Oakura Marae in Taranaki. Photo / Supplied
Actress Shavaughn Ruakere shares her favourite spot.
My happy place is Oakura pa. It's in Taranaki, about 10 minutes outside of New Plymouth, where I grew up. We started going there for family holidays when I was about 13. It was always open to everyone - aunties, uncles, cousins, friends, friends-of-friends...
It's right next to the Oakura
River and pretty much at the mouth of the ocean as well. It's very relaxed. We go swimming in the river, play French cricket and touch, there are walks up the hill to the Four Square to get bread-and-milk, bread-and-milk, bread-and-milk (you always need more), and icecreams. We might go down to the beach in the evening, and someone will be on the guitar, playing tunes.
The pa feels like my spiritual home. It's something about the land there that I feel very drawn to, and it's just about bloody good times with my family. We always go in January, for one to two weeks.
The last weekend of the holiday we have a big day on the Saturday, which heaps of people come out to. The first thing we do is have our annual cricket match up at the school, because my Dad is mad about cricket. We'll have a big hangi that night, or sometimes a barbecue. And then we have a family concert.
