Dave is co-owner of the cars with his partner Catherine ‘a car lady through and through’.

They take me to another shed. I am hit with ‘sensory overload’ as we enter the two-storey building.

Model cars, commissioned art pieces, old car signs, modern car signs, Ford flags, antique tools, old-school petrol bowsers were all aesthetically placed around an incredible collection of chrome, steel, mirrors and windows that are attached to an eclectic array of American and British classics ranging from the early 20th century through to the 2000s.

The sheer cost, restoration and maintenance of these relics boggled my mind but when you’re living the car dream as Dave and Catherine are, it’s not about cost, or the hours spent maintaining and cleaning them. It’s about a shared love of cars of all shapes and sizes. It’s what they do daily on the Great South Road.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.  

Our film crew were setting up in Otahuhu when a guy in his 20s told us that the nearby shop, ‘Toby’s Fish’n Chip Shop’ – better known as ‘Toby’s’ – was world famous in Southside. He said, “If you don’t know ‘Toby’s’ you’re not from around here”.

We stepped inside the famous establishment at 5am to check out the morning preparation of fish and filleting. The first thing I noticed was the place was pristinely clean – everything sparkled and gleamed. It then became obvious how big the shop was. Tables could seat dozens, there were enormous cooking vats, and display shelves were lined with fresh fish, Kina, oysters and mussels. The shop looked like a mix between a fish market and an eatery.

Patrick Tobin – otherwise known as ‘Papa Pat’ – along with his father started ‘Toby’s’ some 30 years ago. Whānau are a huge part of the place, evident in the fact the shop has employed three generations of the Tobin family.

The first 12 years were hard. Remarkably the addition of fried bread, a favoured indulgence of Māori – was the turning point for ‘Toby’s’ as a business. ‘Toby’s’ now buys in 20 tonnes of fish, seven tonnes of mussels and makes thousands of fried bread a week to feed the army of customers that get their fish’n chip fix.

The shop is now so successful another four have opened in Auckland – making ‘Toby’s’ Auckland’s only Māori-owned fast food franchise.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

Butchery success thanks to blood, sweat and tears.

Helen Clotworthy owns Pokeno Bacon, a shop that specialises in selling pork related fare. She’s forever busy. She lives her life in varying degrees of perpetual motion, whether that’s picking something up, putting something down, walking or arriving somewhere, or talking. Helen loves talking, and she’s incredibly good at it.

Helen and her semi-retired husband John started Pokeno Bacon 40 years ago. Their loyal following from here and afar stop in to buy their eclectic range of beef, lamb, and of course pork sausages.

But the shop’s success didn’t happen overnight. What now could be described as Great South Road’s butchery empire has been the result of good old fashioned hard work.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

Our plan had been to film a series of short interviews with business owners and locals on a particular stretch of Great South Road, Manurewa.

That changed very quickly when some locals took serious umbrage at our film crew shooting on their home patch. We knew this because they told us so. They didn’t mince words or withhold any aggressive subtext.

Less than 75 metres from where we had encountered an uncomfortable reception, we met ‘Te Rata Hikairo’, a local educator. Raised in the area Te Rata passionately explained Manurewa as an eclectic mix of social struggle, business, the middle class, and middle-upper class, but which was most often portrayed as a place of hardship.

We felt a pang of guilt, that my perception of Manurewa was very much the stereotype. We had not for a second considered that perhaps the response by some locals was in fact their response to outsiders only seeing their home suburb framed as a place of criminality and dysfunction.

After meeting Te Rata we met Louis and his wife Shiloh, a couple living on the street after losing their State House in Otara. Louis candidly stating he used to pass the homeless and say “‘look at those jokers sitting out there bumming, sleeping on the street”, only to find himself in the same position.

What was remarkable about Louis and Shiloh is they remained upbeat, even grateful for the experience in what it has taught them.

For us, it was a sobering and thought-provoking day on Great South Road.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.  

The story for Matutaera Herangi, his family, and many others in the Ngaruawahia area has been one of generational survival. This clever and engaging high-school teacher wants to take hold and change the narrative that stifles the Kingitanga country.

Where Great South Road is often cited as a ‘transportation hub’ it was once considered “a monster, a ngārara”, Herangi says. It’s a road that his people have come and lost their way of life, their knowledge, and their community.

So together with his family, Herangi is fundraising to build a Papākainga on his property and his family’s adjoining properties. The whānau wishes to return to the community values of their past, so to pave a better future.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

We met academic Tom Roa, a well-regarded kaumatua of Ngāti Apakura and Maniapoto descent, in the hope of learning about Great South Road but from a Māori perspective.

Tom was quiet, considered, and articulate. As soon as we started talking, he shared some of the emotive, insightful, and confronting stories of Great South Road. In my quest to film this series, I realised I was so naive.

The road was originally built to facilitate colonial aggression on Waikato Māori whose crime was their want to retain their land, and their autonomy. Today, the subjugation and aggression do not stop.

As we arrived in Rangiaowhia a few minutes away from Te Awamutu, Tom recited the story of the Nixon Memorial, a monument that sits proudly on Great South Road. Colonel Marmaduke George Nixon was a leader of the ‘Colonial Defence Force’ that decimated Waikato and Ngāti Apakura Māori, Tom’s people.

Tom explained that the true ignominy of the Nixon statue was that it sits in the tribal area of Auckland’s Waiohua Iwi – a people subjected to colonial aggression, and who for years have housed a statue that embodies it.

My trip down Great South Road with Tom Roa has forever changed my perspective. A ride down Great South Road will no longer be a point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ exercise, it will be a reminder of how little we know about things we should.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

For years Kirks’ Bush on the Papakura side of Great South Road had an unsavoury reputation. Named after the Kirk brothers that owned it in the early 20th century, it was a place visited with caution, or quite simply not at all. Many of the trees in Kirks’ Bush are old enough to have borne witness to the many iterations of Great South Road. It is unusual in-and-of-itself that this eye-catching stand of native forest has survived what has become Auckland’s urban sprawl.

In response to an advertisement placed in the local paper, Muriel Newman founded the volunteer group ‘The Friends of Kirks’ Bush’ some 25-years-ago. Muriel and nine others set about removing graffiti on trees, advocating for boardwalks, removing invasive weeds, and cleaning up rubbish – all in a bid to transform the aesthetic of the area. By the time Margaret Gane joined in 2001, a lot of the weed species had already gone.

But this story isn’t just about the restoration of Kirks’ Bush. From my observations, it’s as much about the reclamation of Kirks’ Bush as a place for the community to use.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

Dilworth's pledge to turn good kids into good men.

Dilworth’s sports fields sit adjacent to Great South Road. The school is but a short walk from the swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket, and a literal stones throw away from the beautiful homes that neighbour the school’s sprawling property.

Its buildings are a mixture of old and new – the old reflecting the origins of its 1894 founder, Irishman James Dilworth. James Dilworth had visions to start a school for boys “from good families with limited means”, and in its history it has provided exactly that educative service for thousands of boys and their families over its 124 year history.

We spent a day filming with Alistair Patterson, College House Master and coach of the Dilworth First Fifteen. From Alistair we learned that rugby – while important – is not just about rugby in and of itself. Rather, it’s a vehicle to help make good kids into good young men. And as evidenced by the camaraderie, and the appreciative and willing participants, rugby fulfils its purpose.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

When you meet the Shaw brothers of Paterangi, you cannot help but notice they get on swimmingly. They listen to each other, jesting gently back and forth, with both having a penchant to tease a memory into a story.

The Shaw brothers share a passion for duck shooting, and it is a passion that has been shared through four generations. One spot in particular – Lake Nga Rotoiti – has always taken the cake. The family’s relationship with the lake has been so enduring that the brothers talk of it as if it were a family member.

Opening morning, Peter and Len were up at the crack of dawn while the film crew and I suffered through the morning to get there on time. The exercise was beautiful to shoot. The family tradition has played out in the shadow of an ever-evolving Great South Road for nearly 90 years. Enjoy.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.

When we met Pastor Nela Fifita of the Potter’s house church in Papatoetoe he was about to lead his mostly Pasifika and Māori flock across Great South Road.

The teens, their walk unfolding into a swagger as they congregated in a carpark ready to spread the Potter’s house gospel.

The youth of Potter’s house church took to Great South Road using hip-hop as their weapon to spread their faith, their life experiences in helping them stay the right side of the line in a part of Auckland where the wrong side is only a decision away.

The incredible musicality, the passion, the sheer talent in conveying their message was nothing short of arresting, concert-like, and at times confronting, Mackenzie says.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.