Here’s another story about forgotten names around Piha. A prominent name in the early years of the Piha surf club was an exotic one: Frank Ernest de Guerrier. Frank came  [ Read More ]

Ted and Stella Browne were the second proprietors of the Piha Boarding House. Edward “Ted” Christmas Browne was born to Simon and Gertrude Browne on 25 December 1888 at Port  [ Read More ]

I heard a lot when I was growing up about Wally Jarvis, one of the best swimmers at the Piha Surf Life Saving Club. An exceedingly tall young man –  [ Read More ]

Dr MacDiarmid, as he was known to everyone at Piha in the 1950s, was the resident doctor, whether he liked it or not. He came to Piha for the quiet life, to  [ Read More ]

The Erdman family was associated with Piha for around 50 years, but the association came to an end with the death of Paula Erdman in 1995. The Erdmans originally came from  [ Read More ]

Frederick William Lucas has one of the most auspicious sporting records of any of the sportsmen in the Piha Surf Life Saving Club. He was born in 1902 to Sarah  [ Read More ]

Merle was born Ella Merle Mobbs to Horace and Nell Mobbs in Christchurch on 9 October 1919, but spent almost her whole life on the West Coast. The Mobbs family  [ Read More ]

George Potter was one of Piha’s characters of which the community has always had not a few. George Edward Potter was born to Florence Minnie and Frank Potter on 6 March  [ Read More ]

Mary Dobbie was one of the most well-known personalities at Piha and a leader in many community developments from the 1970s till the 1990s. Born in 1913 in London to parents  [ Read More ]

Ted Le Grice built the Piha Boarding House in about 1922, and it has long stood as a prominent landmark at Piha. So who was Ted le Grice and where  [ Read More ]