Henley

This is the little dot of a Taieri town named for the famous English rowing town 'Henley on Thames.' It is in a sheltered position on the fertile Taieri Plains near to Lake Waihola, one of New Zealand's largest rowing centres. Also nearby is the Dunedin Airport, at Momona. A cheese factory that supported Henley is also now at Momona.

Only 250 people live here but they have a community centre, a presbyterian church, a Bretheren Church, a small bridge over the Taieri and a larger one over the Waipori, part of the Taieri Plains Highway that runs through.

It is at Henley that you take the turnoff to Waipori Falls, 23km away, and just south at Waihola is Finlayson Road which goes to the Taieri Mouth and Beach.

Maitapapa was the Maori name for Henley, the area having a long pre-European history, connected both with Ngai Tahu and Ngati Mamoe. One of the first Pakeha settlers was William Palmer, a rough and ready product of a Sydney orphanage, who came to the area in the 1850s and lived a long and interesting life there complete with three Maori wives, the third one bearing him 15 children. It is no surprise there are still Palmers in the area.

Sometimes the Taieri River floods so much that the tiny town becomes and island in a river, rather than in farmland. This happened in a big way in 2017, but the people are tough Otago stock and they were prepared for it. Flooding of the Taieri is not uncommon, and the discovery of ancient canoes on farmland at Henley in 1896 may indicate that Maori were better prepared.

Landscape Taieri by RN Field