Now aged 94, Ngaere resides on the family farm, Raroa Station, Tolaga Bay.
Arriving from central Hawke’s Bay, she was drawn by the appeal of country living and her love of horses. It wasn’t long before she met her husband to be, Henri Shelton, at the local dog trials.
“I wanted to get a horse — he had one. Well, that was it,” she laughed.
Ngaere applied for a permanent position at the local Tolaga Bay Area School, where she went on to work with special needs children.
“It was the original old school. Back then the dental clinic was situated away from the school. The kids used to be sent up to the dental clinic and when they were done, they were given a note with the instructions, ‘take this to the teacher and send this person up’. Well, that child would run straight home, because they didn’t want to pass that note on . . . so that was the old school.”
Ngaere continued working at the school for over 30 years and has seen some huge changes over the time she has lived in Tolaga Bay.
“In those days they didn’t have the power, but they had a sort of a station down from where the Tolaga Inn is now. That’s where Mr Hall would charge the batteries all through the day. By the time night came you’d turn the lights on, but they gradually got dimmer and dimmer. When you went to bed, you couldn’t even read in bed.”
The Victoria University of Wellington website says: “In July, 1925, residents of Tolaga Bay obtained the benefits of electric light generated by a plant installed by Uawa County Council at a cost of £6,130.”
Power was put in place at Uawa in 1963.
“Tolaga had lovely shops. We had the ‘farmers’ general store. You could buy curtain material, anything, in there. But when people started getting their own cars they drove to Gisborne to do their shopping, and these places just shut up. It was a terrible shame,” said Ngaere.
“There were horses everywhere. Everybody rode horses. I suppose just about everybody had a horse. The women played polocrosse on the weekends, and the men played polo — a game that dated back to the early 1900s, usually played on grass turf.
“We rode out there to Mangaheia — everything was horse orientated. There was always a blacksmith in town located where the church is now, on the main road,” Ngaere said.
“Before I was married, we’d all go to the football on Saturdays and then afterwards we’d head to the Inn, because Ted Lockwood played the piano. He didn’t have any music — he just sat and played and played and played. It was just beautiful.”
Another regular pastime was the movies at Reynolds Hall. Today the hall is classified as a category two historic building, first established in 1907. Both world war rolls of honour are displayed inside, along with Māori carvings and a traditional raked stage, or sloping stage.
“We did have floods because Henri had a place at Tauwhareparea — it was a Harbour Board lease. The New Zealand government gifted that land to the people of Gisborne with all profits to go back to maintaining the Gisborne Harbour.
“Henri loved it at Tauwhareparea. He was up there most of the time. He liked nothing more than when there was a flood, because it would easily swallow up the low-level bridge, (a new bridge has since been built) and he couldn’t get home,” Ngaere said with a laugh.
Ra Tautau worked for Henri on the farm from the young age of 16. He recalls, “Henri was a good man to work for and good to get on with.
“We had troubles getting back and forth to the station — over an hour each way on rough roads. Sometimes we’d leave our cars on the road and ride into the station.
“He found out we were having trouble getting to work in one vehicle, so we hit him up.
“Henri quickly responded, ‘Have a look around and let me know’.”
A week later Ra had his eyes on a Volkswagen. Henri bought the car and Ra was able to pay him back every week.
“He’d never leave you short. He would always leave you enough to play with,” Ra remembers. “Man, it could handle those roads, that car.”
Ngaere said, “Life was very different back then. In a way it was harsh, and yet we never saw it that way.”
