RETURN TO INNOCENCE

 

The Lotto ad currently screening on TV has evocative music in the background. It's 'Return to Innocence' by Enigma. I like it.

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Returning to Wellington is and is going to be interesting. There is so much that is still familiar to me in this city and so many memories jump out at me.

This Cuba Street apartment we are living in overlooks Wellington city to the north, east and west. Looking north there is a big and very ugly building that spans Taranaki Street to Egmont Street (it is right next to the old apartment building in Egmont Street we rented in 2020). It is mainly student and cheap housing. It is sited on the old Hope Gibbons building site where, on 29th July 1952 a major fire destroyed most of the building and millions of government papers that were stored there. This prompted the government to later create the National Archives. 

In the early 1950s my parents lived in a small wooden, 3 story 'apartment building' in Taranaki Street right next to the Hope Gibbons building. They had to be evacuated during the fire but returned later. They lived there through the time of my birth (St Helen's hospital in Newtown) while my father was building the family house in Vogeltown which we moved into when I was about 1 year old.

Peter:"Is this it?"
Terry: "Dunno. I can't see under this hat."
Sharyn: "Dumb boys!"

After 17 years in Vogeltown my parents moved back to Taranaki Street to an apartment at the top of a building that housed the administrative offices of the Wellington Catholic Diocese. Dad took over from a family friend as caretaker of the building and a 4 bedroom apartment (we called them flats back in the day)  came with the position. He continued working his plastering business as well.

It's funny to think that we could end up buying or renting an apartment in Taranaki Street - stranger things have happened serendipity wise.