KAEO: Many claims to fame for tiny settlement

Kaeo should be on the map for more than last week's Lotto result, says one of the town's most ardent supporters, Moira Henderson - whose son bought that lucky Lotto ticket.
Mrs Henderson has been involved with the Whangaroa County Museum and Archives for nearly three decades.
"Kaeo is probably the most historic little area you will ever find."
She guides curious visitors on a virtual tour of the town as it once was, starting at the south end with Te Pohue Pa.
The pa was one time home of warrior Te Ara. Also known as George, he was a key figure in the burning of the ship The Boyd in nearby Whangaroa Harbour, an act of utu, or revenge, for mistreatment by the British.
Behind the pa, across the paddocks, is one of New Zealand's oldest cemeteries.
Within its grounds, a cairn built by local Maori to commemorate the founding of New Zealand's first Methodist mission settlement at Kaeo in 1823.
Mrs Henderson's tour continues up the road the hospital is on. The road was the first one built for carriaged vehicles in New Zealand. Built in 1820 by the crew of the British ship the Dromedary, it was used to drag kauri spars to the harbour.
Near the outskirts of town is a creek down which Sir John Logan Campbell floated a kauri log, later used to build his first private house in Auckland, in Cornwall Park.
On the other side of the road, just north of Pohue Pa, is one of only two buildings in New Zealand built as a memorial to fallen World War One soldiers. Originally the town's library, it is now listed with the Historic Places Trust.
In a house beside the old post office, the first Seventh Day Adventist church was started in New Zealand by Alan Gibbs.
Next door is the post office itself, above which the postmasters lived. The first postmaster took up duty in 1857, the last in 1989.
Next door is an elegant old two-storeyed house that used to be the Temperance Hotel, a boarding house for timber workers. No two windows in the building ever had matching panes of glass - a testament to how thirsty, stone-throwing workers felt about their pub with no beer.
Next door again is The Old Saddlery, another old two-storeyed building that these days houses a cafe.
Across the road is the Methodist Church, built 100 years after the first Methodist mission was set up at what was then called Wesleydale.
And that's just some of the rich European history Mrs Henderson can roll off.
There is another, older history belonging to Nga Puhi and Ngati Kahu, the people who named and harvested the freshwater mussels the Kaeo River and the town are named after.
* Kids stick up for their home town
Kaeo Primary School pupils were so hot under the collar about television morning host Paul Henry dissing their town they considered making a statement to TVNZ.
Speaking about the $18 million Lotto ticket sold there, Mr Henry had said Kaeo was the most boring place in the world.
And that's not only wrong, it hurt, say Kaeo's young ambassadors.
School principal Fiona Knight said: "They're proud of their town, they care about their environment. It might be small and rural but there's a lot to this area that makes it a good place to live."
Despite Mr Henry's put-downs and some unflattering photographs in the media, the children's own view of their hometown remains positive.
"For instance, they know we have some amazing beaches that people from other places save all year to come and spend two weeks at," Ms Knight said.
The pupils also take part in forest and kiwi care projects, and public educational programmes on conservation.
The school's latest ERO report describes the decile two school kids as outgoing and friendly, with high educational expectations. Many of the school's pupils, 90 percent of whom are Maori, are achieving above the national average, the report said. The children themselves asked last year if they could have a school uniform. Not every pupil wears one every day, but the majority do. It's an indication of their pride in their nice little school.
So has the big Lotto win proved a distraction for the youngsters?
"I don't think the kids are that interested. Because they live in the country, other things matter to them.
"They are more interested in their environment, in their non-material world."
And still piqued about a television presenter telling the whole nation their town was a dump.