It's back to school for Su-an and Alistair McMahon as they begin renovations on their Rotoehu property.

In September 2007, the couple bought the property that contains the main school building, the headmaster's house and several other buildings from the former Rotoehu School. They are the only remaining remnants of what was once Rotoehu Village. The McMahon's and their two daughters Holly and Rose live in the former headmaster's house and they have begun renovating the school.
'At first we didn't realise what we had here,” says Su-an. 'But I was listening to Jim Mora's programme on National Radio shortly after we bought the property and he said he wondered what had happened to all the old country schools. I rang him and said we had just bought one and he asked to do a programme about it. Once that went to air we got heaps of enquiries about it.”
Su-an and Alistair began restoring the school and heard from lots of former pupils and teachers who were interested in the future of their old school.
Built in 1933 for the tobacco industry that had developed in the region it was originally called Pongakawa Valley School. In 1937 the New Zealand Forest Service planted 24,000 acres of pines in the surrounding area and the forestry industry began. The school changed to Rotoehu Forest School in 1953 before changing to Rotoehu School in 1970 before it finally closed in 1986.
'We have had people drop in to see how the work is going and there have been some very moving moments,” says Su-an.
'We had one person come to see it and then he went outside and just started crying. We found that he had a rotten childhood and the school was his one place of sanctity – the one place he felt safe as a child.”
Since news spread of their restoration project the McMahons have been inundated with photographs, old school journals and lots of things that were originally in the school.
'After we got the photographs we had a guy come around whose family had never been able to afford the school photos. It turned out we had some of him and his late brother who he had no family pictures of. So we were able to get him some prints made.”
The family also discovered just how central the school was to village life.
Fun for the village
'The swimming pool used to be open in the weekends for the whole village and they used to have film evenings in the school,” says Su-an. 'The children would be asleep in the car out in the playground while their parents were watching the movies in the school alongside.”
The McMahon's have put in a lot of work renovating the schoolhouse and some of the old single men's forestry huts which they plan to rent out to pheasant hunters, as the surrounding area is a popular pheasant hunting spot. They hope to have the huts ready for the beginning of the shooting season on May 1.
Some buildings like the toilet block had gone beyond being repaired and had to be demolished, but that is to be rebuilt as authentically as possible.
'The school was sold in 1986, but the person who bought it did nothing with it and when we came in it was very run down and full of junk. When we cleared the buildings out we had to remove bird nests and mummified rats from the roof.”
Open for the public
The school is now looking good again, the cloakroom has its hooks on the wall the classroom has blackboards and desks and the school library is well stocked with books. Alistair and Su-an have decided to hold an open day on Sunday, March 7, 2010.
It is a day they would love people to come to and bring along a picnic.
'We'd love to see as many former pupils and teachers as possible and it would be a treat to see some of them catch up with each other after all these years. This day is a way for us to thank all those who have shared their memories with us and donated memorabilia and hopefully a day they will be able to share memories.”
You can find contact details and more about the McMahons' project on their website at www.oldforestschool.com