Pukerua Bay – two competing stores
Ames Kiosk at Pukerua Bay Beach in the 1930s. The sign to the left of the door advertises hot water for making tea. Photo Coveney Albums, Pātaka Art + Museum.
Horace Ames, a sheep farmer, and his wife Norma settled in Pukerua after their marriage in 1906. They set up the Pukerua Cash Store for the families of the Māori residents, railway workers, sheep farmers and weekenders who were regular visitors to the bay. Their home was beside the railway line and the store 90 steps below at the top of the pathway to Brendan Beach. It was also the Post Office and from 1923 the telephone office. Norma also ran a lending library from their store.
When Pukerua Bay became popular with picnickers and holidaymakers the Ames opened a small kiosk on the beach to save the climb up to their store. The kiosk supplied hot water, other services and E-Tan Ice Cream.
McKay’s Store, tea rooms and Post Office c1939. Photo National Library.
The opening of the new state highway in 1939 brought about changes for the stores. The Pukerua Cash Store was demolished to make way for the highway and a new store was built at the northern end of Onepu Road.
Gordon McKay, followed by many other storekeepers ran this general store, Post Office, lending library and tearoom. In the late 1960s it became a fish and chip shop until it was damaged by fire. In the early 1970s the building was demolished.
Lindsay’s General Store across the highway on the corner of Toenga and Te Pari Pari Roads was set up in 1925 by Charles Gray for his brother-in-law Arthur Lindsay. This rival store sold groceries as well as English bone china, sand shoes, garden manure, insurance and chemical toilets!
Lindsay’s General Store on the corner of Toenga Road and the main road, now State Highway 59, in 1925. Photo Coveney Albums, Pātaka Art + Museum.
Arthur Lindsay opened a new store opposite Beach Road in 1939. This later became a 4-Square and Post Office with two petrol pumps. From 1960 the store was owned by Bill and Betty Scott. Later they had to compete with the mini supermarket which was opposite the tennis courts in Rawhiti Road. The 4-Square had two further owners before closing in 1977.
The building then became the Pukerua Bay Bottle Store operated by the Porirua District Licensing Trust. During the 1980s, under the management of Fae Fagan the store once again became the focal point in the community. It was where everyone went for bus tickets, milk, sweets, newspapers, milk coupons, cigarettes and even publications by local poets.
Lindsay’s General Store Pukerua Bay with the Post and Phone Office at the end of the building near the Plume petrol pumps, early 1950s. Beth Lindsay on bicycle. Photo Waddilove Collection.
