Paekākāriki history displayed around village

Pearl and Florrie's Way is part of the Paekakariki art history walk. Photo / Rosalie Willis

The Paekākāriki Station Precinct Trust is continuing to find new ways to tell the history of Paekākāriki, at the same time, turning the village into a destination.

The trust has added new layers to the village's telling of its local history with the development of an art history walk.

The trust is made up of a passionate history group that has been involved with projects around the village for the last five years.

"We have helped with the St Peters Hall centenary in 2018, Streets of Paekākāriki book launch in 2018 and several history displays at the hall," trust chairman Dave Johnson said.

Home - A board which is part of the Paekākāriki arts history walk.

"The original idea came from Graham Carlsen many years ago who tried to get historic photos displayed on the concrete wall by St Peters Church.

"Graham was the village roadman working for the council for over 20 years and we offered to help get his idea off the ground.

"Instead of having a display of photos, it became a lot easier to have a series of plaques on places of interest around the village."

The history group got together and brainstormed a list of sites, people and places to research.

"We wanted signs to identify the places along with some information and then via scanning a QR code follow up with more data about each place on the web."

There are 14 signs located in and around the village, with information about the site, each with its own unique QR code which can be scanned to give the full history with more information and photos.

"We are calling it the Arts History Walk, with a large map showing all the sites placed on the Paekākāriki Station platform and inside Finns Restaurant.

The map has another 14 sites (as yet without signs) at places along the beachfront, Tilley Rd, Ames St and Queen Elizabeth Park.

These signs will be installed in the near future as time and funds allow.

Not all the signs are for buildings in the village.

Three relate to people whose names are synonymous with the history of Paekākāriki and are memorialised in the village; Betty Perkins Way, Murray Hill Point and Pearl and Florrie Walkway.

"These names would be meaningless to the general public so by having them identified we can inform others about these people and give them the respect they deserve.

"The underlying reason for this, the history walk, along with the museum, is to give visitors to the village an opportunity to spend some extra time while they are here walking around and learning about the village and its history.

"It's about making Paekākāriki a destination so that when Transmission Gully opens people will still want to visit the village."

If you can't get out to explore the village on foot, visit www.xplorepaekakariki.org.nz to view all the information online.