Holidays
My Father believed that a man should be able to have a holiday with his family, so when Alexa was still small enough to sleep in a dress basket we set off with Jock in the gig for a friend’s cottage at Raglan. For the journey the baby slept in her Mother’s arms and the basket contained all the clothes necessary for the three little girls so it was with great consternation they found, on arrival there, that it was missing. Fortunately Daddy did not have to go back too far before he found it intact on the middle of the road. The cottage was in the middle of a fenced paddock, but Jock not being used to being on his own and away from home, spent the night plodding around the paddock and testing the wire to see if it would let him through. Fortunately by the next night he had resigned himself to having to stay there, but when it came time to go home he was more than willing. At school I had been reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and regaled my sister with the wolf huffing and puffing to blow the house down until we were both rather afraid that would happen.
A wartime friend of Uncle Sam’s had a farm on Peart’s Point, Okete, a part of Raglan Harbour, and he took his family there for several years. We also went there sometimes. It was a very peaceful, though isolated place and we usually had it to ourselves, but enjoyed the water and the bush. We were able to get milk at the cow shed.
Early in 1924 Daddy bought the Chev, which gave us years of service and enjoyment. It didn’t take Daddy long to find out what made it ‘tick’, though sometimes on a cold morning it didn’t want to start and a horse had to be persuaded to help it oblige.
In 1926 we set off for Wellington. We stopped several times on the way,stopping the first night at Te Kuiti. We stayed two days where my Grandma now lived at Wanganui, and then on to Wellington, or rather Petone where we stayed with Uncle Charlie and Aunty Maggie. They took us to the zoo there and we were thrilled to walk along the paths holding the flipper of a King penguin. Daddy’s sister, who lived in Lower Hutt, had seven girls and some about our ages, so we enjoyed getting to know them and had a great time together. All too soon we had to set out for home. No doubt Daddy was relieved and happy to be home again and to know that even though the roads were not sealed and were very rough in places the car had performed well and apart from a puncture or two, had not had any trouble. Daddy had fitted a board to the running board and in it we put the tins of petrol, oil and water as well as potatoes for the families down there. He had also made a box that could be fitted on the back, as the early cars didn’t come with a boot. We were well loaded up but each year we explored some other part of New Zealand.
On my 10th birthday we had camped at Puru and that day went on to Mercury Bay where we camped on a farm. We were able to get milk from the farmer. He also had a boat and took us out fishing. My poor Father was no sailor and was sick most of the day, but even so we caught a lot of fish, even some sea snakes which tangled our lines until we managed to cut them off and back into the sea. When we got back the farmer loaned us his smoker and showed Daddy how to smoke them. We did enjoy those fish and that holiday. Another year in that area we spent at Papa Aroha and one day travelled up to Colville. That year our holiday was later in January and we found lots of huge blackberry bushes and lovely big blackberries so we rang Uncle Sam to say we would stay an extra day and pick blackberries. We went home with two kerosene tins full and were able to share them and to make jams and jellies and preserve some for use at a later date.
One Christmas we spent with Little Grandma’ in Wanganui and had a goose for dinner. We visited Uncle Dolph and Aunty Dolly and cousins there and enjoyed the sea at Castlecliff and Kai Iwi and then on New Year’s Day went on a paddle steamer up the Wanganui River to Hipana Park, where a baby deer greeted us.
Another year we went to Waipu. Camping there we were near some cows that had cattle ticks – nasty things – we were glad our cows didn’t have them. Then we went on to the Waipoua Forest and the huge Kauri trees – growing this time – a great sight. Another year, Rawene, Opononi, and the very North of the island. We went on the bus from Kaikohe, up Ninety Mile Beach and visited the lighthouse and Spirits Bay. We even got a few toheroas, but they didn’t appeal at all – the only seafood we didn’t appreciate, except the ones with cat’s eyes.
In 1930 we went to Napier, travelling from Taupo across to Hawkes Bay. Oh how dry the hills were and the sheep had only Scotch thistles to cast any shade at all for them. The shortage of trees was most noticeable, except, of course in the Wairoa valley. When, on the way home, we came to one of the hills we had to get out and push the car up it. The rain the night before had made so many rivulets across the road that the car just couldn’t manage it. Fortunately it was not raining then.
In 1931 we did not have a holiday but spent the time making a swimming pond. When Daddy suggested it, his idea was greeted with much enthusiasm. With Duke pulling the scoop and spades and shovels to help, the hole (33 feet by 10 feet wide, six feet deep at one end, sloping to a three foot wide piece, eight inches deep at the other end) was soon dug and concreted and three weeks later the water was running in to fill it. Not only was this a swimming pool – and how it was enjoyed by us and many neighbours, children and adults - but it was a reservoir for the cows as pipes were laid from it to many of the troughs, and as the pump drew the water from a deep well, the cows would not be short of water even if the rain did not fall or the wind did not blow.