The scale of the thing

[Robbie 2]

Where we stayed was near Te Hapua. Be aware that this was 1978 so it has probably changed a lot.
I only stayed there that one time, as my mate left for Aussie and you had to know who to pay to get access.
No boat ramp. I had intended to just walk the shoreline and fish the channels.
The old fella picked me up in his old 12 ft clinker dinghy that could be described as ancient.
Cracked and multi coloured paintwork, water in the bilge and an anchor rope that was best described as tattered.
The Seagull outboard he was using looked and sounded even more ancient....and
the smokescreen we trailed behind us was worthy of a WW2 Destroyer screen.
I was ever so glad that we headed up the harbour into shallow water rather then down into deep water.

[John B]

Thanks again Robbie , great insight.
A last pic from that road trip a couple of weeks ago. We stayed in Kaitaia, adventured out to Ahipara and then drove the Herikino gorge with sidetrips, caught the car ferry at Kohukohu to Rawene, that was easy but I wouldn't want a lower car, I'm sure the bumper scraped getting off it.
pic below is the Hokianga hbr heads and fisheye up the harbour. Being on the west coast and in our typical westerly flow.... Many a vessel lost on that bar and heads too.
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And on a completely different subject , maybe more applicable to the garden art thread again.
A couple of rafter finds yesterday. There I was just slipping out some T and G cedar I'm imagining might become a bookshelf back and what emerges from the shadows but
a. the 1900 Logan 50 ft sailing yacht deckbeam I intercepted from a trip to the dumpster a decade or so ago. I was regularly travelling out and photographing the restoration work and asked for it.
b. my kid surfboard from 1969 or 70.
Now That has brought a cascade of memories and experiences and faces to the fore , I can tell you that fer sure.

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My Surfie son in law to hopefully be tells me its a classic collectible...

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an interesting ScOTT feature is that this age of board did not have legropes.( I drilled that hole and araldited a tube in there much later.)
That fact, no boards having legropes, caused much angst at the beach I grew up at, in fact most surf beaches . There was great friction between surf lifesavers and surfers because of injuries caused to swimmers by escaped boards. It was pretty agro at the time with all sorts of outrage, surfers to be banned at many locations etc.
I was a surf lifesaving club brat so there was a conflict of interest there.

Within a few years of that , legropes were invented and adopted and the problem and issue mostly went away.
This board has a stringer! is really quite racy and hull shaped under, hardly any bow rocker and just one big fin. Not very bouyant ,even at 7 ft 2. It was hard to ride, hard to get started with that fine bow and not stable like the next generations.

[Robbie 2]

Thanks John for awaking so many memories of my youthful playgrounds.
The Hokianga Harbour is about 10 miles from the farm I grew up on.
Wekaweka valley, past Waimamaku before entering Waipoua forest.
Used to fish the Sth head of that harbour a lot.
The very strong tidal current in the harbour flows clockwise so we kids were warned to be very careful.
A kid got washed off Sth head and drowned in the early 80's and the search failed to find him.
Three weeks later his body washed up on a small beach just inside the Sth head.
Mangrove twigs showed that he had gone up harbour for a long way before coming back down.
A beautiful place but you do need to take care.

[Garret]

I'm loving this trip through your beautiful country & your eclectic past. One of these years I'm gonna go see for myself. Thing is, I keep saying it & not doing it. Gotta figure that out.

[John B]

Thanks John for awaking so many memories of my youthful playgrounds.
The Hokianga Harbour is about 10 miles from the farm I grew up on.
Wekaweka valley, past Waimamaku before entering Waipoua forest.
Used to fish the Sth head of that harbour a lot.
The very strong tidal current in the harbour flows clockwise so we kids were warned to be very careful.
A kid got washed off Sth head and drowned in the early 80's and the search failed to find him.
Three weeks later his body washed up on a small beach just inside the Sth head.
Mangrove twigs showed that he had gone up harbour for a long way before coming back down.
A beautiful place but you do need to take care.

Thats neat Robbie, I was just telling some friends about that road trip last night and commented I'd love to stay at the heads hotel and day trip down to Tane mahuta and drive about some of the side roads that way too.
Very interesting about the current!
Do you know anything about the island in the Hokianga, Motukaraka? Its basically opposite Rawene.

[RFNK]

Brookvale, Winbourne Rd in particular, was a Mecca for surfboard manufacturing back then. There were at least a dozen factories on that road and on adjoining streets. I think Gordon Woods went on to building other fibreglass things, boats for sure, but pools too, I think. I'll look it up

My first legrope was rubber with no rope through it. It was lethal as the board would shoot back like a slingshot. But whenever I really needed it, it would break, so it had several knots in it by the time I replaced it with a rope-cored rubber one. Rope cores had their downside too. If they didn't rip the plug out of the deck, they'd rip a trench into the rail of the board.

Poly legropes are excellent but you do have to watch one thing - in just the same way that poly adhesive on shoe soles fails from lack of use, so do legropes. So you pull a board out that's been sitting in a cupboard for a decade and find the legrope disintegrates in your hand. Which is really embarrassing when you're all kitted up on the beach and about to paddle out, on a beach on the South Coast, at least 20km from anywhere that sells legropes.

[John B]

I'm loving this trip through your beautiful country & your eclectic past. One of these years I'm gonna go see for myself. Thing is, I keep saying it & not doing it. Gotta figure that out.

Itd be great to see you Garret. My boy has just got back from your neck of the woods , loved Vermont.

[John B]

Brookvale, Wimborne Rd in particular, was a Mecca for surfboard manufacturing back then. There were at least a dozen factories on that road and on adjoining streets. I think Gordon Woods went on to building other fibreglass things, boats for sure, but pools too, I think. I'll look it up

My first legrope was rubber with no rope through it. It was lethal as the board would shoot back like a slingshot. But whenever I really needed it, it would break, so it had several knots in it by the time I replaced it with a rope-cored rubber one. Rope cores had their downside too. If they didn't rip the plug out of the deck, they'd rip a trench into the rail of the board.

Poly legropes are excellent but you do have to watch one thing - in just the same way that poly adhesive on shoe soles fails from lack of use, so do legropes. So you pull a board out that's been sitting in a cupboard for a decade and find the legrope disintegrates in your hand. Which is really embarrassing when you're all kitted up on the beach and about to paddle out, on a beach on the South Coast, at least 20km from anywhere that sells legropes.

Thanks Rick, I never actually was a very good surfer and probably couldn't now, as a brat in the surf I did become a very good bodysurfer, like every kid on the beach. I know what you're saying about those modern materials degrading.

[John B]

Here's another little interesting side memory. Through the 60's at Muriwai and in fact all surf clubs in NZ then and prior, the methods of rescue were based around boats ( 4 men and sweep oar, canoes.. 4 men paddling) surf ski's( which were like plywood paddleboards now ,with foot straps) big volume dunger type boards, and line.
Line was the primary method where a team took a reel down ( 4 men carrying)and a swimmer towed the line on a harness out into the surf to rescue the person in trouble. Incredible swimmers and fitness needed to do that job. They may still use them in competition, not sure.
In the time I was there sometime in the 60's , perhaps late 60's, a team of lifesavers including some Muriwai guys made a trip to California and came back with the new invention , rescue tubes. That was a massive advance and happened as I as 8 or 10 yr old, watched.
Much much later and well after I was out of it came the next really big advance in surf rescue ,which was inflatable boats and outboard motors.

[RFNK]

They don't use reels for anything except marches these days, I think. Rescues are all done with rubber duckies, jet skis and rescue boards, as far as I know. Surf boats and rescue boards feature in competitions.

We never liked the "clubbies" (lifesavers) much when I was a kid. They'd stick the swim flags in front of the best peak on the beach so you'd have to go elsewhere to surf. Quite often, it'd start with a dozen surfers having to paddle off to another break while someone in a bathing cap would wade out into the whitewater between the xxxxx flags But lifesavers have saved a hell of a lot of lives on our beaches over the years (as have surfers, it should be said) so I admire them.

Did you know that Alan Payne designed surfboats?

[John B]

They don't use reels for anything except marches these days, I think. Rescues are all done with rubber duckies, jet skis and rescue boards, as far as I know. Surf boats and rescue boards feature in competitions.

We never liked the "clubbies" (lifesavers) much when I was a kid. They'd stick the swim flags in front of the best peak on the beach so you'd have to go elsewhere to surf. Quite often, it'd start with a dozen surfers having to paddle off to another break while someone in a bathing cap would wade out into the whitewater between the xxxxx flags But lifesavers have saved a hell of a lot of lives on our beaches over the years (as have surfers, it should be said) so I admire them.

Did you know that Alan Payne designed surfboats?

Alan Payne.. not specifically but there was a lot of development going on and much excitement when the new boats were built and arriving each year or two here. Cold moulded kauri IIRC. My father was involved with the canoes, which started life as lifeboat/ banana shaped double enders paddled by 4 men.
He'd been involved early on at North Beach in Christchurch. By the time I was around and at Muriwai just North of Auckland they were working on designs more like miniature surf boats and then the mini revolution with those ... they fitted kick up rudders for better control on waves. I know he had a hand in all of that and worked with the main guy building them here ..but who actually designed them I don't know. His Muriwai crew did win the nationals one year , which was big thing in our world.

Another snap of my old board, she's a thin skinny thing....
see that rocker?... no.. neither can I.
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For some reason the statement
' I'm going to hang it above the bedhead' is meeting some resistance.
I don't understand.
I think I'll put it up in the yot club.( mezzanine) . There's going to be trouble but it'll be worth it.

[Robbie 2]

Thats neat Robbie, I was just telling some friends about that road trip last night and commented I'd love to stay at the heads hotel and day trip down to Tane mahuta and drive about some of the side roads that way too.
Very interesting about the current!
Do you know anything about the island in the Hokianga, Motukaraka? Its basically opposite Rawene.

Sorry John, can't help with Motukaraka Island. We kept mostly around Opononi, Omapere, Sth Head or fished on Waimamaku Beach which is south of the harbour.
If you do go and look around more, Wekaweka valley/road is a left turn before starting the climb on State Highway12 into Waipoua forest.
Our old farm is everything right of the 3rd bridge up Wekaweka Rd for a mile or so. We owned right up to and included some of the forest you see on the high hills that form part of Waipoua Forest Park. Beef, Sheep and 50 or so Dairy cows selling the Cream

[John B]

Thanks again Robbie ,I had a quick look around on GEarth. Not sure when we'll get to it but its on the list.
Make sure you get in contact if you come up this way.
Motukaraka is interesting, a lot of history there. A friend of mine bought it a few years ago when it came on the market and is busy eradicating pests and pest trees, replanting and establishing some camping type facilities. His family has roots in the Hokianga . I just asked in case you had some other knowledge or background on the place.

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[Mike1902]

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Is it me or does that island look like the space shuttle??

You should live there John, looks as though it only rains in that one corner.

[John B]

space shuttle eh, I'm going to use that. Excellent.
I haven't been there yet, it takes some organisation and well.....

[John B]

We have the or one of the largest flying fish species here in NZ, up to about 400 mm long I think. We don't see them often but certainly have seen plenty over the years. Kirsty famously( in our family) was hit in the back by one, turned around all fired up looking to see 'who' had hit her. I had a photo on here of it many years ago.
We'd see sheets of the things in Tonga and fiji or on passage to and from, but theyre tiny little things by comparison, 100.. 150 mm or so.

looking for something else I just came across the very animal that hit K in the back...
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