Historic Hawkes Bay & East Coast - Matthew Wright

The North Island’s East Coast and Hawke’s Bay was founded with energy, enthusiasm and a dash of adventuring spirit.

This is reflected in photos where people from all walks of life pose outside their homes or in their Sunday best, go to the beach, mess about in boats or simply get on with life — in fact doing things not dissimilar to what we do today. The fascination, however, is seeing just how much has changed over the years.

We can also share something of the turmoil and emotion of the disastrous 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, and marvel at development across the districts, evident in the growth of settlements, the wresting of farmland from rugged landscapes, as well as the proliferation of railways, roads and bridges linking the region’s places and peoples.

 Over 150 photographs with extended captions tell the story of the Hawke's Bay and East Coast.

 Beautifully reproduced black-and-white images cover important places and events, both great and small, with a vividness only historic photographs can offer.

About the author:
Matthew Wright is one of New Zealand's most published historians. He has written over 40 books on topics ranging from travel guides to biography, engineering, military and social history, and his book Hawke's Bay – The History of a Province (Dunmore 1994) won a J M Sherrard Award in local and regional history in 1996.

RRP: $69.99
ISBN: 978-1-86953-779-1
Format: 252 x 252 mm, 160 pages, hardback with French folds jacket

First summer of peace: holidaymakers at Waikanae beach, Gisborne, in January 1946.
And above :
War’s end brought difficulty to the whole of New Zealand — including Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast, not least because rationing remained in force. Traditional events continued; this is the annual A&P Show near Hastings in 1946.