Te Kaha’s opera princess
Whales and an angel are part of the less widely known stories of Te Kaha, the small coastal village on State Highway 35. The iconic highway is the coast road between O¯ po¯ tiki and Gisborne, and in summer it’s full of families going camping, fishing and swimming.
Te Kaha Beach Hotel is now owned by the local iwi, Te Wha¯ nau-a¯ -Apanui, and in winter the hotel is the perfect place to get away from it all. I stayed in a well-appointed apartment with a view out one side of the rocky coastline and, on the other side, a quaint wooden church in a paddock of horses. With an on-site restaurant, bar, swimming pool and spa pool, it’s tempting to while away the weekend reading and watching movies.
But I had a mission. I had heard the story of an opera singer, Princess Te Rangi Pai, or Fanny Rose Howie, who sang at London’s Royal Albert Hall, long before Kiri Te Kanawa arrived on the scene. I was told that the contralto singer, of Te Wha¯ naua¯ -Apanui and Nga¯ ti Porou descent, was buried in a roadside grave topped with an angel, under a stand of po¯ hutukawa trees near Te Kaha.
I have driven SH35 often but never spotted the grave. This weekend I hoped to pay my respects to the woman who wrote Hine e Hine. An arrangement of the tune later became the Goodnight Kiwi song that for years closed transmission on TVNZ.
Te Rangi Pai was born in 1868 and died in my home town, O¯ po¯ tiki, in 1916, aged just 48 years.
Te Kaha is a one-hour drive from O¯ po¯ tiki, into a world that sometimes feels like it’s fast fading. A drive past the pig dog trainer, who is also a bookbinder; past villages where marae life is the life, where horses graze the roadside and where Red Band gumboots are going-out boots – at least the clean ones.
On to O¯ ma¯ io, where the beach store sells coffee, some of the best sausage rolls on the coast, vegan lollies and vegetables displayed in woven kete.
I drive past Te Kaha to Rauko¯ kore, home of one of the most photographed churches in the country, on a rocky outcrop almost surrounded by sea.
I find the Kura Cafe, a caravan cafe at the site of the now closed Rauko¯ kore School. The menu reflects cuisine of the coast, with roasted beets and watercress salad and raw fish.
Heading back to Te Kaha, I’m struck by the thought that SH35 is aptly named, for the many 35kmh corners and the need to not be mesmerised by the stunning views.
The next day, with local knowledge from the hotel manager, I set off to find the grave of Princess Te Rangi Pai. I stop at likely-looking stands of po¯ hutukawa, but no grave.
Then I spy two children coming towards me, so I ask them if they know where the grave of Te Rangi Pai is. Dubiously, they shake their heads and ask who she was. I tell them she was an opera singer from here and their faces light up. ‘‘Oh, the angel,’’ one says and points to some po¯ hutukawa trees.
Indeed, she sang like an angel and now rests at her tu¯ rangawaewae, mostly undisturbed by curious passers-by.
And the whales? Nearby on a beach is an old whaling station from the days when Te Kaha’s whale oil lit the street lights of London, about the time Te Rangi Pai was over there singing in the Royal Albert Hall.