People and past shape Waipu future

The winning childrens entry was first used as a class speech then submitted as a written story by Willow Tito. Willow and her family win four tickets to the Grand Pageant in January.

It all started with a man named Adam and a woman called Eve….nah, just kidding, I won’t start that far back.

Kia ora room 3, my name is Willow Tito and today I am going to give you a very quick look at how my ancestry bought me to Waipu.

Kukupa is the name Maori give to the wood pigeon. It’s also the name of my great, great, great, great, great grandfather on my Dads fathers side. Our Iwi is Ngapuhi and our Hapu is Te Parawhau. Kukupa and his sons were very famous in the pioneer days. Kukupas son Te Tirarau even has his mark on the treaty of Waitangi, 2nd from the top. He was the chief who stopped Hone Heke from killing Pakeha settlers in Auckland. Kukupa governed huge areas of land that included Waipu. He also had four wives, poor man. 

Kukupa’s first born was a daughter Ipuwhakatara and her son was Tito. His son was Kawenata, he had Hakana who was a priest, who had my Grandfather Te Whatanui, who met my Nana Bev and had my dad Lorne who met my mum Melody in Whangarei, moved to Mangawhai, had me and moved to Waipu.

My great great great great grandparents on Dads mothers side came to New Zealand on large sailing ships over 150 years ago. My Sturch family came from England on the ship Evening Star in 1858. My Ross family came from Scotland on the ship “Maori”. My Logue family arrived from Ireland on the “Shalimar”, My Dads second cousin Kelly Logue was the first Female Jet Fighter Pilot in NZ. My Yates family came on the “Percy”. All of those families bought land at Mangawhai and Kaiwaka. Over 100 years later my Mum and Dad and our family moved from Mangawhai to Waipu where we have lived since 2005. 

My Mums mother, nana Del, came from Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English descent. My great great great grandmother was from America and her name was Anne, that’s my nanas, mums and my middle names. She moved to NZ and had my great nana Enid who met her husband Harold Shaw who came from Australia when he was 21. He was a bricky and he came over to help rebuild after the earthquake in Napier in 1931. My great nana was a midwife and they had nana who met poppa in a drama class in Howick, married and had my Mum in Cambridge. They were farmers and eventually moved to Waipu in 1989.

My poppas side came from Spanish, Cornwall in England, and Jewish descent, the Ornstein family (this is our crest). My great great great grandpa was a school teacher who had 13 kids. His son Alan Pooley, my great gramps was a gunner on the navy ship Achilles and was a top boxer on the ship. He married my great grandmother who travelled the world and visited over 50 countries. They had poppa, who met nana and you know the rest.