“Kia Ora!”

In 1984, at a time when the use of Māori phrases was uncommon in New Zealand, Dame Rangimārie Naida (Povey) Glavish, who was then an Auckland telephone operator, was instructed to stop using Kia Ora when greeting callers.  Although she had been working in tolls in Te Awaroa, Helensville, for ten years and been saying ‘Kia Ora’ without any problems, it was a move to Auckland tolls in Airedale Street that nearly cost her job.

Told to use only English by her supervisor she refused to back down, and was subsequently demoted, with the whole affair attracting much interest.  She was later given back her original job after involvement from both the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon and the Postmaster-General, Rob Talbot.

Dame Naida won widespread public support for her courageous stand, which led to a new willingness to use Te Reo in the public domain.

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Beginnings

Every community museum must start somewhere, and Te Awaroa Helensville’s begins, in part at least, in Blenheim, with some volunteers, a cob cottage, and six handmade nails. As Colleen Thompson tells the story in an account archived in Te Awaroa Helensville Museum and in her book ‘Covering the Ground’ (2013), during a South Island holiday tour in their Crusader Caravan she and her husband Alec Trotter came across a group of voluntary firefighters who had just finished restoring a beautiful cob cottage in Blenheim. Invited in as the first guests, Colleen and Alec were thrilled to share “a special moment in the cottage’s history” where “everything was restored to create a true feeling of authenticity, from the wobbly glass in the windows to the scrubbed wooden bench top, the fireplace and chimney and the flour bag tea towel.” As they left, they were given a memento, six rusty handmade nails, to encourage them to do the same in their patch.   

Back at their Fordyce Road farm the couple found support from Mrs Bel and Mr Gordon Russell and their friends Mr Mick and Greta Mills, who had recently been sharing regret at the loss of memorabilia from the district. After several informal meetings, and much talking with friends, they began gathering interesting items. These were stored in the Helensville Primary School dental clinic (as Headmaster of the school and Mayor of Helensville Mr Russell knew the ropes of school and council facilities). Colleen felt it was a great responsibility, but it was also fun, and a promising start, helped by the efforts of people like Mrs Margaret West and Mrs Ivy McWhirter, who provided useful ideas when it became clear the collection needed better housing and more formal cataloguing and by engineers Mr Mcloy and Mr Williscroft, who got all the rusty tools and implements oiled up and working.

When the Helensville and District Historical Society was formed at a well-attended meeting in 1967, its first catalogued entry was of six old nails, hand forged and mounted on a small board, from the Blenheim cob cottage. In recent refurbishment of the Museum artefacts the nails have not been found. 

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2024 Calendar

Te Awaroa Helensville Museum’s 2024 Calendar is out now!

Celebrating vessels of the South Kaipara; November features the ‘Mahi’ built in 1936 by Viv McLeod and Archie Baker. Fitted with a 27 horse powered engine, her primary role was to tow barges and kauri logs, she also moved sheep and carried passengers. We believe ‘Mahi’ lives on and is moored in North Kaipara.

Get your copy from PaperPlus Helensville, FIGG or the Museum.

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Post Office

‘Welcome to our Post Office, complete with the old Kaukapakapa Post Office’s sign, and an old Helensville exchange board. Remember those scratchy pen nibs we used to dip in inkwells and address our postcards and sign our postal notes with? Or was that before your time?

Or, were you an operator on the manual telephone exchange? Perhaps you, or a loved one signed your name on it. (It went electronic in 1983.) Younger visitors might marvel (or giggle) at such primitive equipment now that their tiny devices can be connected to anywhere in the world in seconds. But it worked fine at the time.

The time-line around the walls, illustrated with black and white photos, shows the advances made in the postal service from 1863, when John McLeod served as the first Te Awaroa/Helensville Postmaster, to the present day Post Shop at PaperPlus.

The handsome old Helensville Post Office in the main street is now privately owned and also features as the police station in the popular tv series, “The Brokenwood Mysteries.”


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2023 Calendar

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On the Street Where you Lived

Many years ago a team of volunteers led by the late Natalie Carroll began gathering information for the project, On the Street Where you Lived. More recently volunteers have word processed all the hand written data and are keen to have more community input into this ongoing project, so that it evolves into a resource that is easily accessed by anyone wanting to know particular information about houses in the town.

About 20 people attended a meeting on Sunday 28th May, to hear more about the project and to offer their memories and research which could be helpful in maintaining this project.
Of particular interest was the work of Alan Scott who has recorded a wealth of data about his home town.

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RSA Collection

We now have on display the War Memorabilia from the Kaipara RSA which is being closed while renovations are being carried out to the building.  This will be an opportunity for those who have not had the chance before to visit and reflect on the lives of the local men and women who served.

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Adrian Cook – Tintype Photobooth

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Coatesville Garden Club

The Coatesville Garden Club came to visit. They enjoyed exploring our many exhibits and we enjoyed telling them about the history and stories of old Helensville and its development. We’re always glad to meet clubs and societies who have an interest in our shared past.

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Winter Lecture Series

Our Winter Lecture Series is being held in the Courthouse at the museum. Join us at 10am on each of the dates below for a fascinating look into our past:


June 17.  First Contact with Europeans
July 1.      Kaipara History Overview
July 14.    Matariki

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