HE WAAHI e MAUMAHARA ANA*

 * A place of memories

I rode a bus to Island Bay today, tootled about the beach area and walked back home. It was a reasonably long walk but it's part of my plan for doing things in Wellington - taking a bus to the end of the line and walking back. I'll do this with Karori, Seatoun, Miramar, Brooklyn and some other city suburbs. I used to do this in Toronto - taking the Metro train to the end of the line in various directions and walking back to the centre of town. The distances there were greater but hey, I was seven years younger, didn't have a dodgy knee and hadn't had a stroke yet.

The beach area at Island Bay has hardly changed since I was a kid. Tapu te Ranga (Rat Island) looks the same and hasn't had a casino built on it yet. There's a small reserve and playground there now but the bay looks the same, with the same houses lining it, and the Italian fishing boats still bob on the water. I remember on Sundays Dad would drive us around the bays and we'd stop and buy fresh fish off the boat from the fishermen. This was a treat, as was buying fresh bread hot out of the oven at Denhard's or Tip Top bakery in Newtown. In those days (1960s) all shops would be closed on the weekend so this was special.

I walked past the little shops on The Parade and had a coffee and a scone at Betty's cafe. I used to stop there when driving the Murray Robert's delivery truck to buy some outstanding chocolate fudge slices. The place has changed (a little bit - not much) and obviously has new owners - it was nearly 50 years ago after all. The chocolate fudge slices are no longer on offer but the cheese scone was pretty darned good.

I looked for the old wine shop that Alan Layton from Murray Roberts owned before he got into financial troubles and Murray Roberts/Wrightsons traded it out of trouble. We took turns at MR to run the shop during the week. This was diabolical as trade was slow (a couple of customers a day) and the offerings were crap. In those days (late 1970s) wine shops were only allowed to sell New Zealand wines and sherries and only at retail prices. They could not sell imported wines, spirits, liqueurs or beer. This was a licensing industry (run by cartel groups) rort to protect their interests in their ownership of wine and spirit merchant wholesalers and hotel bottle stores. This all changed in the mid 1980s. I found the shop but it, like a few others was empty. This is a shame as, in Island Bay, there aren't any large format retailers so  'village-like' shopping is a possibility. Maybe some people have tried it and it didn't work.

I called in to Berhampore golf course where I used to play after school and on Saturday mornings. A lot has changed but a few of the fairways and greens were just the same. I couldn't resit it but had a quick look in some gorse bushes by the first hole and found six good golf balls and a 'golfing' frisbee. I'll have to hide these from The Old Girl.

Continuing on I walked up Adelaide Road where the Athletic Park rugby ground and the Millard Stand used to be. It's all housing and retirement homes now. Passing Lower Macalister Park I spied the changing shed. These were exactly the same as when I used them as a nipper when my older sister, brother and I trained in athletics at the park. 

It also has a memory for me as the place of my first beer drinking in 1970 when I was in the seventh form at St Patrick's College. Wayne Chelman, Ray Christensen and I bought a little 6-pack of lager - it was that horrible Steinlager Blue) and sat on the step outside the building drinking it. It tasted like crap and I remember it making me feel ill later. After this we 'blatted' off down Adelaide Road for some reason. Chelman had just bought an Austin A30 circa mid 1950s (I had earlier bought a 1948 Austin 8 which certainly didn't 'blat'). He drove Christensen and I and, at the intersection of Adelaide Road and John Street accelerated when the lights turned red. We yelled at the silly bastard to stop which he did .......... after running the red light and being pulled over by a police car. 

Just along Adelaide Road, Christensen and I sat in the car while Chelman was being interviewed, and admonished by the police officer. We were sure he was for it and didn't know what the rules were for us having consumed all of two bottles of beer (illegally as we were underage). The policeman told Chelman he would be getting a ticket for running the red light but didn't mention his beery breath. In those days the Traffic Department and the Police were separate entities and, it seems, didn't get on well with each other. In retrospect it might have been a good thing if Wayne had been reprimanded as he had some issue with alcohol later.

Walking further along Adelaide Road I passed the former location of Murray Roberts where Richard, Robert and I worked on Saturdays and in our university holidays. It's no longer a wine and spirit merchant having been given over to a lot of different commercial operations since. The structure of the building is the same however and I smiled when thinking of the boss Bruce Campbell sweeping the carpark early in the morning (to make us workers feel guilty) and the end of the building where the beer bottle empties would be stored and the delivery trucks loaded. All good.

I walked around the Basin Reserve and past the location of the old school (St Patrick's College) and back to the temporary home (the base camp) in Egmont Street. It was only about 8 kilometers but my knee was sore and, on arriving home I had a long soak in a bath with Epsom Salts.

A good day that Robert would say, as per his comment on my previous post - 

"Glad you enjoyed our wonderful city. The phrase coals to Newcastle pops into my head!"

This doesn't really surprise me though as I've always thought that he has rocks in his head.