This is the place

We came to Dargaville twelve years ago so we’re well settled here. At the time it was the nearest sizeable town to Auckland within our price bracket which had conveniences and facilities; hospital, shopping, cafes, etc. It’s beautiful here; a provincial town where we were accepted immediately for who we were and the people were especially friendly.

We’ve got the river (Northern Wairoa River), and the walk alongside which goes all the way up to the Museum at the top of the hill. It starts as a boardwalk at the back of the shopping centre, then becomes just a path along the river-bank which crosses the bridge into Mangawhare. It’s a peaceful walk. Boats go up and down the river, especially in summer; power boats, high speed boating. They pull kites and parachutes up. There are also tour boats which go down the river to Pouto and then on to Helensville much as they used to in pioneering days.

Until three years ago, the Northern Wairoa periodically broke it’s banks and flooded part of the shopping centre, but the township has had a holding wall built along the river and all the major drains throughout the town have been rejuvenated. Also behind the shopping centre is a lovely riverside park which the community is building and contributing to and which is now very attractive. There is a large shade house with native plants and ferns. Dargaville is flat although there are some hillier parts towards the north-west, so it’s easy for older people to get around.

If you get up the hill on Park Road to the museum (Dargaville Museum) the view is magnificent. You can see the whole river and the curve of it. Outside the museum in Harding Park are the two masts from the Rainbow Warrior which was sunk in Auckland Harbour. At the bottom of Hokianga Road, down by the wharf, is a statue in honour of the gum-diggers who worked this area in the early days. Kauri is a major timber in the District. A lot of the gum-diggers were Yugoslavs and many of their descendants are still in the area. The river has a muddy look to it and the locals call it The Upside Down River. It is affected by a considerable current and depth differs up to 14 feet between tides.

In the pioneer days Chinese boats would come up the river with bricks on board for ballast which they would then leave behind on the riverbanks when they left with full loads of kauri timber. Many of the locals picked up and used the ballast bricks and people today still use them in their gardens etc. The ballast often had rice stuck to it and a lot of it must have germinated because now a flax-like grass grows on the river banks, Manchurian Rice Grass, which generally is a nuisance. A local entrepreneur has made good use of the Manchurian Rice Grass however by harvesting and transforming it into quite beautiful paper, boxes, cards and related articles for sale. The tourists love it.

Dargaville has no heavy industry although there's much more light industry than when we first moved here. Dargaville is a farming centre; the farmers come in for supplies and to get their tractors fixed and buy new cars and tools. It’s also the kumara growing capital of New Zealand. The meatworks is a major employer in the area too. Another reason we love it here is the natural environment. We love going to Trounson Park (approx 35kms), the kauri tree park on the way past Kaihu to Kai Iwi Lakes. It has a boardwalk all the way through and is very quiet except for native bird calls in the tall, cool, green-brown forest with it’s dank smell. You can walk Trounson Park in 40 minutes. There are guided walks at night where you can see kiwis in their natural habitat. To us it feels more like a real forest than the huge Waipoua Forest further north.

At home in Dargaville, our wild life consists of sparrows and thrushes, blackbirds, finches, mynahs, and in the spring, lots of grey herons. The herons fly in a group and are raucous, a bit like seagulls. They used to land in the paddock across the road and stay there for days on end but now that land is being developed so they go somewhere else close by. We have lots of little skinks too. The ground is mostly a clay loam. We get a lot of wind, mainly westerly and sometimes ferocious. Spring is the best time of year. The greys and greens of the countryside are broken up by trees unfurling bright new leaves and the winds are not generally as strong.

Dargaville is growing fast. When we moved here you could park outside any shop you wanted without difficulty. Now you have to drive around to find a park. Four new subdivisions have been started in the last two years which will probably house at least another 200 people.