About Scandinavian Trail

Sir Julius Vogel

Sir Julius Vogel

Between 1870 and 1876 around 5,000 people emigrated from Denmark, Norway and Sweden to New Zealand in conjunction with Julius (later Sir Julius) Vogel’s scheme linking the building of roads and railways with immigration.

This was as far as they could sail across the globe, on journeys lasting from three to four months. Government agents had led them to expect they would find arable land and constant sunshine. Instead, many were led inland until they reached the edge of towering rain forests, called ‘native bush’. Here was their home, unbuilt. To get supplies they would have to ford dangerous rivers. On the first day they wept, on the second they started work. There could be no going back.

NZ settlement map

Scandinavian settlement locations










Origins of Friends of Mauriceville

Friends of Mauriceville logo

Friends of Mauriceville
In 2008 a newsletter circulated through the Mauriceville District. It started "Greetings, my name is Kay Flavell", She went on to say that over the next three years she would be working on piecing together stories and photos of the schools, families and farms of the Mauriceville and Hastwell districts.
However as descendants of early Mauriceville families are now spread throughout New Zealand she was proposing setting up a group called Friends of Mauriceville Incorporated (FOM) so anyone with an interest in these districts could be kept informed of ongoing projects and could contribute to or support them. Additional information about these early Scandinavian settlers is also available from the Masterton Archive.
In 2009 the first AGM of FOM was held at Pukaha Mt Bruce and our organisation has grown from there.
FOM was established as an umbrella group to to supplement existing groups in the district that were endeavouring to preserve and promote historical and Scandinavian cultural heritage, and promote communication between them.

Friends of Mauriceville Inc was set up as a charitable incorporated society in 2009. FOM is registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission as # CC38983. As a registered charitable incorporated society it is able to apply for grants for specific projects on behalf of these groups. The Scandinavian Trail website is maintained by Friends of Mauriceville Inc and is supportive of other groups including NZ Pacific Studio Inc., an international artist residency programme based in New Zealand and in Vallejo, California, USA.
FOM also supports Heritage Wairarapa, a community group formed to advocate for the conservation of heritage places in the Wairarapa, and Friends of ANZAC Memorial Bridge, which is an Incorporated Society formed with the aim of protecting and looking after a unique war memorial in Kaiparoro.

Other groups associated with FOM include:
 Mauriceville West Lutheran Burial Grounds
 Scandinavian Club
 Henley Menz Shed Masterton
 Mauriceville School
 Wairarapa Archives
 Mt Bruce Pioneer Museum
 Waipoua Lions Club
 FRIENDS OF ANZAC BRIDGE pdf
 FRIENDS OF MAURICEVILLE INC PDF
 Kopuaranga Hall Society PDF
 MAURICEVILLE CLARK MEMORIAL PARK PDF
 MAURICEVILLE FAIR pdf
 Mauriceville North Methodist Church PDF
 MAURICEVILLE PLAY GROUP pdf
 MAURICEVILLE WEST RESTORATION GROUP pdf



Whispering Roads and Rainbows over Mauriceville editor Kay Flavell at NZPS

Whispering Roads and Rainbows over Mauriceville editor Kay Flavell at NZPS

We owe a hug debt of gratitude to NZPS founder Kay Flavell for establishing FOM and encouraging us to become involved in researching and preserving the cultural heritage of the Mauriceville and Hastwell districts. She has edited two books for Friends of Mauriceville Inc.:

1. Whispering Roads, (Wellington to Napier – A Scandinavian Trail) which was launched at 2011 Scandinavian Festival in Dannevirke. Click the PDF link to view Whispering Roads. Hard copies of this booklet can be purchased for $10 each via our Contact Us form, below.
Download Whispering Roads booklet

2. Rainbows over Mauriceville, which was launched at the Kopuaranga Hall in January 2013 and is currently out of print. The venue for this was appropriate, as the hall is across the road from the site of the Scandinavian Camp that was set up in 1872 for new immigrants.
The proceeds of these books will enable FOM to begin restoration projects and for additional signage to be established in the district.
You can read more of Kay’s story: "Danish & Norwegian connections: an extract from living in Kaiparoro" by Kay Flavell, here:
Download Danish and Norwegian connections

Aims of Friends of Mauriceville

  • Promote awareness of the area's significant cultural history
  • Preserve and maintain historical buildings and cemeteries
  • Improve road signage for this part of the Scandinavian trail – Wellington to Napier
  • Erect signage at cemeteries, listing and mapping burials
  • Research history pertaining to the area,
  • Publish and sell booklets
  • Liase with interested parties (Community Organisations, District Councils, D.O.C., Historic Places Trust, Scandinavian Clubs and Church Trustees)
  • Apply for grants and funding for projects
  • Have community working bees as needed
  • Communicate with members with a regular newsletter
  • To be open to new ideas for future development.

The Current FOM Committee as of February 2025

Chairman Shaun McGillicuddy
Secretary Peter Christensen       Treasurer Peter Christensen
Newsletter Editor
Website Administrator Lisa Whiteman

Committee Members
Nerroly Hoar     Katrina McGillicuddy     Ian Trass     Julianne Buick     Willie Buick     Logie Atkinson     Norma Dunn     Brian Ammundsen     Lyn Dawson     Maurie Halberg     Catherine Nelson     Sue Smith     Ross Smith     

The following people declined to be on the committee or were absent from the AGM but showed their continued support for Friends of Mauriceville:
Stuart Hoar     Harold Devenport     Denise Devenport     Bruce Farley     Jo Farley     Beverley Lawrence     Lisbeth Groeberg     Christine Littlejohn     Glenys Hansen     

Friends of Mauriceville Membership

Existing members of Friends of Mauriceville, please pay your annual subscription of $10 into our bank account. For new members: we welcome your interest. If you wish to become a member, you can use internet banking and credit our bank account. Fill in the Membership Application Form below, save it and forward the completed PDF as an email attachment to the email address below, or print it out, fill it in and post it to the address on the form.

Resources

Send us your stories

Send us your stories
Here you will find all of our past newsletters, plus records of the names of settlers in the Mauriceville region and contributions from Scandinavian Trail readers. Our website is a place for story-collecting and for increasing our collective knowledge of the lives of New Zealand's Scandinavian immigrant families and their descendants. We want to locate their stories in the wider New Zealand landscape, and increase awareness of the extent of Scandinavian settler contributions to the development of roads, railways, bridges, the dairying industry and home crafts on a local and a national scale.
It is also a place for exploring contemporary Scandinavian and New Zealand cultural issues. We are interested in developing Scandinavian--New Zealand conversations that may find new creative expression in music, fiction, poetry and film.
We welcome your contributions. If you have a story or pictures you'd like to share here, Send us a message via the Contact form below and we'll be in touch.

We have attached PDFs showing the names of people buried in the Mauriceville area. If you have ancestors buried in the wider region around Mauriceville, you may be able to locate them using the Tararua District Council's cemetery search.

Below you will find stories submitted by individuals with memories, thoughts poems etc about the Scandinavian influence past and present. These memories may differ from published material but they rely on the individual's memory and story, so we're not saying that anyone is right or wrong. We have also attached PDFs showing information and contact addresses for other groups in and around the area. Click on the PDF icons below to either view the chosen PDF document in your browser, or download it to read later.

Newsletters

Copies of the FOM Newsletter, from Nov 2008 until the present.
 Newsletter 2008 November
 Newsletter 2009 April
 Newsletter 2010 March
 Newsletter 2011 January
 Newsletter 2011 March
 Newsletter 2012 December
 Newsletter 2012 June
 Newsletter 2013 May
 Newsletter 2014 October
 Newsletter 2015 July
 Newsletter 2016 July
 Newsletter 2017 July
 Newsletter 2018 July
 Newsletter 2019 July
 Newsletter 2020 August
  Newsletter 2021 October
 Newsletter 2022 July
 Newsletter July 2022
  The FOM Newsletter for 2023
  FOM Newsletter 2024

Headstones:

A collection of Scandinavian settler's names from cemeteries around the Mauriceville area. Mouse over the respective PDF icons for a full description of the file contents.
 List of names on headstones in the Kopouranga Scandinavian Camp Cemetery
 List of names on headstones in the Mauriceville West Cemetery
 List of names on headstones in the Hastwell Cemetery
 Headstone On lone grave in paddock between Mauriceville West School and Hastwell monument.
 List of names on headstones in the Mauriceville North Cemetery
 List of names on headstones in the St Francis Cemetery
  Map of the Lutheran Church Burial ground list each area. A separate PDF shows alphabetical names of those buried. A second PDF list has listings by each area of the ground.
  Lutheran Cemetery Burials listed by area of cemetery then names of those buried in that section
  The list has been compiled from information received from the Lutheran Church, off the headstones and a full list of people buried in the district. The burial site is liste by area then position on Cemetery map
  The plan has been designed based on the original received from Lutheran Church and then checked against the various lists avaialable. Some of the names found on Church list only had the area buried and not the site so they are marked on the map with ??.

Documents:

Miscellaneous documents that don't fit in to the preceding categories.
 List of pew donors in the Mauriceville Lutheran Church
 Names on the Mauriceville School Cenotaph
 Friends of Mauriceville Membership printable Application. Mail to 6 Wycliffe Place, Solway, Masterton 5810.
 Danish and Norwegian connections
 A history of Mauriceville North Norwegian Church 1881-1981
 Whispering Roads booklet by Kay Flavell
 Larsen Family immigration story
 Bill Gundersen, Kay Flavell and Val Burr, printed in a Norwegian local history magazine
 Trondheim sculptor Kari Elise Mobeck completed a NZ residency at New Pacific Studio in September-November 2009.
  The Rangitumau Horticultural & industrial exhibition was held on 11 April 1907
  This is the story about two familiesJens Laue Pedersen and Vilhelm Klausen Lemberg
 
 
  A history of the Mauriceville West Lutheran Church 1878 to 2019
  This is the final Lutheran congregation meeting held in the St Andrews Church in Greytown on 27 August 2023. The service was conducted by Bishop Mark.
  The Lutheran Church was to be removed so a closing De-consecration service was held on 24 March 2019. The Church was latter removed to the countryside between Carterton and Greytown to be a residence.
 

Contact

Website address here: