Loda Witana Subritzky

📷 Baby / childhood photo. The family home in Te Atatu North.

Born into a Big Family

Auckland · 9 February 1962

Loda was born at the National Women’s Hospital in Auckland on 9 February 1962, the sixth of Hector and Maraea Subritzky’s nine children. He spent his early years out west in Te Atatu North, on Gloria Avenue — one of a big, close family that would shape the man he became.

📷 The Pipiwai valley or creek. Te Horo School. Any early family photos from this time.

The Pipiwai Valley

Pipiwai · 1969–1971

In 1969, when Loda was seven, the family left Te Atatu North for Pipiwai, a small country community northeast of Whangārei where his mother’s people were from.It was in this humble, beautiful valley that the seeds of his lifelong faith were planted — and in 1970, aged eight, he was baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Pipiwai creek by his father, Hector.He attended the local Te Horo School and grew up close to the land and the people who loved him.

📷 School photos. Early sports teams. Any photo of Loda as a young man.

Back to Auckland: School & Sport

Te Atatu North · 1971–1978

Late in 1971 the family returned to Te Atatu North, where Loda moved through Rutherford Primary, Te Atatu Intermediate and Rutherford High School.He excelled at basketball, rugby, rugby league and athletics, already showing the competitive spark that would define him — and at twelve he received the Aaronic Priesthood, the family worshipping at the Mt Roskill Ward.

📷 Ngataki / the family farm. Ninety Mile Beach. Kaitaia College. Loda with Sid, Raewyn and Rose.

The Far North

Ngataki · 1978

In 1978 the family made its final move — north to the Subritzky family farm halfway up Ninety Mile Beach, in Ngataki.With his older siblings moving on, Loda became the eldest of the four still at home; he, Sid, Raewyn and Rose forged a bond that would last a lifetime.He rode the thirty-mile bus to Kaitaia College each day, where he became the senior schoolboy long-jump champion — and passed his school certificate first time, though he happily stayed back a year rather than leave his mates behind.

📷 Rugby league team photos. The player-of-the-year moment. Loda in his playing days.

The Fearless Competitor

The Far North, NZ

Loda was never the biggest man on the field, but he carried something greater — his father’s uncommon strength, his mother’s fierce will, and a courage that never wavered.He became a rugby league star for his local club and was named player of the year for all of Maunganui, no small thing among some very tough men.Those who played alongside him remember it simply: if you were going into battle, Loda was the first man you’d want by your side.

📷 Sydney years — the surf, the motorbikes, the cousins. Mission photos, 1987–1989.

Australia, and a Return to Faith

Sydney · 1981–1989

In December 1981 Loda’s mother passed away in Ngataki, leaving Hector to raise the family.In 1983 Loda moved to Australia, living with his brothers Pete and John in Sydney — an exceptional body-surfer with a love of motorbikes, reconnecting with the wider whānau who had crossed the Tasman.It was here that he chose to return to his faith, wanting to set a better example for his younger brother Sidney; he received the Melchizedek Priesthood in 1986, ordained by his brother John, and then served a two-year mission in the Sydney Australia Mission from 1987 to 1989.

📷 THE PIVOTAL CHAPTER — give it room. The wedding day (the two of them on the motorbike). The five children. His graduation. A family portrait.

Lina, and the Family They Built

Tauranga · 22 February 1990

Home from his mission, Loda found the love of his life — Lina Mui, of Māori and Niuean descent, from Tauranga. They were married on 22 February 1990 in Tauranga’s botanical gardens, and left the celebration together on Loda’s motorbike, riding fearlessly into the future. Their love built a beautiful family of five — Genesis, Zac, Sarah, Mary and Toni Mari — raised with the Saviour at the centre of their home. In these years Loda returned to study, completing a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Auckland, the first in his family to do so, and he and Lina were sealed to their children in the temple for time and all eternity.

📷 The Manurewa home. Loda at work. Family life through the South Auckland years.

A Working Life in South Auckland

Manurewa · 1990s–2009

For around twenty years Loda and Lina made their home in South Auckland, buying their family house on Kay Street in Manurewa.He served for a number of years as a corrections officer, learned the trade of window tinting, and later became an Auckland bus driver — a role that suited him and made him genuinely happy.Through it all he gave much to his church, serving in many leadership positions.

📷 Brisbane / Springfield years. The family together. A warm later-life portrait.

Brisbane, and Farewell

Springfield, Queensland · 2009–2016

In 2009 Loda and Lina took their family to Brisbane, settling in Springfield, Queensland, where he continued the bus-driving work he loved and the children finished their schooling.After seven good years, Loda was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and after a short but painful battle he passed away peacefully at home on 3 February 2016, surrounded by those he loved.His final written words to his family spoke of his love for them, his faith in the Saviour, and his certainty that they would one day be together again.

His Final Written Words (if possible)

His final written words

Springfield, Queensland · 2009–2016

These were the final words written by Loda, at a family meeting the night before his passing. He could barely speak (if at all), but his love was felt by all, in the words that he wrote when he said:“Hey family, I love you all so very much. I’ve become very weak and can’t think properly — I need to go now, to begin my preparation to become an eternal family, for this is my purpose and destination. I know all of you will make it; don’t worry about me, my life is in the hands of the Lord. Having absolute faith in our Saviour, I hope you are all at peace with my decision, and that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will grant you hope and faith — hope for a better life, and faith to know that it will happen. Farewell my family, love you always.”— Loda Witana Subritzky

Sophie and Romualdus in traditional dress, hand-painted on their wedding date — 16 November 1817. With no photograph of Reinhold possible, this is the closest the family has to seeing them together. ⁴

Sophie

St Michaelis Kirche, Lüneburg · 16 November 1817

On 16 November 1817, after the banns were read on two successive Sundays, Reinhold married Sophie Elisabeth Körber at St Michael's Church in Lüneburg — joined together by Pastor Crome. He was 32, a journeyman bricklayer; she was 19, a weaver's daughter from nearby Uelzen who had lost both her parents young. The marriage record still names them both.From this union — a tradesman and an orphaned weaver's daughter, neither with a drop of the royalty the legend would later claim — came the entire family.

The children who carried Reinhold's name across the world.

Left: his three sons — Ludolph, Heinrich Wilhelm and Johannes Anton — with their mother Sophie (top left), photographed in old age in New Zealand.Right: Sophie with her eldest daughter, Doris, c.1848.Note the surname printed in the old family book: "Sobieski" — recorded under the royal name of the legend, not the bricklayer's name Reinhold actually used. ⁵

The children who carried the line

Lüneburg, Kingdom of Hanover · 1818–1830

Reinhold and Sophie had a family together in Lüneburg. Four of their children would carry the line across the world, later anglicising their names in New Zealand:

A small, human detail: when the youngest, Johann Anton, was baptised, his uncle and namesake — Reinhold's brother, Johann Anton "from Riga" — was there to witness it.

7. Portrait of John III Sobieski — unidentified painter, c.1675–1700; Palace Museum in Wilanów; via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

All illustrations by Life Moments. Historical images credited individually above.

Kurland

Where the name began — and the record that proves it.

The christening record, 1785 — Found by Stephen Subritzky in the church at Subate in 2005: Romualdous, son of Ignatius Zubrzycki, christened the 6th of February. The single document at the root of the whole family.

Subate — The fieldstone-and-brick village in Kurland — now Latvia, then the eastern edge of the old Polish world — where Reinhold was born in 1785. This is its Roman Catholic church, standing among the stone houses of the village he came from.

The journey — From Subate to Riga to Lüneburg: the road that carried a bricklayer, and a brand-new name, across a continent.

6. Hand-painted wedding artwork — courtesy of Christian Subritzky, from the collection of Mike Subritzky (artist to be confirmed).

All illustrations by Life Moments. Historical images credited individually above.

Memorial Video

Moments that capture his spirit, humour, and the love he shared.

Zvonko Knez - A Life Remembered

Moments From His Funeral

Moments to be treasured forever.

Reinhold was buried at the church of St John in Lüneburg on the 24th of June 1833. The exact place is lost to time — as so many early graves are — but the church still stands, and with it the ground where his story in Germany ended.He never left Europe. Yet everything that came after — Sophie's voyage, the Far North, three families and thousands of descendants — began with him. In that sense, he rests everywhere his name is still carried.

St John's, Lüneburg — where Reinhold was buried, 24 June 1833. ¹

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1. St John's, Lüneburg — by Unscheinbar (own work), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Every Subritzky alive today carries the name Reinhold created.If that's you — and you've got a story passed down, a photograph, a document, or a correction — this is the place to share it.
His page isn't finished, and it was never meant to be. It's not only ours — it's yours as well. Feel free to reach out.

Share a story, a photo, or an update about Reinhold.