106. Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand (8), Summer 1982-83: Horse Riding in Eketahuna and a Milford Track Washout

42 Point View Drive, R.D.1 Papatoetoe, 21st November 1982
    Dear Mum and Dad,
    ...Sacha (aged 15) has been in the wars lately. Two Saturdays ago she went for a ride on Fritz, one of Jo Macleod's horses, out at Coatesville - I think she wrote to tell you how excited she was at the possibility of having an opportunity to ride on a regular basis. Unfortunately Fritz was a bit more than she could handle and took off. Sacha tried to slide off but got kicked on the nose as she did so. Jo was there and got her to the North Shore Accident and Emergency Dept. From there they transferred her to Middlemore Hospital, which is between Otahuhu and Papatoetoe, and I met her there at the A & E when the ambulance arrived from the North Shore. She had broken her nose and cut it badly. They operated to re-set the nose and stitched her up - about a dozen stitches and then kept her in until the Monday morning. She came and stayed here for the rest of the week. On Thursday of that week she had some of the stitches out and Thursday this week the rest of the stitches and the plaster removed. They have made a lovely job on the cuts and that won't show in a month or two but she still has a bump at the tip of her nose and may want to have it re-set when she has finished growing. She is a bit self-conscious about it but I think it really looks OK and she may forget all about it in a few months. In the meantime it is very tender and has interrupted her revision for the School Certificate exams which started last Wednesday for her and Stuart. If Sacha doesn't do well she will probably be able to get an aegrotat because of her accident.

18th December 1982
    Dear Mum and Dad,
    I don't know if this will reach you in time  to wish you a Happy Christmas. I will try and ring you anyway on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but won't count on getting through as the available lines are always pretty packed at this time of year.
    Sacha and Lewis (aged 13) are here making paper chains and decorating the living room. Stuart (16) is still at Rothesay Bay (his Mum Pat's house) and will take Pat to the airport next Wednesday when she goes off for her holiday in China. Then he will come here for Christmas. Kim is coming to Christmas lunch too - she was very pleased to receive your card. Last Monday was her 30th birthday (Dec 13th) so we went out to dinner and saw the film 'E.T' which I think you would probably enjoy.
    We will be walking the Milford Track from 11th-15th January and will probably leave Auckland around New Year's Day. Sacha's farm holiday is at Eketahuna from 6th to 20th January - she hasn't been the least put off horses by her accident so everyone is getting excited at the prospects of their holiday. I have bought some tramping boots and am trying to break them in without getting too many blisters. I also bought a tent so that, along with Stuart's, we will be able to camp when we are away. Heather and Tony (neighbours) have gone away this week so we are looking after the chickens and the cats for them and have a free offer of the use of their spa pool which will be handy if it keeps on as hot as it is at present.
    Lots of love from us all,
    John, Sacha and Lewis xxx

27th December 1982
   Dear Grandma and Grandad,
   Thank you very much for the 5 pounds you sent for Christmas. It paid for the last of my presents and also there was enough left to buy myself a new pair of summer jandals. At the moment we are staying with Dad and we're not doing much so Lewis and I decided to write letters. Yesterday we went to the races at Ellerslie which was really good fun. I took 12 dollars and came back with 6. Kim lost about $4, Stuart about $2 and dad only lost a couple of dollars as well. Kim has been staying with us for 4 days and she's so funny. She's so clumsy and is always knocking things over or breaking things. I'm really exaggerating but she's good fun anyway.
   We all had a lovely Christmas and got some fantastic presents. I got a beautiful greenstone heart on a silver chain from dad and a poodle ornament on a velvet stand, Lewis gave me a poster of a dog and cat and a jewellry box he made at Woodwork filled with chocolates, from Stuart I got two erasable pens, from Kim I got a really nice cookbook and a mug with my name on it, from Mary's sister Anita we all got a bag and a big beach towel to match. Lewis and Stuart got schoolbags and I got a kind of small bag that can be used for everything. Our xmas dinner was beautiful as well and afterwards I felt so full I could hardly move.
   In 4 days we are heading for our holiday. I'm so excited about riding again. I may be a bit nervous in the beginning but I hope it won't be for too long.
   Tonight we are going to the Trotting at Alexandra Park. I've only got $6 left so I hope I win at least $4.50 so I can bet a $1 on each race. Tomorrow I am going to get my hair permed again. Last week I worked in Anita's salon and earned $50 so she said I could get my hair done free. I want a frizzy perm which will last for a couple of months at least.
   The weather has been beautiful today although it is quite windy. We all played tennis this morning - Dad won all his games against each of us. I beat Kim, Stuart, Lewis and I drew and Kim beat Stuart. Stuart never usually plays tennis so all in all he did some rather good shots. At the moment Kim's doing some washing. You see at lunch time she wanted Dad to pour her a glass of coke, not realizing her glass had some lime in it. She flicked it out towards dad and it went all over him. We just couldn't stop laughing, now she has to wash his clothes.
   Oh well I hope you had a wonderful christmas and have a happy new year also.
   Please write soon, we'll be home by then.
   Lots of love
   Sacha
   xx

   Dear Grandma and Grandad
   Thank you for the 5 pounds you sent us for christmas, by the way I hope you had a good Christmas I know I certainly did. . This year we were at Dad's for christmas day and woke him up early. From Sacha I got a game called Yahtzee, from Stuart I got a model plane kitset and some stamps. From dad I got 2 papermate pens and dads old stamp album with all his stamps in it. From Kim I got a mug with my name on it and a book and from Mary's sister Anita a school bag and a beach towel.
   We had lots of christmas goodies to eat, we had turkey, ham, cake and lots of other nice food. After our christmas dinner I felt that I would burst I was so full. On (monday 27th dec) yesterday dad took us to the horse racing at Ellerslie it was an all day thing I was losing money at first but at the end of the day I walked out 3 dollars richer than I had been. Tonight we are going to the trots at Alexandra Park I hope to win some more.
   I am getting more and more excited about going down to the South Island as it is only 5 days away. Today we saw a programme on T.V about the milford track which we are walking it said in some places it was -13 degrees. I'll have to take lots of warm clothes to keep me warm.
   I got a new tennis racket which improves my playing a lot. This morning we all played tennis for about 1hr and a 1/2.
   1983 I will be at college. It's called Rangitoto.
   Dads next door neighbours are away on holiday so we feed there cats and chickens. They let us use their spa pool we go in it on most nights in the dark.
   On rainy days we play lots of board games which dad nearly always wins. In NZ around xmas there has been lots of floods which we heard on the TV news alot. Also on the news we heard that the Milford Track had 244 milimetres of rain which is a quarter of its yearly rain I hope it doesn't rain that much when we are there I know we'll have a really good time there.
   Lots of love from Lewis.

27th January 1983
   Dear Mum and Dad,
   I am sitting in the kitchen on a gorgeous summer day - blue sky everywhere and hardly a breath of wind - the grass on the bank is about three feet high and there are red hot pokers and agapanthus poking up through it. It is hard to believe that it has been a very disappointing summer weatherwise. Indeed our South Island trip was a complete washout, almost. We went to Taupo at the New Year and stayed with David Loughlin and his family for four days - tremendous Maori style hospitality (David is Maori-Irish and his wife Dawn is Sri Lankan, brought up in Melbourne, Australia!) and fine weather so we went swimming in Lake Taupo and at Wairakei, played tennis, climbed up Mount Tauhara, Sacha went horse riding, and we generally enjoyed ourselves. Stuart and Lewis also went trout fishing on the lake and Lewis caught some trout - Stuart's got away.

On the top of Mount Tauhara, Taupo

Top three, Taupo; bottom left, road to Lake Tekapo; bottom right, Church of The Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

   Then on the Thursday we drove to Eketahuna and dropped Sacha off at the Evans' farm - Mrs Evans was the very image of the country farmer's wife - jolly and fat - and Sacha had a great two weeks there once she settled in. Stuart, Lewis and I spent a day in Wellington and then crossed on the Cook Strait ferry to Picton on the Saturday morning and drove down the Kaikoura coast (eating fresh crayfish on the way) to Christchurch the same day. The next day in lively hit weather we drove up through Geraldine to Lake Tekapo, Twizel, and on to Queenstown where we camped for the night. We spent most of Monday around Queenstown enjoying the many attractions - a jet-boat ride on the River Kawarau and a trip in the gondola up the mountain. In the evening we drove to Te Anau and camped there, attending the Milford Track briefing in the THC (Tourist Hotel Corporation) Hotel that evening. That night it poured with rain and our troubles began. When we arrived back at the hotel the next morning to check in to start our trek we were told that there was 18 feet of water over part of the track and no one could get in or out of the huts - the whole of the Fiordland National Park was closed, our walk was cancelled, with money refunded, and the road to Milford was shut by an avalanche. You can imagine our disappointment after all our months of planning and anticipation. We went back to Queenstown and stayed there the night and then on to Makaroa on Lake Wanaka - more rain stranded us there in the Motor Camp for 36 hours as the road was washed out both North and South of us. There were 750mm of rain in 4 days - that's about 15" and nearly the whole of Auckland's annual rainfall. Queenstown was flooded as Lake Whakatipu rose to its highest level since 1878! After last year in England I think I shall give holidays a miss for a while! We eventually got out up the West Coast (Hokitika/Greymouth) to Nelson where it was fine and warm and Lewis chipped a bone in his foot when he trod on a tennis ball! We were quite relieved to get home but determined that one day we will walk the Milford Track*.
   Lots of love,
   John and the children.

Top four, Queenstown; bottom two, storm over Fiordland (from Te Anau)

Haast River Bridge

Dear Grandma and Grandad,

   ...My nose is perfectly healed... My farm holiday was the best two weeks... really fantastic. I am saving up to go again next xmas. There were two horses for me to ride so I rode every day for a couple of hours...

Broken nose? What broken nose? Sacha, March 1984

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[* Regrettably this never happened for me but when my friend Anne-Marie visited in 2001 she walked the Milford Track and brought me back a piece of New Zealand Alpine schist from the top of the Mackinnon Pass - see my poem 'Gestures from the Heart', blog 76, 20th November 2013.] 

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Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand - Previous Blogs in Series:

1. Summer 1973/4 (blog 72, 13th November 2013)
2. Summer 1979/80 (blog 78, 27th November 2013)
3. Summer 1966/8 - includes Mt Erebus disaster (blog 80, 5th December 2013)
4. Christmas/New Year 1975/6, (blog 82, 17 December 2013)
5. Christmas/New Year 1977/8, (blog 85, 28th December 2013)
6. Christmas/New Year 1990/1, (blog 87, 8th January 2014) 
7. Winter 1987: Rugby World Cup, Tikiteri, Fairy Springs (blog 97, 31st March 2014

105. Mementos of a Lost Love: The Archaeology of a Box (13)

Mary Elizabeth Deeks (nee Pohlen), 20th May 1939 - 19th February 1982

Next strata in the archaeology of my box is the Mary strata. This inevitably brings powerful memories into play but I don't intend to write more on the subject of my life with Mary. After her death in 1982, I wrote nothing substantial about her for over twenty years until the two years after I retired in 2002. After that virtually nothing further. Some of the material from my 2002-2004 writing has been included elsewhere in my blogs. In this blog I present, with a minimum of comment, the boxed mementos I have kept from our time together.

Items
1.  Two tarnished goblets:

2.  A jewelry bag containing a jewel box, a whistle, my graduation napkin ring, a lovers' knot ring, four other rings, a silver bangle, a tie pin in the shape of a cricket bat plus miscellaneous cuff-links, a chain with a gold pendant, a pendant with a revolving disc, a silver kiwi for a charm bracelet, a silver shell on a pendant, two frog rings, a card and sunshine pendant, and a coin.

The lovers' knot and the two of cups feature in the poem 'When the Shadow Calls' ;

                  Remember a tender rib-eye fillet 

                  Bathed in candlelight
                  And Chateauneuf-du-Pape
                  With the lovers' knot

                  In the two of cups. 

3.  A souvenir of the Moulin Rouge plus audio tapes from our 1981-82 trip to the USA and Europe.

Extracts from these tapes figure prominently in three blogs: 19, In London, in Love, 27 December 2011; 38, "Here comes the Can-Can - Oh, shit the tape's running out", 7 March 2012; and 33, A Wedding in Luxembourg", 19 February 2014.

4.  My picture cut from a souvenir tea towel purchased in Hollywood. It had both Mary and my portrait on it plus a calendar for 1982. I don't know why I discarded (or lost) the Mary picture that was next to mine.

5.  Two goblets in a box from our wedding in 1982.

[For more on Mary, see blogs 31, Trips to National Women's Hospital, Piha and Auckland's West Coast, 6 February 2012; and 37, One Wedding, Two Funerals, Three Letters, 2 March 2012.]

104. Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart (5): Englishness Plays Abroad - Harold Pinter and John Mortimer in Lagos, Edward Lear in Auckland

The Dong with  a Luminous Nose - Richard Svensson

[Previous blogs in this series 'Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart' were: (1) blog 75, November 2013, Dead Ducklings, War Canoes, Steel Works and a Leper Settlement; (2) blog 92, February 2014, Tiddlywinks, Happy Families and Christmas "Down the Creeks"; (3) blog 95, March 2014, Vera Lynn, the Rolling Stones and Scrapping for Petrol and Water in Nigeria; (4) blog 98, April 2014, Brotherly Love.] 

Lagos, March 4th 1973
   Dear Ma and Daddy,
   I am now on my half term weekend in Lagos - visiting Ethel at the Marina(Church Missionary Society Guest House)and also Shola in Ikeja. I came down here on Friday, travelling via Ibadan. It was a long days driving - and hot and dirty as well - the situation not being improved by our having a puncture before Ibadan and then meeting difficulty in getting the new tyre that I bought fitted onto the wheels. I was glad that I had taken the precaution of bringing 2 students with me because they helped in all these events.
   So we reached Shola's place about 6pm - and I had a bath in a whole bath of water! Gorgeous after our long experience without any running water in Akure. In the evening Shola and I went out to the University to watch 2 short plays done by 2 English actors who are on tour in Nigeria. It was very cleverly done and well acted. The first play was called 'The Dumb Waiter' and the second 'Dock Brief'. We got home about 11pm - and I had rather a hot night - but didn't sleep too badly. Then on Saturday we set out to go to the airport to say goodbye to Mr. Awokoya of St Andrew's fame - an uncle of Shola's - but we were turned back for security reasons... Gowon* was arriving from a state visit to Mali. So we went to Kingsway and played with her dear fat twin girls. Then in the afternoon I came here to the Marina and had supper with Ethel and 2 Professors one from Ife and one from Ibadan Universities. One is from Troon and the wife of the other from Edinburgh. After supper Shola and Funsho came and took me to the Federal Palace Hotel where we had chicken sandwiches and Fanta Ginger Ale. There was a band playing and the place absolutely full of people - very pleasant atmosphere. So its been a very happy visit in Lagos.

[*General Gowan was Nigerian Head of State from 1966 to 1975]




Vining Centre, Akure, March 10th 1973
   Dear Ma and Daddy,
   It was a bit sickening to get back to Akure last Monday to hear that Jane Pelly phoned her parents last Sunday from Akure! and that she heard perfectly well what they were saying. So I was very disappointed. I think it is better to stick to letters, but I don't know if its your strikes or what but the letters are coming very erratically.
  It has been a full week here, occupied a great deal with collecting water. The van goes daily or twice a day to the nearest tap which is sometimes 8 miles away, sometimes that is dry and you have to go nearly 20 miles and then queue up for your turn. We have a muddy pond on our ground which we use for washing - but we get the tap water for drinking and cooking. We want to avoid cholera at all costs!
  On Friday at last I played tennis. Event. I discovered that Terry who is a radio expert with G.E.C wanted to play so we went to the courts and joined some Nigerian men who play there regularly. They were rather better than us, but still it was fun. Except that I now have blisters on my toes.
  On Thursday afternoon we had the great drama of a small piece of the bush behind my house catching fire and with a high dry wind it was a bit dangerous - so we called the fire engine. This took time because, of all stupid things, they are not on the phone... so by the time they came there was nothing much to do - our students had already cleared a stretch of ground and stopped the fire moving near to the houses. But notwithstanding the firemen had to show their paces so with helmets on their heads, boots on their feet and long hose pipes they proceeded to pour water on the trees and bushes that were smouldering or still flaming. It would have been more useful to have poured the water from their tanker into our buckets.
  On Friday evening Bola came and stayed the night. He has had a lot of trouble with fires in his forestry areas. Some people have lost complete cocoa plantations, which is serious because it is their livelihood and it takes 4 years for the cocoa to produce again.
  I got your second parcel last week - I don't think I told you in my letter from Lagos. So that's good - except that the Nigerian customs are real 'crooks' and get their pound of flesh. The most incredible thing to me - and rather a joke really was that the Tupperware containers which I bought in a Jumble Sale for 6d - I had to pay 63 kobo to claim them!! (That's 6/3d) Anyway I was very happy to have these things and have been listening to the records. Unfortunately the 'Godspell' is a bit warped - but you can hear most of it. The G.E.C fellows liked the 'Light' song ... which was something. One of them, Jim is incredibly 'anti' - anti-religion, anti-Akure, anti-Nigerian and very bitter - he never stops talking and gets quite narked if someone else holds the floor. He is divorced from his wife.
  It's time I went to bed. It's hot - so I have the fan going in the bedroom at night these days.
  With lots of love to you both,
  Elizabeth






Sunnybrae Road, 24th May 1973
   Earlier this week it was quite cold and we had the electric fires on. There have been frequent squally showers that blow over very rapidly and are interspersed with sunny periods and lots of rainbows - hardly a day goes by without a rainbow at this time of year it seems. Today it has been warmer and drier and this evening there was the most lovely sunset - starting out a pale orange and then going salmon, pink, red, purple and finally a golden brown colour. Our living room windows face North so we frequently sit down after tea and watch the sun go down... The quality of the light here is very different from Carpenders Park, very like the light in Italy.
   Hope you have had a chance to recover from your ear infection and are looking forward to going to Wales. Stuart had the flu last week and was poorly for two or three days and then at the weekend Sacha caught her finger in a door and has lost half the nail which was very painful for her. She has been on and off school this week but is much better today. They all enjoyed The Owl and the Pussycat at the Mercury Theatre and Lewis keeps recounting all the people he saw - Owl, Pussycat, Quangle Wangle (who lived in a hat), Turkey, Pig, The Dong with a Luminous Nose and The Plum-Pudding Flea (who was the baddy) - how's your Edward Lear? We got two books of his poems from the Public Library and read the stories to them.
   We had a friend here the other evening who was from Morrinsville where Mrs thingy's son was teaching (the one who moved to Whangarei). Seems Morrinsville is such a dump that the only people they can get to teach there are British teachers who for their first two years in N.Z. are under contract to the N.Z. Education Dept and have to go where they are told! [Sharon tells me this arrangement applied to all new teachers in NZ at that time.]


24th June 1973
   Dear Mum and Dad,
   Thank you for your letter of June 12th and for the birthday card and tie. And, rather belatedly, happy anniversary to you both for the 26th. Please thank Ruth for the card too when next you see her and congratulate Stuart on his good result in the B.Mus exams. This letter should reach you just before Elizabeth arrives so give her all our love. We read a bit about General Gowon's visit to London but there was not much about it in the papers here - mostly about the richness of Nigeria's oil reserves.
   Stuart's flu turned out to be the mumps which Lewis and Sacha both subsequently caught. Sacha looked the most swollen and was very woebegone with her bad finger as well. They have all recovered now and yesterday we celebrated my birthday by going to the circus. This was on locally on the green by the Northcote shopping centre, about 1 and a 1/2 miles from us. It was like all travelling circuses - the traditional big top, a few lions, lots of Shetland ponies and dogs and a small troupe of people who changed from clowns to trick-cyclists to big game hunters and high wire bicyclists etc. The children loved it but it was the unexpected things that they will remember most. The final act, for example, was one in which a female elephant walked round the ring and carefully avoided treading on a row of people lying on the ground, the number of people being increased by one each time. When it had reached four the elephant came towards them very cautiously and was just about to step over them when it decided the calls of nature were more important! - a veritable waterfall and four men desperately scrambling to avoid being drowned in it. As you might imagine it brought the house down!
   We have been following the test matches with interest and excitement. Everyone was very pleased with the second innings effort of 440 in the first test which it was a pity NZ lost. Now at Lords as I write NZ are 492-6 at the end of the third day after dismissing England for 253 in the first innings so have a good chance of beating England for the first time ever. We usually hear a little bit of the commentary between 10.30 and 11.00 in the evening which is the first hour of the day's play, and then we hear a summary with the early morning news.
   Mid-winter day was two days ago which seems unbelievable. It is raining today but the last ten days or so have been really beautiful - cold in the evenings and early morning and then crisp and clear all day, and very blue. We need  the heaters on until about 9.30am and then again in the evening - it gets dark about 5pm. But in the middle of the day it is still warm enough to sit outside in one's shirtsleeves provided one is out of the wind. Last weekend we finished planting fruit trees by adding some apple trees and plum trees to our collection. All we want now is a fig tree. We also planted a jacaranda tree, which is supposed to have lovely mauve blossom in spring, and some rhododendrons. Of course they are all tiny plants at the moment so won't give much of a show for a few years yet.
    

You would never guess I used to win handwriting prizes at school!