Joy for families as ‘licence to occupy’ Whananaki North havens extended
Local Democracy Reporter
More than a century’s heritage is continuing after Whananaki North’s iconic foreshore baches recently gained a 10-year “licence to occupy” extension.
The licence to occupy the dozen tiny Kiwiana baches on council land on absolute Whananaki North estuary waterfront was extended for another decade just before Christmas.
“It was the best Christmas present we could have,” Sandi Dunn, one of the Whananaki North baches’ “custodians” said.
Whangarei District Council’s December 2019 meeting saw councillors vote for a repeat 10-year extension for the baches — on Whananaki North Rd and Wharf Rd estuary frontage — which sit on land classified as unformed legal road or road reserve. This follows a previous extension in 2010 which expires in June.
The Whananaki North baches line part of the northern edge of Whananaki Estuary, just under an hour northeast of Whangarei.
Their history stretches back to the early 1900s when Hikurangi coal miners headed beachside for a break from underground, back-breaking work harvesting the fossil fuel about 30 kilometres from Whananaki. They loaded family on to horse and dray, along with their summer holiday gear, in a journey that took hours on what was then only a dusty winding track.
Early miners’ Whananaki North beachside accommodation had humble, typically Kiwi beginnings. Baches were cobbled together over time with corrugated iron, packing cases and suchlike. Some miners could afford only canvas tents to sleep under.
The Whananaki North baches are in the same iconic Kiwi architecture genre as now only a handful of others around New Zealand’s coast.
Twenty iconic baches on Auckland’s Rangitoto Island are now registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Thirteen tiny baches of the same nature at Taylors
Mistake, Christchurch are also registered. Iconic lease baches on Nelson’s trademark Boulder Bank landscape are also protected.
The picturepostcard and quintessentially Kiwi baches at Whananaki North took shape on what was then Hikurangi Town Council land. WDC acquired the land in 1989 through local council amalgamation. Baches are only allowed to be passed down through families.
Dunn is the fourth generation of her family in their purple bach known as Tait’s Bach. Her two nieces and nephew holidayed at the bach for the first time last Christmas, making them the sixth generation to be connected