Raglan woman Eileen Beach-Kelly has written and published a book covering her family’s pioneering days on their farm on the slopes of Karioi. The book called Life and Times-The Beachs of Karioi is available for purchase for $35 at the Raglan Museum. Contact Karyn Willoughby in the office on 07 825 8925 or email info@raglanmuseum.co.nz to buy a copy.
Eileen says her book covers how the Beach family came from the elegant luxury of Park House, an English stately home, and had to build a slab hut in the rugged native bush of back-country New Zealand. Yet the Beach men, of Gloucestershire, and the homes and farms they subsequently built for themselves, were a tribute to these strong, diligent, hard-working pioneers. Young women from the Cowley and the Gore families became Beach wives, and added considerably to the success of the families they created. There are triumphs and tragedies, good times and bad, and a fascinating element of intrigue. The Beachs of Karioi, near Raglan, is a story of hardship, pragmatism, close community involvement, caring families and joy.