“My late husband died early. So I put my love into my house.”
Those are the words of Christine Manukau, owner of arguably one of the most decorated homes in Huntly.
Having lived in the one bedroom house for over 30 years, Manukau has made the space uniquely hers using the things she finds beautiful.
Over a dozen dream catchers and windchimes hang from the ceiling in the lounge, and photographs line the walls. Underfoot in another room is the flooring of an old indoor playground.
But nothing is messy; each trinket, picture, or postcard is carefully lined up to the next.
“We’ve got a little knick-knack shop in town. So when I get a spare bit of money I go and buy something. Then there’s all my photos and that up [on the walls],” Manukau says.
“My son put the dream catchers up on the ceiling for me. He’s a big tall bugger.”
When Manukau says her son, she refers to her biological grandson, who she raised herself. She and her husband began in Pukemiro, a good while before she would move into her Huntly home.
“Then we moved to Rotowaro. And that got destroyed.”
Manukau is a previous resident of Rotowaro, the Waikato coalfield area just west of Raahui Pookeka that was once a small town.
The town was closed and its some 400 residents dispersed in 1987 when the land beneath it was wanted for mining.
“We moved to Huntly. It was my husband, my daughter, and I. Then my daughter died, and I brought up my grandson. So I call him my son.
“Now he has a son. I’m a great grandma. I never thought I’d be one.”
There was more loss in Manukau’s life when her husband died. Her doctor advised her to put the love she had for her husband into other aspects of her life. Manukau put it into her house.
“I go to the shop in Huntly, and there’s a variety shop in Hamilton, and people give me stuff as presents as well.”
The front of her house is adorned with trinkets and treasures too. Plants grow from funky pots placed along the porch and the house itself is painted yellow and green and blue.
Manukau said the house has brought her joy and loved ones over the years.
“It makes me feel good. And people come in and look around and they love it too.”
