Hawke's Bay resident Helen Whyte celebrated her 100th birthday with stepson Brent Whyte (right), his wife Janine Whyte and their daughter Hannah Whyte.
Hawke's Bay resident Helen Whyte celebrated her 100th birthday with stepson Brent Whyte (right), his wife Janine Whyte and their daughter Hannah Whyte.
Hawke’s Bay woman Helen Whyte turned 100 on July 31, celebrating a past extending back to the beginning of Scandinavian settlement in the district while enthusing about a lifetime that has offered her more than she ever dreamed of.
“My grandmother Pita Larsen was among the first group of Norwegian migrants to arrive in Hawke’s Bay in 1872 aboard the three-masted sailing ship Hovding that brought 365 Norwegians and 11 Danes who would found the town of Norsewood,” said Helen who, with the help of carers, still lives in her own home not far from where those first Scandinavian settlers came ashore.
“They were hardy folk, my Norwegian forebears who founded Norsewood, like the Danes who followed to found Dannevirke.”
The Scandanavians were brought to Hawke’s Bay to fell the forest that covered much of southern Hawke’s Bay and to farm the cleared land.
“They thought they were coming to a city but they didn’t know what had hit them when they arrived. They had to walk three days from Napier even to reach the area that would become Norsewood - then literally cut their own town out of the timber.
“And when the menfolk went off to cut timber for the railways that opened up the province, the womenfolk took over the daily tasks of their young community.
“They not only ran the houses, but also they would go out to manage the herds of livestock. It was so rugged back then that one woman who went out into the forest to find a cow got lost herself and was never heard from again.
“I remember my father taking me to visit my grandmother, a tiny little woman who didn’t speak English but who would giggle and point to things to make herself understood and who was a joy to be around.”
Helen’s father Charles Moores was also a woodcutter who went off into the wilds of New Zealand in those days and placed his young daughter in the care of extended family in Taranaki after her mother passed away very young.
“Oh it was strict in Taranaki back then in the 1920s and ‘30s – there was a lot of Bible reading and no talk at all about what you needed to know about boys and girls. As far as my foster parents were concerned – and they were wonderful providers, including right through the Depression years – there was nothing girls needed to know about love, marriage and other unmentionables that might follow.”
Helen and her first husband ran a takeaway business, doing the hard yards self-employed in Hawke’s Bay before he died after a long illness, with Helen resourcefully readapting to the future with a career in health, managing the nurses’ homes, first at the old Napier Hospital and later in Hastings.
“It was an eye-opener for me – I was finally earning enough money and getting some leave so I could fly off for holidays overseas, something I would never have dreamed of beforehand as an innocent young girl in Taranaki. A whole new world opened up for me in those middle years – I bought a house at Taradale and had a wonderful life then and made wonderful friends, who were with me for a lifetime.”
Helen Whyte celebrated her 100th birthday with family and congratulatory messages from King Charles and community representatives.
Moral welfare
“It was fun at the nurses’ home in Napier – we had to be responsible for their moral welfare sometimes, and this could involve vetting the young men who would turn up to collect a girl to go out.
“Drunks were not admitted, and I remember one young lady who came to me for help when she found out the man she had arranged to go out with was married.
“Well, was he surprised when he turned up to ask for her and got me instead. My staff and I gave him a severe dressing down about his home responsibilities and he slunk off with his tail between his legs.”
Helen married Bruce Whyte in the early 1980s. He was a former WWII RNZAF airman who served in Guadalcanal and is now buried in Havelock North Cemetery’s military section. Many of the Whyte family have lived in Hawke’s Bay since the 19th century.
“After marrying Bruce I still loved travel after my wonderful holidays to Asia and the USA, so Bruce and I had a wonderful trip up to Japan and to the UK, including to Kirriemuir in Scotland where a lot of the Whytes came from. I would still be doing it now if I was mobile enough because it is so interesting and exciting,” said Helen, who has had multiple trips to Australia, including camping bus tours, and, later, visiting Bruce’s son Brent and his wife Janine and children in Sydney.
Brent and Janine and youngest daughter Hannah joined other family members and friends for Helen’s 100th celebration. Brent’s mother Edna was also a member of a long-established Hawke’s Bay family, the Setters – many of whom still live and work in the Bay.
“Helen really is a remarkable woman to be so active and independent at age 100. I believe she is one of only about 300 people in NZ aged 100 or more,” Brent said.
“At one stage, many years ago, Helen spent some time in a nursing home as a result of an injury, but she didn’t want to go back. She said she loved and respected the care the staff gave her – but some of the other residents were an issue. She said they were too old to play cards properly (most of these ‘older’ people were much younger than Helen at the time). Some didn’t know the rules properly and others just cheated, Helen said. She wouldn’t have a bar of it, and headed home to her little house at the first opportunity.”
Helen, who has outlived Queen Elizabeth II from whom she hoped to get a 100th birthday letter, received a Royal congratulatory message from King Charles III and from community representatives on her big day.
Helen said her doctor credited her Norwegian heritage in part for her longevity – “they were wonderful resourceful healthy people” – but she said a lot of credit had to go to the improved health and care networks over recent decades.
“That has a lot to do with it,” she said, “and my carers do a wonderful, dedicated job.
“You have to have a positive outlook on life, and I do. But I also appreciate that I would find it very hard to live totally independently without the care of the people who come in to look after me, as well as neighbours who check to see if I am okay. At this stage of life, I really have a lot of wonderful memories, a lot of books and TV travel shows to take me to places where I can no longer travel, and a lot to be grateful for. Really, that is a recipe for a wonderful life.”
