There’s still a bit of go in me yet.
