In the last 150 years, the tiny village of Puhoi, half an hour’s drive north of Auckland, has survived several devastating events. Three years ago, misfortune struck again. But in a true testament of Kiwi resilience, the town has forged ahead and still has plenty to offer, as Jill Malcolm finds out when she revisits.
The English translation of the Māori word Puhoi means slow waters. But during the torrential rains of January 2023, there was nothing slow about the Puhoi River. It breached its banks and surged through the heart of this historic community.
Silty water swamped the main road, swirled thigh-high through the general store, all but drowned the tiny historic library and filled the Puhoi Pub garden up to the doors. The carpark, tennis courts and playing fields resembled a coffee-coloured inland sea, and from up the Puhoi Valley, trees and loose items charged down the river to Wenderholm and sailed out to sea.
To a much lesser degree, this distressing event had also affected Bill and me. We’d routinely driven into Puhoi every time we travelled north (to treat ourselves to $10 platters of oysters and chips from the General Store), so we’re extremely familiar with this tiny town. However, not wanting to witness the devastation of the floods, we’d recently stopped calling in.
Earlier this year, driving north to Whananaki, we diverted off SH 1 determined to face the changed landscape, not expecting the recovery to be anywhere near complete. We were wrong. The village was humming.
We had not accounted for the pluckiness of the Puhoi community, which seems to have inherited the doggedness and courage of the first pioneers who came to settle in Puhoi in the 1860s.
Sunday visitors were wandering along the roads, perusing the two boutique knick-knack shops housed in the old stables, and visiting the gardens to order from the menu and listen to the Crowded Trousers’ lively music.
At the General Store, we lunched on crumbed fish, scallops, mussels and chips. Three other motorhoming couples were munching these same treats on the patio and told me that they too made Puhoi a stop-off place every time they drove past. Sadly, the oysters that came from the Mahurangi Harbour were no longer available due to an infestation of norovirus.
It is not just recent events that bring visitors to Puhoi. The early history of the place also has its allure. All villages and towns have interesting histories, but in Puhoi it hits you in the face. Wherever you turn, there is acknowledgement of the first bitter, despairing days when any sort of pleasure was hard to find.
Early History
In the 1860s, ex-Austrian army Captain Krippner settled in Orewa. His attempts at farming failed miserably; yet he wrote home urging others to follow, promising them a place of plenty where there was no need for hard work and they could live easily off the land.
These honeyed words persuaded the more adventurous Bohemians to leave home and take up the free allotments of land in Puhoi, only to find that the land supplied very little. They were beset by poverty, crippling hardship, and starvation in the impenetrable terrain and terrifying isolation. Just how isolated is indicated by the New Zealand slang term ‘up the Boohai’, a corruption of ‘up the Puhoi’, meaning somewhere that is far from civilisation.
On the side of the road just before entering the village stands a crucifix shrine symbolising the Catholic faith that enabled the earliest settlers from Bohemia to endure.
But by the 1920s, the struggle of the first settlers was over and the village they had gradually carved from the bush is still today the picturesque European-style village they’d had in mind when they left Bohemia for the promise of greener pastures.
Modern Vistas
In today’s gently dipping village landscape offering, surrounded by soft pastureland and groves of exotic trees, it is hard to conjure up what it must have been like for the first arrivals.
The village those early pioneers built is set between the river on one side and pastured hills on the other. Many of the original buildings still stand. Foremost among them is the simple St Peter and Paul Church, dedicated in 1881. I sat in the silence of its Spartan interior. Effigies of holy figures were the only other presence. Under each simple stained-glass window, I read the names of some of the earliest settlers: Schischka, Straka, Schollum, Wenslick…
In the village, some of those names still reverberate today. Next door is the convent school, which closed in the 1960s and now houses the community museum. Annoyingly, every time I’ve been to Puhoi, it’s closed (however, as I seem to be something of a regular visitor, I’ll manage it one day).
Set back from the road are villas standing in paddocks dotted with sheep. There is a tiny one-room library, a community hall, the striking, two-storied colonial Puhoi Hotel, and the old stables across the road. Many of the other buildings have disappeared – the smithy, the bootmakers, two more hotels, the public school and the saleyards. However, to counterbalance that, a few others have appeared, including a small housing subdivision.
Surprisingly, the little library has survived. The river’s invading water had all but drowned the little concrete building several times in the 2023 Auckland Anniversary floods when 6000 books, documents and photographs were lost or damaged (the heartache).
As is often the case with Mother Nature, today the river didn’t look at all threatening. The tide was out, and there was little water between the banks of coffee-coloured sludge. Once the main artery to the village, it silted up when the bush was gone. Now, only shallow-draft boats can make the eight-kilometre trip down to the sea at Wenderholm at high tide.
To that end, the Puhoi River Kayaks Company hires kayaks for visitors to make a two-hour leisurely paddle along Puhoi River, passing through mangroves and farmland. This is a local family-owned business that also offers a courtesy coach from Wenderholm to Puhoi. I’ve not done the kayaking myself, but I once made the trip “up the Boohai’ and back again in a small tinny. It was slow, pleasant and uneventful with a cuppa at the Cottage Tea Rooms at the turnaround.
In the old pub on this recent visit, we sat around tables made from an old wool press and sipped gins produced from the Puhoi Organic Distillery just up the road. Bohemian settler, Anton Seidl, established the hotel in 1879 as accommodation for travellers. It soon became the go-to spot for locals and played a key role in the isolated village’s social life.
I took myself on a history tour through the old photographs, cards, and handwritten notes plastered on the walls, along with the remnants of the past – logging handsaws, saddles, stuffed birds, bullock horns, shovels, and cast-iron pots. The original kauri fittings, the history, and the lineup of leather-clad patrons’ motorbikes lined up on the road all contributed to the place’s unique atmosphere. A sign above the bar warns that if the service doesn’t meet your standards, please lower your standards. Fine by me!
And circling back to Puhoi Organic Distillery, it’s well worth planning a visit here as a genuine boutique experience. Multi-award winning, this innovative business is something of a trailblazer when it comes to sustainability and product development. It’s also the first New Zealand solar powered distillery and boasts the unexpected addition of a Caviar House, where you’ll find the world-famous Sturgeon Caviar as well as the opportunity to book a caviar experience (not what you’d expect to find in a small town that often flies under the radar).
And if you’re planning a special trip to Puhoi, or just a stopover, keep in mind that the first Sunday of each month, the Puhoi Village Market is held at the Puhoi Centennial Hall and is a mecca for outstanding local produce and goodies (Puhoi Valley cheese anyone?!).
Staying over
The first sight of what is now Wenderholm Regional Park would probably not have gladdened the hearts of the settlers as they arrived by cutter from Auckland and set off up the Puhoi River in Māori canoes. Today, however, it’s a beautiful reserve, shaded by pohutukawa and exotic trees, with a safe surf beach and the gently flowing estuary. Overnight camping for CSC vehicles is allowed by the beach for one night. Call the ranger from the phone booth at the parking area.
Adjacent to the estuary, a sealed road leads to a large camping ground built on Schischka land, which these days is not a place of struggle but one of peace and security. Many native trees have been planted but they have a bit of growing to do. The toilet block is excellent although there are no showers. Cold water taps and drinking fountains are plentiful. Book through the Auckland City Council before you go, or call the ranger from the phone booth at the Wenderholm Beach parking area and pay by credit card.
Puhoi River Kayaks Hire (bookings essential)
Kayaks, buoyancy aids, paddling instructions, river knowledge and a courtesy coach back to the village from Wenderholm are all supplied. All ages and fitness levels are catered for. Puhoikayaks.co.nz
