Awatuna Stores Ltd

This little closed-up store, just down the road from where I live now, caught my attention very early in my Taranaki adventures. It is, like so many abandoned buildings, just sitting alone at a crossroads--although, the old Awatuna Dairy Factory is just down the road that runs beside it.

Over the years, it was left neglected. The gas pump was taken out and the building was left to become overgrown with weeds and vines.

Then, a few months ago, we noticed the weeds were being cut and piled up in the back. After much work, I was excited to see that there might be some life in the little place once more!

This is the original store.

Awatuna is a small settlement in South Taranaki, New Zealand, on the Eltham-Opunake road, south of Mount Egmont/Taranaki on the Waimate plain. Awatuna developed from the late 1880s as a dairy factory settlement.

The Waimate plain was once one of New Zealand's most densely populated rural areas in New Zealand. There were small communities, often centered on the dairy factory or school, at nearly every intersection of the grid of roads in the area. Awatuna was one of these settlements.

Click here for some history of the Awatuna area.