Tangahoe Wilderness Lodge... History in the Making
Tangahoe Lodge (old man’s paddle).
Tangahoe farm was first developed by Lord Galpin who was reported to have been banished from England around 1880 for misdemeanours he committed. The virgin bush was falled by gangs of local Maori with only axes and handsaws (rip saws). The bush was then burnt and grassed by hand sowing. He then grazed the 2000 plus acres with hoggets that were brought in by river steamer from Wanganui which is 75 miles downriver from Tangahoe.
He is reported to have taken 180 bales of wool per year for the first six years, but he then walked off the farm as the regrowth from the tee tree took over large areas. The first house that was built on the farm was burnt down some years later the remains of that site are still visible today.
In the 1920 a man by the name of Jack Ward then took over the abandoned farm and proceeded to milk cows on the property, the concrete milking pad is still there today. He pulled down a three bedroom house from Taumaranui and transported it downriver to Tangahoe Landing, then with horse and dray (a two wheel cart). He transported it up the track from the river some 1200ft and a distance of one mile to its present site (this is a three bedroom house with a large lounge and living room) complete with open fire and coal range, some feat in itself.
Considering I built the present lodge by fixed wing and helicopter, which took one and a half days of helicopter flights to just get the material on site. With a very enthusiastic group of mates and no nonsense foreman, Eric Douglas we had the lodge up covered in and roof on in four days with a couple of return weekends to complete the job total cost of labour $100!!!
That’s when mates were mates...
At that time, the only means of transport through the central North Island were the riverboats, plying the Wanganui River and a thriving business was set up by Ron Hattrick as people would come from Auckland to Taumaranui, then travel to Whanganui by river steamer, board a ship at Whanganui and sail to Wellington.
Jack Ward used to cut hay and cultivate on the farm, evident from the old mowers and implements lying around. He would transport the milk and cream every three days down to the riverboats to be transported to market. To negotiate the steep track down to the river he would put a pole between the dray wheels to work like a sledge, and returning he would remove the pole and return back to the milking shed for the next load of milk!!! No Fonterra Tankers then to pick the milk up at the Gate!!
Tangahoe was also famous for the Maori tribes, providing as a prolific source of wood pigeon. What is now known as the Goose Paddock was a very large stand of Miro trees and the tribes from Taranaki and as far away as Hawkes Bay would come and hunt the Kereru (wood pigeon) preserve them (tahu), and take them back to their Pa to be used on special occasions.
After a few years of milking cows Jack Ward gave up after the horses and dray met with an accident while taking the milk to the riverboats the pole locking the wheels broke on the dray and horses dray and milk went over the bank.
The farm was then left abandoned until my father took on the challenge of farming it during the mid-thirties. There were a few wild sheep and cattle on the block when he first took it on. I remember him telling me that he would catch the wild sheep, shear them and take out the wool and get paid one pound of our money, for every pound of wool during the Korean War. That was a lot of money then, sometimes up to eight pound for a fleece.
Dad went away to WW2 and fought with the 22nd Battalion in Italy at Monty Casino then was in J force that went to Japan. He was away four years and when he returned - one of the fortunate ones - the pigs had dealt to all his lambs. Dad, being who he was this just became more determination to succeed.
Dad farmed the land for 42 years and has been very successful later owning a farm in Pokeno, where mum still lives. Dad passed on in 2009 at the age of 90, and I still remember how he would get a twinkle and a tear in his eyes when we talked about Tangahoe. There were good old times and the hard times too, this was and always will be the love of his life.
Dad was such a hard worker. There was a time when chainsaws were just being sold and Dad bought a nice new geared drive Homelite which he took it to the farm to cut scrub. After three months he brought it out to get a service and they told him it was worn out. After only three months, they couldn’t believe that it was possible so they gave him a brand new one for free, that’s how hard he worked.
Another time was when his workers failed to turn up for the shearing he just set about mustering, shearing, rousing, pressing in fact he did the whole job on his own, 2000 sheep in all, that’s just the way he is. He had a saying that he used to use when he considered someone who was lazy he would say by jove he’s a great worker that chap, he even sleeps by his job!!
I was born in the old homestead that still is used today and at the age of 19 I came back to the farm with my wife Rose, and I have farmed the land ever since. She was killed in a car accident with her two friends in 1991 and is now buried on the farm. I have farmed there for forty years. We used to farm 50 head of cattle and 2000 sheep but the economics of farming have changed a lot and I set about setting the farm up for hunting and holidays some years ago.
The wild Red Deer and Fallow Deer are now managed for their sustainability, the sheep numbers have been reduced to 500 for management purposes of the land along with the cattle numbers. Things have changed a lot from the so called old days. I can remember going out scrub cutting with an old kerosene lamp to get to work before daylight, scrub cut all day living on billy tea and bang bang bread cooked in a camp oven (sometimes not that well cooked!) then getting home by dark.
During my younger years, Merv Church National Rodeo champion, and myself would leave Rotorua on a Friday afternoon, arrive at the farm that evening, pig hunt all day Saturday, catching 15 to 20 pigs then pack them all out on horses on Sunday, to arrive back to Rotorua late on Sunday evening. In those days the farm was well known for the number of wild pigs that were there, the pigs were a major problem at lambing time and we used to lose a large number of lambs to them.
The Woolshed was then down at the river flat and all shearing was done there. The wool was let down the last 100 feet to the river on a small steel rope which was wrapped around a strainer to control the speed of the bale as it went over the bank. ( I clearly remember one of Dad’s friends Dave Russell going over with the bale of wool just for the ride!!) to the river. We would then have to pull the wire rope back up by hand ready for the next bale to go down. We would transport 15 bales of wool at a time, on the shortened riverboat Otinui down to Pipiriki, which was a round trip of one whole day. This could only be done when there was a flush in the river so as the boat would not bottom on the rapids on the way down.
Nowadays the wool is flown out by fixed wing on backloads. The plane takes one bale at a time - 15 lambs or 13 full grown sheep. There is a large Kauri tree planted at the old river flat by my Dad and a large waterfall which claimed the life of one of Dads best friends a Mr Jack Dicker who was a neighbour who came to help Dad from time to time. This particular time he tried to cross the Tangahoe Stream which was in flood but was swept over the waterfall along with his horse and dogs they found his raincoat but never ever found him.
I remember as a young 10-12 year old coming up the river on the last of Harrick’s river steamers, the Ongarue, and sometimes Waireka. It used to run three times a week to Ramanui Station Paranui and Tangahoe Station being the last outpost up from Pipiriki. The next farm was Wades Landing which was at the top end of the river near Taumarnui.
The Captain was Andy Anderson, and it later got down to one trip per week then they would only come to pick you up when you gave them a specific date. Later, the Pipiriki House burned down that was the end of the river service. Soon after, Andy Anderson drowned attending his eel pa at Pipiriki, a sad loss for the Whanganui community. After Andy's passing we brought the river boat 'Otinui' to service the upper reaches of the river.
Dad then bought the first Hamilton Jet boat that CWF Hamilton had just developed. We used to transport five bales of wool to Pipirki on this. It was a Godsend, and along with the Waireka river boat he also bought, we continued to farm Tangahoe Station. The Waireka was used to cart the stock and wool from the farm for several years then Dad bought the Otinui which he cut 15 feet out of the centre to get around the yearly survey. We used this for the farm as he put the Waireka on the tourist run at Whanganui.
Later we bought a aluminium jet barge, which was 26ft long and 9ft wide and was able to carry 70 full grown sheep or 15 bales of wool, this made life so much easier. I even transported the old Oliver HG tractor up from Pipiriki to the lodge. It took us one week to repair the track and walk the tractor up to the farm. The Oliver was instrumental in building the airstrip which services the lodge today and makes life a dream from the old days. The jet barge had a turnaround time of just three hours, whereas, the Riverboat used to take a whole day.
How times have changed, going from a half day trip from Pipiriki to Tangahoe Landing, with an hours walk up the track with a pack full of stores. Now it's board a plane at Mountain Air, 15 minutes later we land at the lodge, jump on a 4x4 bike and ride the 100 metres to the lodge. In under 30 minutes we are sitting in the lodge having a cuppa!!!!
My first family with Rose have all grown up and live their own lives. I hope that one day my son David who is doing the OE thing at the moment will carry on the farm where both Dad and I left off and continue to love the land the way we have.
These were the true Pioneers of New Zealand. They lived for the land, off the land and respected the land. They worked in harmony with it, something that is lacking in this day and age. We are just custodians for the next generation we should leave it a little better than when we found it that is all that the land asks of us………………………!
"THE EARTH HAS AN ABUNDANCE THAT CAN FEED THE POPULATION A THOUSAND TIMES OVER, YOU JUST HAVE TO MANAGE IT IN THE CORRECT MANNER" Dave Davey
