This is Rawene
Enjoy a cuppa. Fill up on fuel. Get some groceries.
Soak up the sun that gives the town its name: “Ra” means sun and “wene” means setting.
Notice the streets named after early Pakeha. Traders, boat builders and sailors drank in the many pubs and prayed
in the three churches.
Visit the Victorian home of Captain James Clendon, first US consul to New Zealand, and his widow Jane Takatowi,
a mother with mana, many children and ruinous debts.
Camera in hand, walk the boardwalk reaching out into the Hokianga Harbour. The Mangrove Walkway is built on the
site of a century old timber mill and box factory.
Make your way to the hospital. Have you heard about Dr. Smith?
Stand on the ridge, home of the tohunga Kawhiti. Imagine fertile gardens and kauri forests.
Watch the ferry moving cars back and forth across the Hokianga harbour.
In Rawene, ferries come and go. There is always time to take the next one.
Now join us on a leisurely walk up the West side of Parnell Street and down the East......
| Arrival You may arrive in Rawene on the ferry from the Narrows landing near Kohukohu, while returning from Kaitaia. There’s much of interest in Kohukohu, and we hope you saw it all! | Lane’s Store / Four Square This building, supported in the local fashion by piles over the water, has continued to serve its original purpose for many years. It is also the postal centre. |
| Rawene Garage The road from Kaikohe was built in 1923. The first trip took four-and-a-half hours. The garage was the first Ford dealership in Northland, and was once also the power station | Rawene Garage (2) The garage is also built
out over the water as are many local buildings. |
