A Well Worn Track
With all our goodbyes behind us, we drove out along Haranui Road one last time, blew kisses in the direction of the urupa to Nanny Moewaka where she and Arka lay, charges of Papatuanuku and finally headed back towards Auckland. We decided a detour to Helensville was definitely on the cards, simply because we were so close.
Helensville has the feel of a one horse town. We drove in one side and right out the other before realising that’s what we’d done. We quickly turned around and returned to the town’s centre or at least where the majority of the shops were. It was surprising to me then to discover that there’s more to Helensville than meets the eye and that appearances really can be deceiving.
It’s a fact of life that people judge a book by its cover, we all say we don’t but we do because our actions give us away. The thing about history (and Helensville is steeped in it) is that it’s not all shiny and new, but neither is it all decay and decrepit either. Scratch the surface of Helensville and historically it stacks up as well as any other town around with its rich, diverse, social and cultural heritage.
“Helensville came into being in 1863 as a port associated with the timber trade, the greater Kaipara area was where ‘kauri was king’ and countless kauri logs were milled and shipped out from the busy Helensville wharves. For many years it was the headquarters for a steamship service running to Dargaville and to several lesser ports around the shores of the Kaipara Harbour. The decline of the timber trade, improved roads, and the extension of the railway to Dargaville led to the termination of trans-harbour shipping services in 1940.
Te Awaroa/Helensville
To local Maori the Helensville district was originally known as Te Awaroa, ‘The Valley of the Long River’. The area was important from a strategic point of view because it was on the routeway for travel to and from the north, the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours. In much earlier times it provided ease of access by canoe, and its hilly terrain made it easy to defend.
It is also the home of the Ngati Whatua tribe who traced their ancestry back to fairy people called patupaiarehe or Turehu (literally those who arose from the earth). They speak of an ancestral figure called Tumutumuwhenua and his wife Kui whose descendants were well established in Kaipara before Te Tino o Maruiwi made their way from the south.
The first European settlers in the district were Scottish timber millers named McLeod but who had actually come from Nova Scotia (a Canadian province located on Canada’s southeastern coast) to New Zealand. John McLeod built a house which he named “Helen’s Villa” in honour of his wife, and the name soon became that of the surrounding settlement.”
What’s most interesting to me and according to a National Quality of Life Survey of New Zealanders is that the people in the area have the highest overall perceptions of the quality of life in the country. People love living here and if that doesn’t say something about the character of a place I don’t know what does!
They rated their overall health as the highest in New Zealand and had some of the highest levels of emotional well-being and satisfaction with life and their stress levels were lower than anywhere else in the country. I sincerely suspect that the Doctor if there is one in the town has probably given up his day job and is more likely to be found at the golf club than in his surgery!
The Quality of Life Survey
The Quality of Life survey measures and evaluates the perceptions of overall quality of life for twelve Local Authorities in New Zealand. The purpose of the survey is to give Councils and National Agencies information that will enable to them to actively improve the quality of life that people experience. It covered health and well-being, community, crime and safety, education and work, the built environment, culture and identity and democracy.
Other results included the perception that there is the lowest presence of unsafe people in the community, and the highest involvement in community or voluntary groups. They also had the highest rating for a sense of community with others and not surprisingly people living in the area appear to be the most satisfied in the country with their work/life balance and the amount of free time they enjoy.” I happen to think that’s a bit of a beautiful thing they have going for them there.
Helenville really isn’t that far off the beaten track and the buzz around town is that the Porcini Cafe – Bistro & Pizzeria does a melt in the mouth Eye Fillet Steak in Stilton Sauce, the Ginger Crunch Cafe makes a mean bacon and eggs and if you don’t mind a wobbly table the coffee is just fine at the Uppercrust Cafe. Enjoy!
