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| Lewis, Sacha and Stuart in the garden at Sunnybrae Road, Takapuna |
[For the origin of the letters drawn upon here see blog 30. Love, Death and Letters from My Mother's Hut (4th February 2012); see also blog 26. This Day in 1973 (20th January 2012)]
Takapuna, Auckland, 15th November 1973
Dear Mum and Dad,
Thank you for your letter of October 30th. You all sound very busy. We have started to repeat last year's activities - we took the children to a local fireworks display (Lewis hated it and hid away from all the bangs and announced when we got home that next year he wasn't going to go!) and on the same afternoon we saw a number of special children's entertainments - authentic Punch and Judy with Lancashire accents, a Maori song and dance group, a Scottish pipe band all in Black Watch Tartan, and drum majorettes a la U.S.A. - it's nothing if not multicultural here. Stuart had a ride on a miniature Japanese motor bike and was very thrilled. Sacha has also now learnt to ride her two wheeler bicycle so the three of them go riding off round the neighbourhood with Lewis on his trike.
Whananaki South, Northland, 16th December 1973
...it's a pity you can't be here! For the last three weeks the weather has been really warm and sunny. On Saturday we drove up from Auckland to Whananaki. It may not be on your maps but is about fifteen miles north of Whangarei on the east coast, between Tutukaka and Whangaruru Harbour. It is a lovely quiet spot on an estuary. One of my colleagues at the University has a bach (or beach house) here and has lent it to us for a week. There is also a caravan on the site and Stuart and Lewis are sleeping in it. The bach can only be reached at low tide since part of the road is on the bank of the estuary so you can imagine how isolated it is. When the tide is in the water comes right up to the bank just outside our window and there is also a lovely sandy beach a short walk away over the sand dunes.
The dairy (groceries etc) is opposite but although there is a footbridge it is quite a long walk round. This morning, therefore, we rowed across the estuary to get the milk. The wind was blowing so it was quite hard work - in fact where it was shallow it was quicker to get out and pull the boat instead of rowing. Stuart has been learning to swim in the calmer waters of the estuary because the ocean beach has a lot of surf. There are also quite a lot of birds, especially fantails, sand pipers and larks as well as seagulls...
The two railway engine books for Lewis' birthday arrived safely thank you very much. He had a little party for about half a dozen of his friends and he enjoyed himself very much...
Hope you are wintering well - all we hear of the British news is full of gloom - prices continuing to rise, little petrol, a rail go-slow, trouble in the coal mines etc etc. There is no petrol rationing here yet but everyone is expecting it after the Christmas holidays. Happy Christmas and New Year to you all, Lots of Love, Pat, John, Stuart, Sacha and Lewis.
9th January 1974
The oil shortage has had little impact here so far. There is no problem in buying petrol and the price has not gone up - still about 50c a gallon for 'super'. There is an overall speed limit now of 50 mph in order to conserve fuel and it has made driving much more pleasant and, apparently, reduced the number of road accidents.
Thank you for the Percy Thrower gardening book, it will be very useful. This week we have just eaten our first cabbage and beetroot from Pat's vegetable patch and very good they were. Our tomatoes are also coming along well and we also have a few potatoes and cucumbers in and some rhubarb. The fruit trees are still very small and won't produce much this year - just a few apples and peaches.
On the Thursday after Christmas we went off again, this time to Hamilton where we stayed for a week. It was a good centre for tripping around in the car. We went, as you guessed, to the Waitomo Caves, had a day at Rotorua which was very impressive, went to Te Aroha and up to the top of Mount Te Aroha on a rickety old bus, spent a day at the seaside at Raglan... Hamilton itself had some lovely parks as well as the Waikato River running through - we went on a river trip too. The highlights for the children seemed to be riding on the model railway at Victoria Park, Hamilton and watching the tele at the house we rented!
Sacha and Stuart are writing separately to thank you for their Christmas presents. Lewis was very pleased with his book. He can't read yet but he sits down with it and either makes up his own story on the basis of the pictures or repeats in his own words whatever he can remember of stories that have been read to him.
7th February 1974
Yesterday was a public holiday here - Waitangi Day, now for the first time New Zealand Day, commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. After breakfast we all went off to Waitangi in the Bay of Islands (about 150 miles north) along with thousands of others to see or hear the celebrations. We sat up on the treaty house grounds and watched Britannia come up into the harbour past Russell. A large Maori war canoe, paddled by 80 or so warriors, went out from Waitangi to the side of Britannia and then escorted the Queen's launch back to the wharf. Then there was a pageant and a concert and speeches from the Queen and Mr Kirk*. Unfortunately, although we could hear, we couldn't see very much since there was a very big crowd and very little organisation - one of those occasions where you see more if you stay home and watch it on the tele! Nevertheless it was fun to be there and the children, Sacha and Stuart, got a glimpse of all the Royals. Lewis wasn't very interested, got tired, didn't like the guns that kept popping off from the New Zealand frigates, but thought the Rolls Royce car was smashing.
Holidays are over now and the children back at school... Both Stuart and Sacha have learned to swim as a result of their ten lessons in the school swimming pool. Stuart swims really well and can do a width without trouble either on his front or back. Sacha gets along but very frantically and has to stand up and take a breath at regular intervals. We are very pleased that they have made such quick progress as there is so much you can do here once you have confidence in the water. Even Lewis is ducking his head under to see what it is like and trying out a little surfing when we go to the beach. He's so brown that Sacha says he looks like a Maori!
Our two little peach trees have produced one large peach between them so we will probably pick it this weekend and have 1/5th each! Our citrus trees, in spite of the very hot weather, have lots of little lemons and oranges coming along so we should be well provided for the winter with fresh fruit.
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* Norman Kirk, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1972 to his sudden death, aged 51, in August 1974.
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