The Voice and The Fitzroy Centenary are free Taranaki newspapers. Ron Mells is a local resident who has lived in New Plymouth all his life, has a self-confessed passion for writing and many of his stories have been regular features in these news papers. Ron, who was once the proud owner of a local grocery store, first began writing articles for these papers to promote the specials in his grocery. He came to enjoy this process of writing articles for these papers and this soon developed into a regular hobbies. However as his passion for writing grew so did the content of his articles. Ron told the Living lab research team that besides writing, his other passion was trout fishing along the Waiwhakaiho River. Consequently he began to write stories about trout fishing and other goings on at the Waiwhakaiho River. Having lived along the Waiwhakaiho River all his life, Ron has many memories on about the river and has published a collection of the social histories that surround the river. He has kindly agreed share some of the articles from his collection, so that they may be published on the website and enjoyed by other local residents.

Ron’s articles are featured below.