Leah Small

Weber used to be a place of adventures. It is where my husband, John, grew up, and he would take me there to show me his favourite spots: the hills he climbed as a child, the dams he fished tadpoles out of and the streams where he would find fossils and natural gas.

Tararua was always his home. I remember the first time I swam at Waihi Falls and an eel grazed my leg. That was also the last time I swam there! Although we do like to go see it after a big rain, or in the drought, I just no longer go in to swim. I remember sitting on my father-in-law's bike at docking. As he jumped off to help my husband with a lamb break, I thought the bike was going to fly off the ground. The strength of the wind here is something I'm sure anyone who lives in Tararua will never forget.

I now live in Weber, where my husband grew up, in the same house he lived in and loved his whole life. A place I now warmly call home, too. It's where I hope my children will share that same love, devotion and passion for the land - our land. We roll down our drive in neutral on the motorbike, like John's dad did with him as a child - a thrill for our excitable three year old. We watch ducks fly into the duck dam from G's - what my kids call their grandad - maimai, and patiently wait to recreate more pastimes with our own children. They make their own memories in our favourite spots on the farm. Our past, present and future has been shaped by the generation that came before us, who now rest peacefully (or not so peacefully) beneath the wind that blows here at the top of our farm. Our children's granny and G watch over us.

What I want to say is that Tararua is a hidden gem. Underneath all the wind, there is a bounty of beauty, of activities and people that are so warm they feel like literal sunshine when you greet them. Communities here have survived generations and I'm sure, despite the ways of the world, they will continue to.

GATHER is Shepherdess’s storytelling and portraiture project documenting life in provincial Aotearoa New Zealand. In our latest series, we present the words of ten women who call the Tararua District home. Over the past few months, writer Carly Thomas worked with each woman to help them bring their writing to life, and photographer Abbe Hoare visited their homes to capture their portraits. GATHER was supported by the Tararua District Creative Communities Committee, through funding from Creative New Zealand. If you’d like GATHER to come to your area, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

This story appeared in the Ngahuru Autumn 2022 Edition of Shepherdess.