Taranaki Stories
Showing stories tagged as Opunake.
by Virginia Winder on 17 December 2009
A single sentence spoken by a coaching great to a fledgling runner in 1958 changed New Zealand's sporting headlines forever.
The coach was Arthur Lydiard. The runner was all-round sportsman Peter Snell.
The sentence was: "Peter, with the sort of speed you've got, if you do the endurance training, you could be one of our best middle-distance runners."
Peter believed him: "I thought, 'Gee...
by Rhonda Bartle on 14 December 2009
Drive through Opunake and you'll find a quiet little town with new decorative stone walls, faded shop facades and a bright mural or three.
Turn at the old Club Hotel and follow the road that slopes down to the beach and you could be anywhere in Small Town, New Zealand.
Except you're not. You're in Opunake - the home of world famous surf. Its original past swirls all...
by Rhonda Bartle on 14 December 2009
The names of people are often synonymous with where they live, and you can't talk of Opunake without mention of the Olliver clan.
Twelve Olliver children - the offspring of Hilton (Skelly) and Mabel - were born a year or two apart between the years of 1916 and 1936.
They were destined to become the first permanent dwellers at Opunake Beach after what was meant to be a...
by Virginia Winder on 14 December 2009
A ‘stranger in a strange land’ and a tiny woman who once had bound feet were made to feel like locals in the small Taranaki farming community of Opunake.
About 1904, when the Wai Yep & Co General Store opened its doors in the coastal Taranaki town, Chinese goldminers in Dunedin were despised, shunned and attacked.
But in Opunake, the immigrants from the village of Sun-gai in...
by Virginia Winder on 14 December 2009
Every Friday morning over a cuppa and cakes, the Friends of the Opunake Library make a wee toast to Charlie Yep.
"We always say, 'This is for Charlie'," says long-time resident Molly Harvey (88).
The library is built on the site of the former Wai Yep & Co General Store, on the corner of Tasman and Havelock streets.
The store was closed in 1977, when Harry Yep sold up. He...