The opening of the McTaggart Esplanade, known as Rapahoe Beach, or Seven Mile Beach, seven miles north of Runanga on the West Coast. Mayor McTaggart addresses the crowd which includes the voluntary workers and their wives. Workers with picks and shovels add the finishing touches and the first cars go over the new road.
Intertitles: “A few fine bathing beauties” - a brief glimpse of a line of women in bathing suits.
“The Esplanade at the Rapahoe Beach was formed by working bees of the Runanga people led by the Mayor at the time Robert McTaggart (about 1927).
The beach was a favourite picnic spot for the families of the Runanga District.
The men worked weekends forming a road over a bluff which gave access to a beautiful sandy beach about a mile long.
Alongside the creek and lagoon the land was levelled off. Fireplaces were built so that people could boil the billy and make their tea.
Seats were also placed along the Esplanade so that the elderly folk could sit in the sun and watch the children swim. When the tide was out small planes could land on the beach. Passengers would be taken for joy rides.
Because of sea-erosion the road and Esplanade have now gone. For those of us old enough to remember, McTaggart Esplanade is just a happy memory.
There were not many cars in Runanga at that time. The Mayor Bob McTaggart’s (my Grandfather) car, a 1925 new beauty Ford Model was the first car over the new road.”
Pallas McTaggart, 1995.