Okoare Lane

The name of Okoare Lane in Ferndale was chosen by developers Marianne and Pieter Pike, in honour of a pā that once stood beside Waimea Stream. The street name was approved by Ngāti Te Whiti hapū in 2016.

Okoare pā was located on the western side of Waimea Stream, facing what is now Pike Place, also developed by the Pike family as part of a residential subdivision. Constructed in the early 1700s, the pā stood on land originally belonging to Te Ātiawa but occupied by Taranaki iwi after a large scale invasion. Taranaki built a number of strong hill fortresses around New Plymouth in an attempt to hold on to the territory, including Whakawhitiwhiti pā a couple of kilometres to the northwest of Okoare.

Ethnographer Elsdon Best described Okoare pā his 1927 book The Pā Māori. He included a sketch of the remains by artist Ethel Richardson to illustrate its fine defences, including ramparts and internal ditches, as well as its many food storage pits. Being on a hill meant Okoare would have provided good views of the surrounding land and down to the sea.

By the early 1900s the farmland to the north of the pā site was owned by Frederick Watson, an auctioneer who lived with his wife Louisa on what is now Tukapa Street (then known as Elliot Road).

The land was later owned by Duncan & Davies Ltd., who used it to grow plants to supply their garden centre in Westown, which was at one time the largest nursery in the southern hemisphere. The valley’s productive volcanic soil and gentle microclimate, protected as it is from southeasterly winds, made it ideal for cultivation. But memories of the original residents lingered and the spot was apparently still known as “Pā Hill” by pupils at Francis Douglas College in the 1960s.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.