My Account
Matakana Village has undergone big changes in the last few years but down the road from the upmarket development at the cinema complex, butcher Steven Whitaker has done his best to stick with tradition. Known to most as Wiri, Steven has been the Matakana butcher for 40 years and his may be the only shop in the village that doesn’t do Eftpos. The lease on his shop having expired and the landlords considering options for the increasingly valuable land it sits on, Wiri wonders how much longer he can resist the tide of “progress”.
I went to a party in Wiri one night and made an idiot of myself, though I won’t go into detail. After that people would say “remember that party in Wiri?” and the name stuck. So I’ve been called Wiri since about 1972 – only my wife and my mother call me Steven.
My father and mother were born here, third generation. They had a 152-acre dairy farm over the hill and milked 30 or 40 cows, which was about average in those days. You might wonder how they made a living, but they didn’t go out much and there were no such things as cellphones or other fancy gadgets to buy.
I’m the middle one of three boys and I’ve got one sister. I left school and started here in 1967 with Jim and Dawn Penney and did my apprenticeship. The butchery was built in 1946 by Percy Smith, Austen’s father, and since then it’s only had four or five owners. There’s always been an abattoir out the back, although it closed down about two years ago and ITM is using it as a timber yard for now.
I worked for Jim and Dawn for about 24 years before I bought the lease off them. There were two butchers here, including Des Chitty, and both the Penney boys did their time here, Trevor and Dick.
I’ve just done my 40th year, and there sure have been a lot of changes in Matakana. If someone had told me 10 years ago that Matakana would be so busy on a Saturday morning I would have laughed, but it’s like Queen Street. When I first started no-one opened on a Saturday but then people started to demand it and now it’s sometimes my busiest day. Sometimes I have to run, and that’s not good for an old bugger like me.
People ask why don’t I get Eftpos but I’m trying to keep it old. I’ve got a filing system that’s about 100 years old – I went to a museum recently and they had one just like it. But it works. When I took over the business there must have been about 30,000 docket books and I’m still using them.
People come in every week and want to buy this block – it’s been here about 30 years, it’s solid kauri and there’s about a cubic metre of timber in it. Someone put the old shop on a calendar a while ago.
I’ve always been a keen fisherman. In the Whangateau Harbour the trevally, flounder, cockles and pipis were so abundant. As young fellas we used to go over to Omaha – we used to row over from Ti Point because there was no other way in – and we’d pick up glass buoys and other things off the beach. There was never another soul there. We used to love whitebaiting too – we virtually lived down Quintal Road when we were kids, netting, baiting and catching sprats. My grandfather had a bach at Whangateau and in the morning he’d go out with a spear and come back with half a dozen flounder to cook for breakfast. Now all the townies are finding out how good it is, how we’ve taken it for granted.
I played rugby for Omaha, which was one of the strongest teams around here. We went three seasons without a loss, which was unheard of. Our coach was Murray Jones, who was a current All Black when he drowned trying to rescue his son. Laly Haddon was an All Black too, and Rod Jones played 100 games for North Auckland, along with the Going brothers. Omaha, Kaipara Flats and Warkworth combined to become Mahurangi in about 1985. All the guys I played rugby with are still mates today – we still go out and get in a bit of trouble. I went to Ivor Jones’ 60th birthday party the other day and it was like a rugby reunion.
Hockey, cricket and tennis were very strong at Whangateau. The Wyatts, Dunnings and Meiklejohns were all originals around here. Originally they used to play rugby at the pony club – it was called Matoma (a combination of Matakana and Omaha), then it changed to Omaha and moved to Whangateau, which was originally known as Daker’s Claim, and presumably he donated it to be used as a sportsfield.
Every Saturday night we’d go to a dance in the old hall across the road. About 1am we’d hop in the car and drive to Auckland to the White Lady. I had an old Austin 10. You could drive to Auckland and see about 10 cars on the way – now you see 10 or 20 before you get out of Matakana. There was a band called the Black Knights, they were very popular – there was Lindsay Lovegrove, a teacher at Wellsford, Tom Holden, who now lives in Aussie, Zombie (Alan) Torkington and Des Matheson – they went for years and were great. I used to hang around with them and carry their beer in for them.
They used to have the horse races on the beach at Whangateau. I’ve got a photo somewhere of the whole park covered with Model As and other old vehicles, and horses on the beach. The Army would come and fire their field guns – it was a huge day. Back in those days if there was an event on everyone would go, all the families. Now there’s so much to do there’s not such a community feeling. When I was young all there was to do was rugby, cricket, hockey and tennis, but now everyone’s off skiing, snowboarding or bungy jumping.
