SH#16 Westgate, end of Nor-western Motorway

[onabimble]

Hello, i really green to Auckland so i don't know where this is ----> SH#16 Westgate, end of Nor-western Motorway. Can anyone help with a place name rather than just a Garage name? Or better still is anyone riding up this Thurday 11th, from Mt wellington or Auckland? I'm based in Mt Wellington.

Thank you very much.......

[jrandom]

Google Maps is your friend.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...,0.077248&z=14

See the, er, end of the North Western Motorway?

That's what you're after.

[Gubb]

Head all the way to the end of the North-Western Motorway. Turn Left at the lights.

About 200m on your Left is a Shell station. Meet there.

[Ixion]

Easy as an easy thing. even Disco dan could do it.

Hit the Southern at Mt Wellington (you can take the priority lane). Head norf (sun on y' right in the morning , left in the afternoon. ). Keep going till you reach the smoke, and a bit more. Then slide off to the left, marked North Western Motorway , or Helensville (who the hell was Helen, anyway), or some such. If you find yourself riding over a lot of water, you're on the Bridge, you've gone too far. Hang a u'ie and go back again.

Keep pootling along the Norf western until you can't go any further without riding through a house. Hang a left (traffic lights). Straight ahed about 100 yards (more lights) . Westgate servo is on your left. Big and bold.

[dwnundabkr]

mate real easy from mt wellington head north get on the the northwestern motoway
go right to the end turn left after approx 800 meters look left there is a shell station YOU are there

[whufcok]

Good to know 100 yards is equal to between 200 and 800 Metres

[klingon]

(who the hell was Helen, anyway)

Helen McLeod and her hubby were two of the early European settlers. Helensville Cottage is still there, on top of the ridge with a nice view over the river and a plaque to tell you the story.

[Ixion]

Well, there y'go. Y' learn summit every day. 40 odd year I've been tootling through there and never knew who Helen was. I reckon that warrants a stop for a beer to toast her memory next time up.

So, for the next starter for ten, who the heck was Darga of Dargaville ?

[rainman]

So, for the next starter for ten, who the heck was Darga of Dargaville ?

Wikipedia is your friend.

The town is named after timber merchant and politician Joseph McMullen Dargaville (1837-1896)

Poor bastard.

[Ixion]

Not so. That merely moves the question back one remove. Mr Dargaville was clearly named after the town of residence of his ancestor, another Dargaville. But, if Helensville was named after Helen, trhen the (original) Dargaville must have been named after Darga. And who was Darga?

[jrandom]

Wouldn't Dargagrad be a great name for a town?

[Ixion]

Dragaville is better

[Ixion]

Well, I have advanced the search for the elusive Darga a bit. It appears that he does not, in fact, exist.

The name is a manglement of D'Argeville. D' being frog for a "I'm a ponsy snob" ; and Argeville being a town in Alsace (which is now frog but wasn't always, being once part of the Empire and thus respectable).

D'Argeville was also the name of a chateau near Fontainbleu, to which the great Bolingbroke retired.

Which still leads us , like a dog returning to its vomit, back to the question : Who then was Arge ?