My home patch: People give us sense of pride

Filipo and Losalio Motulalo outside their Mangere home. Picture / Greg Bowker

Filipo and Losalio Motulalo are walking, talking advertisements for Mangere. They love everything here: the climate, the position, the surroundings, schools, the "bridge" where they shop and meet for cappuccino - and most of all they love the people. The house prices aren't bad either.

It was Losalio who attracted Filipo to Mangere. Now he wouldn't go back to Balmoral, where he grew up, for anything.

"Since we got married we actually looked around at other places handy to both our parents - and decided Mangere was the best place for us," says Filipo.

"The atmosphere is so good in Mangere," agrees his wife. "People seem healthy and happy, looking out for each other. We love Mangere."

They bought their house for $209,000 in 1998. Today a private valuation puts it at around $265,000. Although in Mangere Central and surrounded by similar large, roomy-looking newish houses, it is just five minutes from where Losalio grew up on Walmsley Rd.

Her mother still lives there in the older style family home with the youngest of her 14 children and assorted grandchildren.

Losalio, who was 8 when they arrived from Tonga, is proud of her large family, especially her brother Isitolo Maka who played for the All Blacks in 2000 and now, with his brother, Finau, is in France playing for Toulouse.

Yet another brother picks up her children from school in the afternoons, "and they go to my mother's," she says. "That's the other beautiful thing about Mangere, the family support."

As if to illustrate the point a carful of youths toots us, as we sit at Mangere Bridge skinny arms waving from the windows. "That's my nephews," she says happily. "They've come from all over the place to stay at our family house for the school holidays."

Since the area was saved from constant airport traffic and the oxidation ponds have been returned to the sea, the village at Mangere Bridge - or "The Bridge" as they call it around here - has reverted to its rightful place as the centre of the community.

The houses here are older and ethnic mix roughly 54 per cent Pacific Islander, 19 per cent Maori and 30 per cent "the rest".

People catch up on Saturdays when the market flourishes and Thursday nights when the many Pacific Island Maori groups of the area take turns to perform.

Says Losalio. "It makes you feel like you're at home."

Losalio, 34, is a community health worker with South Seas Healthcare. Filipo, a former Catholic priest who worked in the Solomon Islands as an ambassador, is with ACC. Their two older children, Eugenie, 8, and Kolio, 5, attend Mary McKillop primary school, and Petelo, 3, goes to Fale Masiva preschool, which means a 6am start for the parents.

"We're out of the house by 8.30, and often the kids are asleep when we get home." Filipo especially has meetings in the evenings, the kids have netball.

"We don't just live here and take from the community, we give to the community too," he says. "This is the environment my children are going to grow up in - so we make sure we help create that environment."

Generally the neighbourhood is stable. Most people have young families and are working.

"You know, Mangere means lazy in Maori. Our people aren't lazy, they're doing their best to work their hearts out and support their families.

"I know a lot of people holding more than one job for the sake of the family."

They don't agree with surveys that describe Mangere as having a low socio-economic profile and are fiercely proud of where they live.

"We go to the shop and used to meet David Lange doing his shopping. David Tua's parents live over the road, and Valerie Adams is around too. Jonah Lomu's parents are just down the road from us.

"That, and all the other great people we know here, gives us a sense of pride in our own place." 


Loves and hates

Loves:
* Warm, relaxed people.
* Friendly, villagey feel of the place.
* The opportunity to be who we are.

Hates:
* Mangere's position on the deprivation scale (that's why we're working so hard).
* The prejudice against Mangere.


Who lives where

Multicultural and exciting South Auckland, with its large Pacific and youngish population drawn by the on-going job opportunities in the area, is one of the most varied and easy-going cities in the country. Mangere, at one end, is offset by Karaka at the other, where businessman Eric Watson's world class stud farm is said to be worth $60 million and senior school fees at the Strathallan private school are nearly $12,000 a year. And if you want to live on the waterfront and can't afford the horrendous prices of the North Shore and Mission Bay, head South.

* Room to move: Manukau/Clover Park includes Totara Heights, Flat Bush, East Tamaki Heights, Goodwood Heights, Chapel Downs, Wiri and Puhinui.

Attracts: Mostly young Pacific Islanders, Pakehas, Maori and Asian in that order. $500,000 buys: 4-bedroom executive house with some left over.

Extra good value: Flat Bush.

* Smart buying: Manurewa includes Weymouth, Clendon Park, Homai, Hill Park, Manurewa East, Randwick Park, Wattle Downs, Conifer Grove.

Attracts: Blue-collar workers in the west and young professionals towards the east and the Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens. $500,000 buys: Two and a half 3-bedroom houses.

Great buying on the waterfront: Weymouth, Wattle Downs and Conifer Grove.

* The next Onehunga: Otahuhu includes Middlemore and Papatoetoe.

Attracts: Blue-collar workers looking for jobs and low-cost housing. Popular with Chinese, Indians and investors. $500,000 buys: Two spacious 3-bedroom bungalows (with a tiny loan).

Check out houses on the estuary.

* Way to go: Otara includes East Tamaki.

Attracts: Pacific people, Maori, Pakeha and a smattering of Asians lured by jobs. The Manukau Institute of Technology and famous Otara market. $500,000 buys: two 3-bedroom houses.

* Up and coming: Papakura includes Takanini, Red Hill, Ardmore, Rosehill, Drury and Pahurehure.

Attracts: Working-class families and retired farmers. $500,000 buys: Lifestyle block with modest house (if you take a $50,000 loan).

* Set for growth: Pukekohe includes Karaka.

Attracts: Middle-class families looking for country town living rather than traditional market gardeners. Karaka is the natural destination of horsey 10-acre-blockers. $500,000 buys: A lifestyle block with modern house.

Additional research from Where to live in Auckland