📍Raukokore, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
1975 – 1993“Taika Waititi grew up between Wellington, with his mother, and Raukōkore, on the remote eastern coast of the Bay of Plenty, with his father. His father, Taika Waititi senior, was a farmer and a painter of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, and his mother, Robin Cohen, was a schoolteacher of Russian-Jewish and European descent. His parents separated when he was about five, and Taika spent his childhood moving between two very different worlds: the bohemian, artistic streets of Aro Valley in Wellington, and the small, close-knit Māori community of the East Cape. Raukōkore and nearby Waihau Bay were places of beaches, horses, whānau and long summers, where everyone knew everyone and children roamed freely. His father's painting gave him a love of art, and his relatives' storytelling, jokes and teasing gave him his sense of humour. In Wellington he attended Te Aro School and Onslow College, drew comics, and began making up stories and performances with his friends. He studied theatre at Victoria University, performed in the comedy group So You're a Man and the duo the Humourbeasts, and began making short films. His 2010 film Boy, about a boy on the East Coast waiting for his father, was filmed at Waihau Bay, with his aunt's house used as Boy's home. He went on to make Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok, and won an Academy Award for Jojo Rabbit. The warmth, humour and sadness of his films, and their love of underdog kids, began on the East Cape and in Aro Valley.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today