Ngongotaha Anaianei
from this time onwards

When Te Arawa canoe arrived in the year 1350, aboard was Ihenga, grandson of Tama Te Kapua. After marriage to his cousin Hine Te Karaka and the birth of a son, Ihenga set off with his family and followers to explore the land to the south.

He passed around the lake he named Tuarahiwiroa (Rotorua Lake) till he arrived at a river he called Ngongotaha; he also named the mountain Ngongotaha.

The bush belonged to the Patupaiarehe or fairy fold, Ihenga distributed the fairies which departed in sadness from their pillar (Ngongotaha).

Ihenga decided to live at Ngongotaha and built a pa called Parawai, situated on the hill beside the Ngongotaha stream where he lived along with his uncle and father-in-law, Kahu Mata Momoe.

On 22 December 1843 Mr Chapman took the evening service at Ngongotaha; with him was Bishop Selwyn and the chief justice of New Zealand, Sir William Martin. Next day they travelled over the Mamaku plateau of Waikato.

On 30 May 1867, the battle of Purakau took place, followed by the division of the Maoris. Land confiscation was enacted.

In 1867 John McKenzie started to farm Northdale - the are from the military camp to the Waiteti and back to the ford on the Ngongotaha stream. Northdale House became the post office for the district.

By 1869 a rough track had been made from Maketu, although the Maoris had a track well before this date.

The first school was built at Te Awahou in 1877. A later school house was constructed by missionary F.S. Martin in a house now owned by Mrs Hair at the corner of School and Hall Roads.

Acres for Rail
In 1879, 260,000 acres reaching from Lake Rotorua over to the Mamaku Hills, was purchased by the Patetere Land Co. In 1881, 10,000 acres of this land was given to Thames Land Co. towards the building of a railway to Rotorua by the Ngatiwhakahaue.

Europeans buy Land
The railway was started by the New Zealand Government in 1882 and completed 12 years later.

Ngongotaha was surveyed in 1882 and sections were sold to the Europeans; notable purchases were John McKenzie, missionary F.S. Martin, H. Martin (known to the Maoris as "Hen Martin" because he ran a poultry farm), and a Mr Butt. They all bought sections north of Hall Road, each of 2 acres, 5 chains long. F.S. Martin owned from School Road to the Post Office, H. Martin owned the lodge and planted the trees which still stand there today.

The first shop in Ngongotaha was owned by Mrs Martin who also tutored school.

The road over the Mamakus was opened in 1883 to coach traffic, while in 1895 land was balloted to settlers at Mamaku.

Boer War volunteers trained at Northdale just before the turn of the century, and the Northdale milk supply farm was sold to the Martin Bros. in 1903. In 1905 the Catholic Church was built at Ngongotaha, and a small hall was constructed at the top of Hall Road. It was later dragged by bullocks to the new settlers hall site and erected where the hotel stands today.

The First Factory
The first factory started dairy production at Ngongotaha in 1910, and the next year saw a year of building and expansion in Ngongotaha: the primary school was erected; the Auckland Rimu Timber Co. mill was erected on the same site that Fletchers offices occupy today; NZ Loan and Mercantile stock sale yards were constructed and holding paddocks built approximately where the fire station now stands; and the Valley Road was opened up.

Wild horses, which used to graze on the mountain, were yarded and used in the first rodeo.

At the start of World War I, the Settlers Hall (later known as the Public Hall), was built. Following armistace, a plague of 'flu' caused many deaths and a mass grave was used at Tarukenga. In 1919, Kaharoa land opened as a soldiers settlement. Rotoiti Timber Co. started to build a 1300ft, long wharf so that timber could be shipped across the lake for sorting at Ngongotaha.

The hot 1923 summer drought and a polio epidemic closed all schools. Lake weed 133 feet out from shore killed many fish and the stench was considerably worse than that complained of today. Extensions to dairy company buildings were made as cream was brought in by train from east Waikato. The quarry began life on Ngongotaha in 1927, Hendersons first job on Mamaku Hills also began that year.

Electricity from Arapuni to the sub station at Ngongotaha flowed the following year with the first installation at Northdale by Fred Briggs.

- Courtesy Ngongotaha Rugby Club 50th Jubilee

More stories and images to come...