Echoes of kauri loggers and newspaper staff come with an historic little building for sale in Kohukohu in the Far North.
The former Hokianga Herald building, which is over the road from the harbour, was built in the early 1900s and was home to several newspapers over the years.
The building also operated as a shop at one time. Agent Monika Naera, from Mid North Real Estate, said it was still zoned for groceries and tobacco, though that could potentially be changed.
She said the properties next door, one of them the bank, were residential now.
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“It’s zoned commercial but all the neighboring buildings, the old bank building, they used to all be commercial as well but you just need the resource consent for a change of use.”
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The owners, the Kohukohu Community Trust, had renovated the building to a point but the trust had dwindled and the building was on the market for over $225,000, though Naera said it also still needed work.
The property was small, at around 92sqm, and the building currently had no toilet, but Naera said there was facility for one which could be connected to the town sewerage, and there was wiring and a water tank.
While a small footprint, she said there was a little bit of room out the back so the building could potentially be extended but consents would be needed.
There had been reasonable interest, she said, but most people wanted the property for residential purposes and it was not currently able to be used that way.
Kohukohu had under 1000 residents but still had a dairy, a police station, a primary school, bowling club and a town hall – and it had many early buildings from the town’s historic past, she said.
A report from Salmon Reed Architects, undertaken for the trust in 2020, said there was a flax industry in the early 1800s and that many Europeans passed through the Hokianga, from runaway convicts and former whalers to missionaries and sawyers.
By 1830, settlement by Pakeha was well underway. But between 1840 and 1870 the area “sank into decline”, however a power timber mill was built in Kohukohu and the town went on to become the largest mill in the southern hemisphere.
The 95sqm property is being sold "as is where is". Photo / Supplied
A photo of the building's newspaper past. Photo / Supplied
The mill closed in 1909 and was demolished in 1912 but the town had grown into a commercial centre, and dairy also played a large role.
The Salmon Reed report said The Hokianga Herald Building was built between 1901 and 1905 as a newspaper office, and other newspapers were based there over the years.
“The ‘Hokianga Times’ was published from 1911, replaced in 1936 by the ‘Hokianga Star’. The ‘Hokianga Herald’ was published in 1958 and ceased not long after.”
The building was left empty until the 1970s when it was bought privately and in 1983 the Kohukohu Community Trust was formed.
Part of their kaupapa was to buy the building back from private ownership as it was deteriorating and put it back into the hands of the community, said the report.
A food and vegetable co-op was run alongside a craft shop, then in 1986 a printing business was opened.
“The original printing press is in the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland,” said the report.
A colourful villa on Church Street, in Kohukohu, sold to Aucklanders. Photo / Supplied
The building operated as the Kohukohu Resource Centre between 1985 and 1993 with the trust coordinating with various government service agencies.
“The trust then bought the first Apple Macintosh computer and provided desktop publishing services, the Hokianga Network News, and the Kohukohu newsletter along with photocopy and fax services.”
In the 1990s the building again became a craft shop and in ensuing years there was sporadic activity including by a real estate agency, and a boat was also built inside the building.
While the building was not listed with Heritage New Zealand, it was recognised for its contribution to a historic precinct in the Far North District Council plan, said the report.
Naera said the area had been so important to the timber trade that the first American consulate was based in nearby Rawene, which can be accessed via the car ferry.
“Kohukohu does have a lot of nice, original old villas and pioneer cottages,” she said.
“The last one I sold over there was an old villa and that had been the residence of a guy called Dr Smith who created Hokianga Health in the early 1900s so there’s a lot of history over there.”
That property was sold to Aucklanders who had since moved to the north, she said.
104 Okura Bay Road, in Totara North, Far North, goes to auction on May 10. Photo / Supplied
In another offering from the Far North, a former post office-turned-general-store-turned-two-bedroom house, which is built over the water of the Whangaroa Harbour, is for sale by auction.
Agent Raewyn Paterson Smits, from Harveys North, said the Totara North property was “amazing”.
She was not sure whether the post office might have once delivered the mail by boat or whether boaties perhaps sailed up to collect the mail, but she said there was a mooring out the front so new owners would be able to step through a gate in the deck onto their boat.
There’s also a spa pool on the deck. Paterson Smits said the property was getting a lot of interest from expats, including people coming home to retire, and from boaties.
“People that have been living on boats for years and have now decided they want some kind of home base.”
The property was “very rare”, she said. “Only a handful of residential properties hang over the waters of New Zealand’s coastal shoreline – this would have to be the best of the best.”
- 1368 Kohukohu Road, in Kohukohu, Far North, is seeking enquiries over $225,000
