Te Aroha Rover Ramble

After a busy week, we were both looking forward to a day out. We consulted the North Island 4 WD book, and decided to try a one-lane dirt road between Ohinewai and Highway 27. It wasn't too bad - gravel but a good surface. You can see the grass centre 'marking ' in the first shot. Doug was glad not to meet any budding rally drivers! I found myself muttering, "Pull on that wheel!" on some of the bends. Not a great lock on the vehicle, and there were some spectacular drops over the edge.



Here is the view from the summit.



Rain started as we were having a cuppa at the summit so we scuttled into the back. This photos shows the 'entertainment centre' - CD stacker to the left! I'm not sure if all of the speakers work.

We then drove on to Te Aroha, with the intention of a driving up the access road to the top of Mt Te Aroha. We were disappointed, yet again (remember our trip to Meremere?) to see the following sign.



Oh well - I was keen to visit some of the beautiful buildings I had spotted earlier.

I had never explored Te Aroha before. It has the most intact Victorian and Edwardian Spa in NZ. The building in the third photo is now the museum. Doug was interested to see if he could find out any more about his Grattan line. (His gt-grandfather Thomas Arthur Grattan (1851-1928) and his gt-grandmother Ellen Grattan nee Gorton (1857-1962) had lived there from 1880, before the town was even named.)

You can hear a 30 minute interview with Ellen Gorton about her trip from Otahuhu and her life in Waihau and Te Aroha.




(Back in 2007, we had visited Thomas Arthur Grattan's birthplace in Ireland, it was Phillipstown, Kings County, now it is Daingean, Co. Offaly, reverting to its Irish name after Irish Independence.)

Before leaving, we visited the local cemetery to see if we could find where Doug's Gt- Grandparents had been laid to rest.



We found Thomas Arthur Grattan's grave. He died 27th March 1928 aged 80. Beside his grave we found a headstone for Marion Jean Grattan, aged 7 who died 19th March 1935. She was Edward (Ted) & Ruby's daughter. Ted was their 9th child and the youngest. Doug's grandmother Isabella was the eldest child, b 1880, d 1926 aged 46.

We took a slightly different route home, taking a small detour to buy some Pokeno bacon and to enjoy an icecream.