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Life has moved at a quiet pace for Roger (Hops) Trotter. He still lives in the house on Hamilton Road where he was born 75 years ago, still tends his own garden and still likes a beer or two, as long as it’s DB. Although he has never married, seen the South Island or touched a computer, if he had his life to live over again, he says there isn’t much he would change. Roger has also never ridden a bike in his life, but this hasn’t stopped him and his niece Shelley Trotter providing easements along more than six kilometres of their adjoining properties to help see the Matakana Coast Trail Trust become a reality. Hops sat down for an afternoon chat with Mahurangi Matters …
My section of the easement is about 1.3 kilometres on my Duck Creek boundary. There is already a track there that was formed a few years ago and it’s a popular bush walk with a few locals. My father fenced off part of it from stock long before riparian planting was fashionable, so it is a mix of naturally regenerating bush and trees that were planted as part of the Mahurangi Action Plan. The family is taking care of it at the moment including my great-nephew Joe, who has been keeping it clear, pruning branches and cleaning out the scrub and privet.
The Trotter family has been in the Mahurangi area a long time. My grandfather Alexander arrived in Dunedin from Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1868. He then moved north to work as a farm hand on the Lushington Estate at Dairy Bay, where he met and married Annie Davie-Martin in 1882. Annie was born in Tiller Bay (now Martins Bay) in 1856, making her one of the earliest European babies born in the area. They went into partnership with a man named Hille and together they owned the original Solway property that covered 1649 acres, extending from Sharp Road to the Mahurangi River. Hille is the man who gave his name to the Auckland suburb of Hillsborough, as well as the notorious Hill Street intersection. Later, Alex independently bought a 330-acre farm in Wright Road, Matakana, which is still farmed by a branch of the family.
Alex and Annie had four sons and six daughters and my Dad, Davie, was the youngest. He married Mavis Crawshaw, of Hamilton, and they had three children – my brother Mike, my sister and me. In her single days, Mavis worked for her aunt, Annie Eves, who ran Orewa House, a guest house in Orewa. It is said she met my father when staying with the Rowe family in Hamilton Road, across the road from where Davie lived. My parents never spoke about my sister Sybil and I never met her, but the story goes she was intellectually handicapped. When Mum found out she was pregnant with me, she was more or less told to send my sister to a home in Nelson as people thought it would be too much for her to look after both Sybil and a new baby. They put her on the bus and never saw her again. It must have been heartbreaking for them all. My brother Mike and his wife Maureen now live in Russell and Mike will be 87 this year.
I went to Warkworth Primary and was in the fourth form when Warkworth District High School changed its name to Mahurangi College. I used to catch the bus with Lloyd and Kay Phillips and Ted and Dick Morrison. Herb Tucker was our driver for a while and I remember that the bus was always breaking down. I left school when I was 15 – I couldn’t wait to get out of the place. I helped on the farm milking and looking after the pigs – the pig yard was on the corner of Hamilton Road. I also helped Dave McNaught who grew vegetables. From 1973 to 1995 I spent a fair bit of time working in forestry at Mangamuka and around the Hokianga, and later in the Woodhill Forest and locally. I was mainly involved in planting, pruning and measuring. I enjoyed the work, the company of the other men, being out in the open and a beer or two at the end of the week. I wish I’d got into it a lot younger. It wasn’t without its risks and I had to take three months off after a falling branch broke my wrist once.
I was too small to play rugby, but I’ve always enjoyed fishing and cruising around the Hauraki Gulf. I’ve done a bit of game fishing over the years, but I always thought the best fish to bring in were the skipjack tuna. We used to have some good nights at the Mansion House pub on Kawau Island. I’ve still got the 40-foot Purple Haze moored at Sandspit but don’t get out as much as I used to. I remember the first time I went to Great Barrier when I was still a kid – it was one of my most memorable trips. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to catch fish. There were plenty of fish in those days; not like it is now.
I was 36 when I got my driver’s licence – there never seemed to be any rush because there were always plenty of people around to give you a lift if you needed to go anywhere.
These days I still work 16 hours a week, weeding the orchard at the organic blueberries at Omaha. I’ve been there 15 years and was pretty much fulltime until Covid came along. I’ve also done vineyard work trimming vines, and picked mandarins and kiwifruit at Point Wells. I like the work and I like being outside. I’ve got a good cat called Bullet for company at home. I’ve never owned a mobile phone, sent an email or gone on the internet. I wouldn’t have a clue how to even turn a computer on. But I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything. I read a bit, mostly nautical books and fishing magazines. I’ve always had a vegetable garden and I love honey, which I think is very good for you. We used to have someone else’s hives on the farm years ago. I’m glad to still have good health and I put it down to the fact that I’ve never smoked and never drank Lion Red!
Pedal power
The Matakana Coast Trail Trust was established in 2015 to deliver a multi-purpose trail network from Puhoi to Mangawhai, via Warkworth, Matakana and Pakiri with connector trails to other locations such as Snells Beach, Point Wells and Omaha.
The development of the trail will happen in three stages, span 117 kilometres and cost around $50 million to complete. It is forecast to handle some 410,000 individual trips per annum.
To find out more, visit: www.mctt.org.nz
