How are you?

Colin | Ōtautahi

Colin shares the beauty of life in a small community, in Akaroa – a place his whānau has called home for generations. Drawn back by the call of his ancestors, it’s the community he found that has kept him here.

“I whakapapa to Akaroa and my grandparents were here. My great grandparents lived in Akaroa and used to farm, and Akaroa is a little slice of Heaven.

I left Akaroa when I was about eighteen, and I said to myself, “I’m never coming back to this place. There’s no way I’m coming back.” I just wanted to get out of Akaroa. I went to school in Akaroa and just wanted to get out of Akaroa, and the world was too small for me.

But as time went on, I wanted to come back home. Come back home to be close to my ancestors, my dad, my brother and all my whānau. So hence my return.

I can sort of feel my ancestors around the town of Akaroa. They’re everywhere, up in the Anglican cemetery, the Catholic cemetery, but just all around the place.

When I was living in town, there wasn’t that connection or connectivity with people that you do have in a small community like Akaroa. In a town we used to live in, Mount Pleasant, we didn’t really know our neighbours. Whereas here in Akaroa, you know everybody. And everybody knows you. Everybody’s got your back, and you’ve got their back. And if anything happens, you’re always going to get supported and people will support you.

So that’s the beauty of living in a small community.”