Coromandel Area School

A group of 20 year 6 to 9 kids from Coromandel Area School came to visit.

They're doing a tour of the top-half of the South Island, travelling in 2 vans. Half of them had seen Reefton on the way here, the other half hadn't because they took the wrong road and got lost. (North Islanders!)

From here they were travelling on the Tranz-Alpine train to Christchurch - a great trip and a great experience for them all. Lucky Beggars.

Anyway, the Waiuta Mine was the 2nd. richest gold-mine in New Zealand. It produced more than enough gold to pay-off the entire national debt at any time in New Zealand's history. The only bigger mine in NZ was the Martha Mine in Waihi, Coromandel, where this lot come from.

One of my Great-Grandfathers was killed in the Martha Mine, he fell down the shaft.

I'm not sure how it happened, but his widow, my Gran Healey, later came on a boat to Greymouth, married Ted Healey, a carpenter, and they and my 5yo Grandmother went up to Waiuta in a horse and cart. That was in 1905 and they lived there for a few years while Ted was helping build the town. He actually built the Red Huts, a long-time landmark.

My Grandmother, Mattie, was a pupil in the school on the day it opened. She later lived in Reefton and died there in 1997, aged 97 years, so she saw Waiuta start and finish.

She was originally born in Arrowtown, near Queenstown, so she spent her whole life on goldfields.

Today's history lesson concludes.

cheers

St. Canice's Came Back

On a brilliantly sunny, but windy, day 20 kids from St. Canice's school, Westport came to visit. My favourite school!

Actually, it was the 4th time they've been here now - different kids/parents but same teachers. It is such a great idea - they come down the Coast Road from Westport, see the village and have lunch, and then go on, up the Grey Valley to Waiuta for their school camp for a couple of days. After that they go home via Reefton and the Buller Gorge.

Much better than going off to a city for their camp and learning about other people's regions & history. Waiuta is different to home but it's in their own backyard.


We give them a list of questions and things to look for in the village.


It helps to slow them down.


Always a joy - roll-on next year!

cheers

The Can-Man was Cole Parker, NOT Tony Anisy!

Visitors to the village are given a copy of the Souvenir Map/info sheet. These are quite handy because the map helps them find their way around and when i see someone with one in their hand, i know where they're going.

On the back of the map there are little stories about people in Waiuta and these correspond to the numbered stones dotted around in the village at relevant sites.

We're about to have the maps re-printed because we've run out, which is good because there's a mistake which badly needs fixing.

The last story is about 'the Can-Man'. Most of the toilets in Waiuta were long-drops, (seats over deep holes in the ground), but some at the top-end were short-drops and their cans needed emptying regularly. The guy who had this delightful job for a long time was an pensioned-off miner and he would change the cans in the middle of the night.

He didn't have a cart, just two cans on a long pole carried across his shoulders. So, of course, the locals all called him 'the Chinaman'. At home, he had a large garden and he grew a lot of strawberries, but even the kids of the town weren't interested in stealing them.

He couldn't sell his produce locally so he used to come down to Greymouth and sell on the side of the street - nobody here knew where they were from and what they were grown in.

Anyway, when the map was printed, through a printer's error, the Can-Man was named as Tony Anisy, which was not right, it should've said Cole Parker.

Tony was actually a dapper little man, of Lebanese descent, who had a small draper's shop in the village. He was always very neat and tidy and generally wore a three-piece suit, even in leisure hours.

His god-daughter, Gwen Poole, nee Jones, came to see us one day and she was mortified that we were telling people that Tony Anisy changed the poo-tins in the night. She said that he'd be spinning in his grave!

So, now we can fix it - the Can-Man was Cole Parker, not Tony Anisy.

Sheesh, politics!

cheers

Paroa School

Not Kids.

Kids.

A Pre-schooler tagging along.


Paddy Heenan in Little Earth/Waiuta. (Green boarding-house at the foot of hill).


The new entrants' class from Paroa School, along with teachers and parents, came to visit us this morning - in the rain!

Actually, their teacher, Susan Smith, said that last time she brought a school group here, it was raining then too. So, we'll blame her.

The weather didn't worry the kids though, they were wet but they were out of school. From here they went on to visit the Brunner Mine site. It stopped raining this afternoon, of course.

I should've told them the story about Paddy Heenan, but forgot to.

The Brunner Mine, a coal-mine up the Grey Valley, was the site of NZ's worst mining diaster. Gas in the mine exploded killing 65 men and boys.

Paddy Heenan was the only survivor on his shift. He should have been down in the mine with them, but didn't go to work that day because of a hangover. For the rest of his life, he was a "dedicated anti-prohibitionist".

Years later, Paddy was working up in Waiuta. Staggering home, drunk, after a hard night in the pub, he lay down and "went to sleep" on the side of Top Road, in a rain-storm. His gumboots dammed the roadside ditch, the water washed out the road and streamed down the hill to flood the boarding-house at the bottom.

There was a huge panic there as they thought that the mine must have collapsed, or something. But, no, it was just Paddy in the ditch. Another miner coming along saw him there, pulled him out and that was the end of the flood.

The local road-man was carting mulloch from the mine to repair the road for weeks afterwards.

True story - I think.

Anyway, it was great to see the kids. Always a pleasure to see little 'uns.

cheers.