Holiday communities on Rangitoto Island, New Zealand

Abstract

The word bach is synonymous with holiday in New Zealand. The bach is the rudimentary holiday home that existed along coasts, lake fronts and rivers throughout the country. This monograph deals with the three bach communities on Rangitoto Island, Auckland, from their inception, just after World War I, to the halting of new leases in 1937. The families who took up leases and built their baches formed close communities. Many of the families still own their leases and their reminiscences of the holidays of their childhoods are the backbone of this monograph. They remember the communal atmosphere, the social events and close friendships which were renewed each succeeding year. Immediately after World War I, New Zealand underwent great changes in its economic and social structure, followed by the depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Increasing state control encroached into many areas of life, introducing greater uniformity, for example in housing, education and working conditions. When sites became available for lease on Rangitoto, they provided an opportunity for a working class family to build a holiday home away from the constraints of suburban life. The meaning of community to these people is examined and some explanation of why these ongoing but intermittent communities were so successful is offered. The elements essential to the development of community have been analysed by social scientists without definite result. Furthermore, in New Zealand the question of when community formed is the subject of debate. Pivotal to these arguments is whether or not there was sufficient societal cohesion and stability for community to form. These questions are applied to the communities on Rangitoto in order to understand how and why they developed in the form they did.