ISLAND LIVING
Getting to know Rakino
S
tepping off a water taxi, loading up a rusty 4WD with supplies for a few days, and suddenly a trip to Rakino Island in the Hauraki Gulf off New Zealand’s North Island, begins to feel a lot like a trip to Straddie. Not the modern Straddie, where an air-conditioned lounge and a coffee await you on the trip over, but the Straddie my parents first brought me to, where a row of rusted “Island cars” lined the road to the jetty and food supplies for the entire trip had to be carried, along with enough ice to ensure a cold beer on arrival. Unlike Straddie, then or now, there are no shops on Rakino, so whatever you forget to pack onto the water taxi from Auckland’s inner city Viaduct, you will have to do without until your trip is over. Or, if you have helpful friends on the mainland, until the next boat arrives in a couple of days. (There is a water taxi service that runs every couple of days and a barge service that runs every couple of months, when residents can get enough people together to warrant one.) On docking at Rakino we were greeted by a woman asking us to pass $10 to the driver, with thanks for the bag of groceries he was delivering: “We ran out!” she laughed, not looking very stressed by the situation. And you do get the feeling you wouldn’t go hungry; on an evening stroll, taking photos for SIN, my partner and I
10 STRADDIE ISLAND NEWS
greeted a couple walking their dog. Hearing that we were from Australia, and editors of the paper for North Stradbroke Island, they insisted we come to their house for a drink. Surprised by such friendliness so close to a major city, we happily accepted. The drinks choices were limited, they apologised, because they’d had to drink all the cold stuff on arrival earlier that day, before the ice melted. There is no grid power on Rakino and many homes feature solar panels with discreetly housed battery storage. Water tanks supply all water needs and, if there is one thing New Zealand isn’t short of, it’s rain, so there is no worry about running out. Saying “hello” as you pass another person is de riguer and failing to do so is taken as a sign that the place is getting too popular. In common with Straddie, Rakino is a small island community where once everyone seemed to know everyone else. But now, as times move faster, and “the simple Island lifestyle” becomes an affluent option, houses are bigger, and architects are brought into design them. The basic Rakino bach (pron: batch), as the Kiwis call them, has much in common with the old Straddie fibro shack when it comes to function over form. Modern bachs, however, feature clean angles and expansive use of glass, which is no bad thing on this small, steep island, where blocks are large and almost all boast views. Rakino’s pretty coves make great
BY KATE JOHNSTON
spots for dropping the anchor overnight or watching from the shore as the sun goes down over the Auckland skyline. But don’t make the mistake, as we did, of thinking you can walk across the grassy fields to take a short cut home – thigh deep pasture can seem as treacherous as quicksand when you are in the middle of it. The eastern side of Rakino overlooks the better known Waiheke Island (“Why-hecky” to my Aussie ears), a popular destination for day visitors from Auckland and similar to Straddie in terms of its size and available services. A common response from New Zealanders when told we had been invited to stay on a small island off Auckland was “oh yeah, Waiheke”. No, we’d insist, that’s not the one. So small is Rakino that not many Aucklanders have heard of it, although those who have might know it as the home of New Zealand’s first GovernorGeneral, and later Premier, Sir George Grey. He bought the Island in 1862, later selling it to a founder of Auckland’s commercial fishing fleet, Albert Sanford. The Sanfords lived on Rakino for nearly 80 years and the family home still stands. In 1963, Rakino was sold to a philanthropist and hypnotherapist, The Great Ricardo, who planned to create a community with a clinic for disturbed and nervous patients, an orphanage, a refuge for unmarried mothers and homes for the elderly. Instead, Rakino was subdivided in 1965 and today there are WINTER 2008
en on ino News editor Col McLar Johnston of SIN meet Rak view e the Kat g and brin to uet s Rig line tan an Tris From top left: most of glass and cle the ke ma ino Rak on es the Rakino jetty. New hom through to the street.
about 80 houses (mainly holiday homes) and a permanent population of about 16. Local news comes via subscription to the Illustrated Rakino News, a 20-page, A5, black and white news sheet, published 10 times a year (“delivery on the Island by arrangement”). Keen to meet a fellow editor, I was disappointed to discover that editor Colin Maclaren supplies only a postal address for correspondence and contributions. Such is the nature of Rakino though, that as we waited to board the water taxi on the WINTER 2008
last day of our stay I heard a man, dressed in a floppy hat and large gum boots, being addressed as ‘Col’ and figured this could be my counterpart. I introduced myself and in the few minutes before boarding we managed to exchange great joy at meeting a fellow editor of an Island paper, swap contacts and discuss the vagaries of compiling a newspaper by contribution. Whereas SIN is rich in local contributors, Col said getting news out of his locals was “like getting blood from a stone”.
I wondered out loud whether email might make it easier, but he told me he’d left publishing in Auckland decades before because they wanted him to switch to computers – that led him to start the Illustrated Rakino News and he wasn’t about to go digital now. We learnt of Rakino not via the Illustrated Rakino News, but from a yachtie mate who had circumnavigated the island more than once and knew it as good mooring spot and a place to drop anchor and get coffee and a slice of homemade cake on a cold day. Sadly, the local who used to run the coffee shop has since hung up her apron, although the sign still hangs, tantalisingly, on the main drag. These days laid on entertainment is in the form of the annual Rakino Jazz and Art festival at Easter, and the annual Rakino dragon boat race run by local curmudgeon and (Illustrated News columnist), Lez “Crumpy” Chapman whose column appears in its handwritten form. “When not being used as race boats the two [dragon boats] bolt together and form an unstable diving platform from which the island children risk life and limb climbing and diving, allowing their parents to idle away their time, watching in terror from the shore,” our yachtie mate told us. “This year the race was held on the third of January but it has been suggested the date be moved to January first on the basis that heavily inebriated parents worry a little less!” Sounds just like the Straddie of my childhood. STRADDIE ISLAND NEWS 11