Our Taranaki "Bucket List" Adventure

Puketi Rhodos

Lyn and I have started a "Bucket List" and we recently went to Taranaki to visit my "War Hero" Eroll Allison and his wife Teetar. Errol who is my late Fathers cousin, is in his 90s and they both have had indifferent health. Another reason to go to Taranaki was to fulfil a "Bucket List" entry of visiting the Puketi Park Annual Rhododendron festival and to do some further research on my O'Brien family who lived in the area during the late 1800s and early 1900s. I wanted to find the burial plot of Andrew Bishop (O'Brien), who had been adopted out along with his 6 other siblings after the family was abandoned by their Father Andrew Patrick O'Brien. Adeline O'Brien (nee Jones) had met this Irish character from Waterford shortly after she emigrated from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and they were married in Hawera and had 7 children in quick succession. One son, Andrew, was adopted by the Bishop family in New Plymouth, Taranaki and I have followed his progress over the years with interest and some sadness too. He was a Cheese maker in Hawera, before joining the Wellington Regiment in World War1 and to say that he had an eventful war would be an understatement. He was at Gallipoli and on the Western Front and was injured 7 times before returning to NZ, where he became a Wool Classer and then a Stevedore. He visited the local local railway station to say farewell, when Errol left to go to War in the 1940s, so we both had a special interest in finding out what happened to Andrew after this date.

More Puketi Rhodos

It had been assumed that Andrew was buried in the Taranaki region after his death in 1964, but after much research we still couldn't find any details, so I decided to visit the local Museum and check their records to see if I could come up with anything. No luck there, but the staff at the Museum suggested we visit the Library next door as they had a very good research department. We met a very obliging man, Mike Gooch, who was their chief archivist  and while we sat and waited he went about his research. We checked all the local burial records for the region to no avail and then he suggested the microfiche death records for 1964. Eureka! He found an entry for the Karori cemetery in Wellington and as I knew Andrew's regimental number we were able to verify the match. This means we have another item to add to the 'Bucket List" as we will have to organise a  visit to Wellington so I can pay my respects in person.

Whitebait netting on the Waitara River

Waitara River Mouth

The "Bucket List" also included a visit to Waitara, just out of New Plymouth where a sister of Andrew named Alice Dover (also adopted) had fallen into the Waitara River aged 9 years and had drowned. I have a copy of a newspaper report on the accident and they explained that she had been sent on an errand and had obviously got too close to the river bank and had fallen in. They described her as being a well liked and lovely natured child and it was quite sad reading these reports and I was determined to pay homage to this little lass. The river was brown and fast flowing after rain and we watched some men netting for whitebait on both sides of the river. 

The whole area is quite dramatic with heavy surf at the river mouth and typical very black sand littered with old tree trunks that had washed down. As we drove through the Waitara township, we thought it might be a good idea to buy a lucky Lotto ticket from the book store and we were most impressed with the huge range of magazines on their shelves, so we bought a couple to bring home all the while jesting with the shop owner we would return on Monday with a large wheelbarrow to collect our $100,000,000 prize. Believe it or not, the winning prize was won at this shop on Saturday night, one week after our visit! I am in deep therapy this week! 

Footnote: I recommend PAPER PAST to anyone researching old newspaper clippings in New Zealand