ABOUT TOWN WAIPU
There is a sign along State Highway 1 that hundreds of people must pass every day on their way north to Whangarei. WAIPU, it says, in big letters. A hundred thousand welcomes. Next to it is a painting of a giant white man dressed in a kilt, holding bagpipes. He is the mascot for Waipu, a symbol of a town deeply rooted in Scottish heritage and history.
I used to get asked “No hea koe?”, “Where are you from?”, and I would say Waipu, a small coastal town in Bream Bay. That’s where I grew up, where I spent the formative childhood and teenage years of my life.
About a two-hour drive north of Auckland City,
