Taranaki Stories
Showing stories tagged as New Plymouth.
by Kathy Heazlewood on 17 December 2009
On 10 March 1916, New Plymouth could boast to be the smallest municipality in the world to run a tramway system. New Plymouth was also the last city to install an electric tram system.
Six trams made by Boon and Co of Christchurch started the service between Fitzroy and the Terminus Hotel (now know as the Tasman Towers). Full service to the Port was to come also, but was...
by Sorrel Hoskin on 14 December 2009
If the black grains of sand on New Plymouth's Ngāmotu Beach could talk they would tell tales of tragedy and triumph, of pounding warriors' feet, the crack of cannon fire, the creaking of oars from boats and the steady development of a village turned town, turned city. Once a large sprawling beach, Ngāmotu has played an important part in both Māori and European history.
Close your...
by Rhonda Bartle on 14 December 2009
If Keith Adam's life was a slogan, ‘Just do it’ would pretty much sum him up. "You only live once - you're a long time dead - so you may as well have fun while you're alive!" the octogenarian laughs.
The New Plymouth man has white-hair, sun drenched skin, and limbs as slender and sinewy as jungle creepers. And a ready grin.
He's got three life memberships and a Queen's Service...
by Virginia Winder on 14 December 2009
A masked man hides behind bushes.
He is waiting and watching as a man on a horse trots towards him along Mangorei Road.
The sound of clopping gets closer. Dust sprouts from the horse's hooves.
When the rider nears the bush, the masked man leaps out waving a gun and yells:
"Halt! I demand your money, or I will put a bullet through your brains!"
The terrified horseman hands over a...
by Rhonda Bartle on 14 December 2009
When the Lonely Planet Travel Guide to New Zealand took an interest in Taranaki and turned the spotlight on Whangamomona, it undoubtedly brought a new wave of visitors into the district.
But have you ever wondered what a local travel book dated 1885 might have offered to the traveller by way of sightseeing tips?
The Illustrated Guide to the West Coast of the North Island, New...
by Rhonda Bartle on 09 December 2009
Forget the Last Samurai - Taranaki's first real ‘on location’ movie was filmed more than 70 years before.
It was a typical 1920s storyline - an innocent school teacher is kidnapped by a dastardly journalist, a cowboy chase ensues, before the hero saves the day.
But this wasn't some flick straight from the sets of Hollywood. This was New Plymouth's first ever movie, using...
by Rhonda Bartle on 07 December 2009
Alaric Wilson was born in New Plymouth and has lived in three different houses on Frank Wilson Terrace, which was named after his father when family land was subdivided.
His current house is just eight years old, with a wide wooden deck built out into lush mature bush. It's hard to imagine he lives in the city, with rimu and puriri trees growing so close to the balustrades.
Yet,...
by Rhonda Bartle on 07 December 2009
In July 2006, the New Plymouth Technical School building turned 100 years old. The forerunner to the Taranaki Polytechnic, now Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki (WITT), it was set up by men of foresight and was once a place to be particularly proud of.
When the Polytechnic opened in 1972, it was built on the sturdy foundations of New Plymouth's Technical School.
...
by Rhonda Bartle on 07 December 2009
You'd think a bloke called ‘Biggles’ would be interested in planes not ships, but Robin Maindonald of Westgate knows enough about Port Taranaki to put its entire history on CD.
The story of Port Taranaki is the story of people and the sea. Maindonald, Communication and Security Officer at Westgate, is pretty keen on both.
A popular Westgate employee, he's a gun at...
by Rhonda Bartle on 07 December 2009
Levi Sarten had a love of the sea, perhaps sparked by a long ocean voyage when he was just an infant.
At the age of nine months, he travelled with his parents from Corscombe, England, to land on New Plymouth shores.
A child of Lucy and Edmund Sarten, Levi arrived on the first settler ship William Bryan.
He was the first settler child to land on the beach, and his mother,...