Road to Onga Onga
The road to Onga Onga is paved with lavender and deep purple-coloured roadside flowers, groaning plum trees full of summer bounty and straw coloured grass more beautiful than gold. I stopped by the roadside to take it all in. It smelt like open space, wide as it was deep. Nature’s own garden. I loved the interlude, my soul was revived in that single breath.
“Set in a peaceful spot a stone’s throw from State Highway 50, Onga Onga has a collection of historic buildings gathered from all over the district and clustered around the Department of Conservation’s field office to make a picturesque historic village. Even the DOC field office is a slice of local history having been the original Pendle Hill Homestead before it was carefully removed from its spot beneath the Wakarara Ranges and shifted to Onga Onga and restored.
The buildings include an old school house and a jail. They fit in well with Onga Onga’s other historic buildings which include homes, a factory and a General Store. The historic village is open to the public on Sundays from 2pm-4pm. Visitors can pick up a map and brochure from the General Store and take a walk through the village, view the elegant Edwardian buildings, nineteenth century cottages and the most beautiful architecturally designed butcher shop in New Zealand.”
I was on a photographic expedition to this little village and to pop in to visit my cousin Douglas and his wife Mary Anne who happen to own the oldest cottage in Onga Onga with its tall graceful trees, hammocks slung invitingly between the trees and contented cats lounging on deep-armed sofas on the front veranda. Shaggy the dog with his compassionate eyes and aging step made me feel like time had cast a timeless spell in their garden and around their home. Peace reigns there.
It turned out Doug and Mary Anne were away overnight in Wellington but Dougy’s sister Pora Anne brought me back to the homestead where we admired Maryann’s artisan works cut from corrugated iron, stone sculptures and her wonderful artistic flair in interior design. It made my fingers itchy to get creating again. I like the feel of Onga Onga, like it enough to want to live there in fact.
Life for all its bigness can be small. Mary Anne and me went to school together, during our High School years at Central Hawke’s Bay College. We called her Reidy because that was her surname. We were, all of us in the habit of calling each other by our surnames, infact we never really called each other by our given names unless that one was ‘in trouble’. Trouble like, what did you do with my locker type trouble! I had occasion to go to my locker on a few occasions only to discover nothing in it belonged to me. I knew it was my locker because the combination lock was mine and I could open it! We were a mischievous lot!
Mary Anne’s family roots are well and truly set in mud in these Onga Onga soils. Her great Grandfather was Samuel James Fletcher born 24 Oct 1892 in Pendle Hill, Hawke’s Bay to Harriet Lomas and Samuel Fletcher both from Stockport, Cheshire, England. He died 20 Jul 1957 in Onga Onga and was buried 1957 in Pendle Hill Cemetery. Samuel married Annie Anice Gillespie in 1924. Annie was born 1898. She died 8 Oct 1978 in Waipukurau and was buried two days later on 10 Oct in Pendle Hill cemetery too.
They had five children Mary Noeline, Samuel Russell, Rona Anice, Nancy Ethel and Sarie Jennifer. It’s Nancy who is Mary Anne’s mum. Mary Anne’s aunt Mary Noeline married Bruce Thomsen and like I said before, our worlds can be small because it was their eldest daughter Scarlet who eventually taught both my younger sisters and me in the primers at Terrace School. Scarlet went on to marry Rod McKenzie, cousin of my old friend Andrew while Scarlet’s brother Clinton married my old netball nemesis Shelley Lloyd.
The thing you notice about Onga Onga when you walk around its streets as Pora Anne, her partner John and me did is that flowers grow here very well, particularly roses. Not far from the township on Ashcott Road, D & S Nurseries produce roses that are imported from all over the world and sent out all around New Zealand. Owner Doug Pacey’s career began at Gregorys Roses in Nottingham, England where he budded over 4000 roses a day. He then became the Manager of the rose section of a Dairy farm in Chichester where they were growing up to 350,000 roses.
It was during this time that he met his wife Sue, a New Zealand girl on a working holiday. They married and came out to New Zealand where they established D & S Nurseries in the sunny Hawke’s Bay. They have been growing roses here since 1987. They made a recent move to their new nursery in Central Hawke’s Bay where they have made a commitment to develop their client’s accessibility to their extensive rose catalogue and supply images of every rose in stock. Sounds like a bloom’in good idea to me.
From the township of Onga Onga it’s a pleasant drive up Wakarara Road to the Ruahine Ranges where it’s ideal conditions as I’ve mentioned before for trampers, hunters and fisherman. In the township there are a couple of galleries, the famous General Store, Onga Onga Motors (owned by Marcus Avery, cousin of my oldest school friend Sal and whose Eagles band CD Hotel California we thrashed to death during our teenage years) can sort out your car or truck in their fully equipped workshop.
Also nearby is the Country House Lodge which was the childhood home of renowned Taupo trout fishing guide Punch Wilson. It’s spacious entertaining areas were created by Punch’s famous actress mother, Freda Wilson in 1938. I smile at the mention of Freda’s name remembering Little Theatre days and her scrupulous direction of both plays I was involved with there. I helped out with the lighting. She was a terrier for exactitude no matter where you were located in her productions but I learnt alot from her rigorous direction.
The Country House Lodge has a ballroom style living room, a cosy drawing room and separate formal dining room, both with open fireplaces. There’s a fabulous dangerous boys’ tree hut that’s great for summer sleepovers, an Art Deco swimming pool, a tennis court in the spirit of ‘A Good Year’ the movie. There’s room for clay-bird shooting, archery, a putting green or if you’re feeling energetic there’s the Onga Onga Golf course just three minutes down the road.”
Onga Onga has so much going for it, quiet and sleepy though it may appear on the surface. Mark my words, there’ll be a wonderful arts community there in the not too distant future. It’s a sleeping giant you watch and see.
