House is on right; Implement Shed and Shearers Quarters on mid left; Cowbail on bottom left.
WERE Family Reunion
Maungaohae, Te Kuiti, New Zealand, January 26 - 28, 2002.
Notes and photos from Alan Buckley:
Went over to "Maungaohae", Te Kuiti, for WERE Reunion with Mum and Dad on Friday 25 January. Helped set up camp and my tent. Mum and Dad stayed at my cousin Graeme BRIER's place a couple kilometers away. Surprising how many turned up on the Friday. Reunion didn't start till next day. The rest arriving next day Saturday to camp, or were day trippers only. Hard to say how many there. In the end probably 200. Weather hot. Being in a valley even hotter. Not much happened on the Friday night. Next day, Saturday, things started to happen. There were a variety of things to do over the next 2 days. Tramping, farm drives, cave exploring, swimming in the river, horse riding, absailing* down a cliff, or simply visiting everybody and talking. On Saturday and Sunday nights, meat was supplied either on BBQ or on a spit and everyone supplied their own other eats and moved over to the large tent to eat. Of course there were the usual speeches. Unfortunately, "Maungaohae" Farm has been sold, take-over day being the 31st Jan 2002. So it could possibly be the last Reunion, there. However everyone wants to keep the Reunion going, because it has occurred for the last 20 years, every 5 years. It has now become a number of mini reunions within the larger WERE Reunion. The Families are getting larger, and don't always get together in the one spot until the Bigger WERE Reunion, so everyone is keen to continue. However there is plenty of time to work this out before the next reunion which is due in 5 years time. Everyone wants it to be in the same area of Waitanguru as this is considered as HOME to everybody, regardless of where everybody lives now. Waitanguru being the area that "Maungaohae" is situated. However we will have to wait and see.
Although most of those camping at "Maungaohae" were from the Robert WERE branch, there were a number of members from other WERE branches either camping or visiting for the day.
PHYLLIS... Your sister Mary and her Son Duncan and wife, Maureen came. Enjoyed seeing Mary again and meeting Duncan. Also Gary and Elaine WERE (William Henry WERE branch) came from Stratford. I have met them before, but this was their first reunion and I think they enjoyed themselves, camping and joining in the activities. There were some member's from the Charles WERE branch who have been before, this their 3rd time.
*Absailing (aka. abseiling) is a technique used in rock climbing for descending a cliff using ropes. The absailer wears a harness clipped onto an absailing device, which controls the rate of descent on the rope. Absailing can be done down a steep face by placing the feet against the rock and 'walking' down, or from an overhang through open air.
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Alan's reply to question about cave exploring:
The Waitomo Cave is only about 10 kilometers away and is the one that all the tourists go to. You can walk into that one wearing your tux and not get your shoes dirty. They have had singers singing in it, as one of the caves has near perfect acoustics. NO, the one we go to is called BRIER's Cave. Really only known locally but much more fun. You have to wear old clothes and footwear. From the road you climb a hill, to the entrance. Scramble down some rocks into the creek coming out the cave, and follow this creek into the hill. This is the easiest part. After some distance into the cave, one then has to climb a slip (Fallen Earth) to get into another cave. Here you will see some limestone formations. Follow this cave to its end where there is a small hole to crawl through, going in a few meters, coming to the end where you have to get your legs under you to stand up. You then climb a few meters and have to sort twist in a corkscrew fashion and come out another cave above. This is the cave, with the sights. Large stalactites and stalagmites both large to very small delicate ones. Also very fine Gypsum Flowers. No electric light here. You have to have either torches or headlights and everyone has to wear helmets. Then of course you have to come out the way you went in. You can get get quite dirty. Not many people visit this cave as you have to cross private land, so it's quite pristine, but whenever there has been a reunion, we have been able to arrange tours.
The "Waitomo" area is limestone country with either high bluffs, large areas of rock, or "tomos" (small to large holes in the ground) which in some places creeks or small streams disappear into to only to reappear lower down and some distance away.
| Campsite showing Campers House is on right; Implement Shed and Shearers Quarters on mid left; Cowbail on bottom left. |
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| Original House Built about 1908-1910 with Pit-sawn timber from a tree felled not far away on farm. The part at the front and also on the left side were added later (but many years ago). Maungaohae River runs behind house.
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| View looking north from large tent. Woolshed roof is behind power pole. Limestone bluffs in mid background are used for absailing. Farm track can be seen on right, leading to back of farm.
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| Speeches! George Robert BUCKLEY, aged 85 years, on his "Electric Gopher" gives a speech prior to cutting of Centenary Cake. The cake was cut by his elder sister Ellen Agnes VERRY (nee Buckley) born Jul. 31, 1915.
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| Centenary Cake "The House of WERE" 1902 - 2002.
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