What is 'Ahipara'?

Ahipara is the small seaside settlement where I spent the first seven years of my life with my grandparents. The beach is really wide and is the starting point of Te Oneroa A Tohi - aka 90 Mile Beach. My first playground and classroom all in one. One of my goals this year is to go back to this ancestral ground of mine. To walk along those beaches with my sons. To stand in the tide and dig for tuatua's with my toes. Yum. To see the maunga (mountain) of my childhood - Maungatauatia. To visit one of my grandmothers, Nana Jean and hug her. To walk around Shipwreck Bay. To head up to the gumfields with my family. To trace my whakapapa (genealogy) and find out more about my Yugoslavian/Croatian great grandfather and the gumdiggers in general in the local library and city council records and museums. To visit Grandad's grave and tend to it. To visit my marae up Roma Road and in Pukepoto. To take my children to Waitangi and the Bay of Islands. To visit the Kauri Museum and the Kauri forest and actually see one of these giant trees. To get some greenstone off the beach under the Yate's property. To visit the stream in Mungamuka. To see Hundertwasser's toilets in Kawakawa. That is one of my dreams for this year... meanwhile, bye for now. I'm off to art school. Class started 45 minutes ago. :) Better stop all this lallygagging and get going. Have a nice day won't you!