What's in a name? New Zealand Reach in Chesapeake

The name conjures up images of the exotic South Pacific - its lush forests, mountain lakes and dramatic scenery made famous in the "Lord of the Rings" movies. And New Zealand Reach, a Chesapeake road, is beautiful, with large lots that leave plenty of room for woods the road was built on to still flourish.

But exotic it is not. And it is nowhere near New Zealand.

The road is part of Caroon Farms, a development in southern Chesapeake at the end of Peaceful Road.

It's an older subdivision, and developer Robert Caroon left several years ago, taking the origins of the unusual name with him. But not for good, thanks to the powers of the Internet and a phone.

"Well, you've found me," he said recently from his kitchen down in Currituck, where he was making green beans with ham.

So what's the story?

Caroon, who grew up in North Carolina, says he picked up his family in the early 1970s and moved them down to New Zealand.

Why New Zealand?

"My wife says that's the furthest place she could think of to get away from her mother."

Oh.

Also, as a merchant mariner, he says he'd traveled to a lot of places in the world, but had never been to New Zealand.

But the Caroons came back just a few years later. Didn't like the taxes, he said.

It was a few years later that he built Caroon Farms.

Just a few roads were left to name. One of them had a whole lot of trees surrounding it. "Woody Ridge," the surveyor said, and Woody Ridge it became.

Then they turned to the second road. Nothing jumped out at them. Finally, his son-in-law said, "Father, that one is New Zealand Reach."

"And that was it," Caroon said.

They used to visit New Zealand once a year, with a stop on the Fiji Islands, but they don't go much any more. Still, Caroon says he remembers the place fondly.

"I was told when I moved there, I would never find a Kiwi that I didn't like," he said. "And they were right."

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com