Stokes Valley, New Zealand

Story

Stokes Valley, a major suburb of the city of Lower Hutt in the North Island of New Zealand, lies at the northeastern edge of the city seven kilometres northeast of the city centre. It occupies the valley of a small tributary of the Hutt River, called Stokes Valley Stream, which flows north to meet the main river close to the Taita Gorge. Stokes Valley was named after Robert Stokes, who formed part of the original survey team of 1840 commissioned to plan the city at Thorndon in Wellington.Stokes Valley is a suburb in its own valley. It is partially separated from the main part of the city of Lower Hutt and is surrounded on all sides by densely forested hills. Its cultural identity, very similar to that of the rest of Lower Hutt, has progressed a long way from the "congregation of old sheelbacks and whalers, men-o'-wars men and seamen, lags and hard cases, living in tents and whares... heterogeneous mass of misguided humanity" reported in 1855.