In previous historical accounts of the Woodhouse family there have been numerous references to Purakaunui and a farming connection, this suggesting a need for further research into what this connection or relationship is.  To do this first requires a brief history of Purakaunui settlers and then the Woodhouse/Day family connection that began in the early 1930’s.

One of the very earliest settlers to Otago was Richard Driver, a notable character in early Dunedin, who was appointed by the Governor General as the first pilot in Otago Harbour.  He was born in Bristol in 1812 and went to sea at the age of 14.  Whaling ships took him to the Pacific and he landed in Otago in 1839.

Driver’s party were in search of water at Whareakeake (Murdering Beach) when they came under attack from local Māori.  His life was spared at the insistence of Motoitoi, daughter of Kahuti, a Kai Tahu chief, who threw her cloak over him to claim him as her own.  He married Motoitoi, and lived with her for a time in a cave at Whareakeake. They had three daughters together – Maraea Catherine, Emma Paerata and Mere Titawa, before Motoitoi died in 1846.  Driver subsequently had a son, John Poroki, by his second wife, Mere Poroki, however, she too passes away in 1847.  All the children went to relatives when he went back to sea to continue whaling.

On his return from sea Richard Driver piloted the New Zealand Company ships, the John Wickliffe and Philip Laing, through the difficult entrance at Otago Heads and into Otago Harbour, in 1848, and in doing so met 17-year-old Scotswoman Elizabeth Robertson (a passenger on the Philip Laing).  They married the following year and had 12 children, the last born when Richard was 64.  During this time, and on medical advice because of failed pregnancies, they moved to Purakaunui in 1860 and both he and Elizabeth died there in 1897.

Thomas Driver was Richard and Elizabeth’s eight child.  He married Isabella Anderson Cooper in 1895 and starts his own family of 11 children (including their ninth child William Robert Driver in 1910).  Thomas leases land at Long Beach in 1905, and buys the land outright in 1916, and there he farms the land until his death in 1932.  Isabella takes ownership of the dairy farm and this is passed down to William.

The farm connection to the Woodhouse/Day families is through marriage. Doreen Veronica Day originally married William Whitty in 1925, however, in the early 1930’s they separate and divorce.

Doreen had already connected with William Driver at about the time that he was taking over the family farm, and they eventually marry in 1939 after her divorce proceedings. Doreen’s mother Annie Day (my great great grandmother) lives with them for a period of time until her passing in 1943.

Thomas, Catherine and special needs son Robert Leo Woodhouse retired to Purakaunui (and possibly to the Long Beach farm but this has not been confirmed) for approximately 10 years between about 1940-50 and Purakaunui is referred to in numerous family stories.

The smaller of the two lots was purchased in 1928 and sold in 1947.  In the mid 1950’s the perimeter apex of the farm is subdivided and this is due to the fact that William and Doreen’s youngest son Harold required expensive stomach surgery.  These new sections became the Long Beach Township Extension.  Harold eventually takes over the family farm and this is finally sold in the early 1970’s.