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