Neighbourhood Watch The Tiny Town With A Big Heart

Poking Your Head Over the Fence Is Welcome Around Here

- Julie Jacobson

Anna Heino-Amaya has lived in Otaihanga for 13 years. She still doesn’t know who drops the bag of fruit at her gate come feijoa season, but her friends suspect it’s the “older guy” down the road with the big hedge, walnut, tamarillo and ‘incriminating’ feijoa trees.

The annual feijoa drop is just one of the little acts of kindness common in this sleepy Kapiti Coast settlement.

Bordered by the Waikanae River on the west and State Highway 1 to the east, Otaihanga was subdivided in the 1950s. Many of today’s homes were originally baches that over the years have become homes for young families moving into the district alongside a small group of longtime residents. And it has become a shining example of a connected community.

Anna (42) is a driving force behind that and has been instrumental in turning what began as a weekly catch-up cup of tea for a small group of new mums into an annual Neighbours Day party for more than 50 locals each March.

The mum of two – to Elsa (10) and six-yearold Lida – hosted Otaihanga’s first Neighbours’ Day Over The Fence Cuppa four years ago, on a small grassy verge at the end of her street, with the help of another mum who had kids of a similar age.

The pair – who met through a playgroup they jokingly referred to as MOO – Mothers of Otaihanga – went door to door, with kids on scooters in tow, inviting their neighbours to the morning tea.