Party to kick off filming
By RICHARD WOODD - Taranaki Daily News
There's so little public activity you'd hardly know a full-length feature film was being made in South Taranaki, but that's all about to change.
The South Taranaki District Council is laying on a welcome party next Friday for the 50-odd cast and crew of Midnight Productions, who are involved in the making of Predicament.
Invited guests will get a chance to meet the star (as yet unnamed but almost certainly Jemaine Clement, one half of the Flight of the Conchords), the director and screenplay writer Jason Stutter and producer Sue Rogers.
A new clue to the star's identity is the latest reprint of Ronald Hugh Morrieson's novel by Dunmore Publishing, which has a black-haired, black horn-rimmed spectacled chap on the cover that strongly suggests Clement in the lead role of Cedric Williamson.
Company publicist Sue May says everything is going according to schedule with filming starting in mid-July and running through to August, at unidentified locations through the district. However, they are urgently looking for more crew accommodation.
"We need good quality furnished houses in Hawera that are available to rent. This is because although the motels are very helpful, and we are using them, we seem to have booked out the whole town and we have more people still to accommodate," she says.
Anyone able to help should contact Gerald Langford, communications manager at the STDC.
Set building is in full swing in the old Warehouse building right in the centre of Hawera, but the windows have been covered over.
One thing that is known is the director has asked Taranaki Newspapers to print a 200-copy run of a special newspaper, called The Harperton Herald, so obviously something in the movie is going to make headlines.
The big unknown is: Whose house will be used to represent the Williamson family home?
Wednesday, July 1
Saturday, May 2
Memories shared
More than 60 years since the world's biggest conflict put millions of men and women in uniform, the clubs and associations they formed after the war struggle to survive. The Taranaki branch of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association might be one of those which doesn't.
Open to any ex-RNZAF, Commonwealth or Allied air forces members, the branch suffers from being isolated from former air bases and major airfields where former pilots and flight crew naturally settle.
Although counting more than 30 members on their books, many are in rest homes or hospitals, too frail or sick to participate in association activities.
In the past three months alone seven members have died.
Whether the Taranaki branch will continue in its current form was the subject of a special meeting held last week.
Seven members attended, bringing with them walking sticks, glasses, hearing aids and faces lined with memories.
Matt Rilkoff talked to three of them about their lives.
Samuel West
On Friday evenings Sam West meets with his regular group of ex-servicemen at the RSA for a beer or two before dinner.
The former Royal New Zealand Air Force flight sergeant chuckles about solving the world's problems that way, a common joke among men with time to fill and beer to drink.
Gentle and intelligently spoken, the Hawera-born man sits comfortably in his overstuffed armchair, his ankle a stripe of white between slippered feet and dark trousers.
As president of the Taranaki branch of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association, much of the responsibility for finding a solution to the membership problem falls to him.
He is quietly pragmatic about the issue, which for many provokes sadness and dismay at a period of time falling from the nation's living memory.
"Its inevitable that we will amalgamate with another association. Whether that is this year or next, I'm not sure. But it's our only option. As these things operate now, even the RSA will have trouble in time."
Mr West left the Air Force in 1975, having joined as a 16-year- old aircraft apprentice in 1951.
His first posting was to England where citizens still carried ration cards and bomb craters dotted the cities. He met his wife Doris there, and made lifelong friends.
His time in England was as close as he came to the world war, to the type of aggression he was trained to mete out and defend against. For a long time, association members like Mr West, those who were not veterans of World War II, were a minority. Now they are the only hope for its survival.
Without young ex-RNZAF members the association will continue its decline.
"Oh, it's changed all right. We used to make trips, overnight trips or longer. We used to have dances and everyone would stay out late at night. Now our members prefer lunch and we don't get many along to that either. So many are in rest homes or in hospital. Most people accept that is the way these sort of clubs go," he said.
The problem for the Taranaki branch is geographical. Pilots and ground crew tend to live in bigger cities where larger airports and services offer employment. Mr West himself lived in Auckland when he worked for Air New Zealand after leaving the air force. He moved to Bell Block only when he retired.
The presidency came Mr West's way because of his age. At 74 he's younger than the people he has been charged with organising for the past few years. Sometimes he wishes he had those years the other members own.
"If I had been five or 10 years older I would have been living in a better period than today. Life was more settled, people were more communicative. They knew what was wrong, what was right."
dummy word
William Edhouse
Freshly demobilised WWII veteran Bill Edhouse slept through his train stop, arrived in New Plymouth and decided to stay.
It's a polished story, worn smooth by telling and one of many age and experience have equipped him with.
There is the tale of bunking school at Ohakune to peer at planes from the bushes, of Kingsford Smith and the barnstormers, of white coated "spies" at a wartime plywood factory and the Chinese family that helped his own survive the Great Depression.
They are a spiderweb of history and now and then there is a strand about the Pacific, a place he first knew as a venue for war against the Japanese.
It was there he served as a gunner, radio operator and almost any other job required except flying the PV1 Ventura bombers of his squadron.
His face, unlined and smiling, peaks out from history books he owns.
In these photos he is a young man meeting the governor general with the rest of his aircrew on an island airfield captured from the Japanese.
Pointing to the insignia on the bomber's wings he has another story to tell.
"You can see our roundels don't have the white lines on them yet. At that time the Yanks were shooting at anything that looked like a red circle, like the Japanese. They were trigger happy. They shot at anything that moved."
He should know. At one time his plane very nearly came under attack from two American P-38 Mustang fighters planes who mistook it for a Japanese bomber.
"They came in so fast. They were there and then they were gone and they must have been going at a rate because for an instant I could see the vapour trails coming off their wingtips. You get those at higher altitudes but when they came at us we were low so they must have been just thundering."
From time to time he makes promises to get back to the topic he agreed to talk about - the Airforce Association - but there are memories and distractions everywhere.
"When I applied for the air force I got a telegram telling me to report to Te Kuiti at oh-nine- fifteen. I asked my father "what's this oh-nine-fifteen". We didn't know about any 24 hour clock," he laughs.
Then he laughs again recalling his father's advice. "Ask the post office, they'll know."
The next telegram confused them just the same, telling the 18-year-old to report to Ohakea "forthwith" a word, like the time before, he had never heard.
He asked his father what would happen if he went "without".
"Ask the post office," he said. "Ask the post office."
There is no doubt his children have heard the story, his grandchildren too. Like the one about his arrival in New Plymouth, it has the good humour and timing of a well practised skit. Though his squadron did not lose a man in the theatre of war, they did not escape unscathed.
During training one of their pilots lost control of the Tiger Moth he was flying, slammed into the side of a shop and was killed.
"We all got airborne straight away. It was what we did. It was the way to make sure nobody lost their nerve."
He pauses, takes a bite of his cracker.
"These are all just memories coming out. You work them in to make them fit."
dummy word
Lorna Sarten
Before her own war, a young Lorna Sarten knew Anzac Day simply as the one when her brother got a birthday cake.
Now each year the former WAAF rises at 5am for the dawn ceremony to see children wear the medals their grandparents won in a war so devastating it changed the world forever.
"That makes me smile when I see them wearing those medals. It is really special to me to see that," she says.
The 86-year-old enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in 1941 at Bell Block. Just months later she was in Wellington training as a cook at Rongotai airfield dealing with the massive quantities of food to feed 2000 airmen.
"We used to fry eggs in a pan that was about two feet long. It was half an inch deep with fat and we'd start cracking eggs in at one end and by the time we got to the end we'd be going back and taking the first ones out."
While civilians were dealing with rationing, there were no such restrictions on the fighting men and women, some of whom saw opportunity in the excess.
She recalls her "battleaxe" boss at the base and the fate of a bacon and egg pie.
"I had to make it for an exam and I know she took it to the guards to keep them sweet so they would not search her bags when she left. There was food in them, of course."
Like other ex-servicemen and women Mrs Sarten remembers the friendships of that time, the bond their common experience gave them. Despite the horrifying reason behind their mobilisation, the memories are happy ones.
There were the weekly dances, the trips to town in their civilian clothes and the innocent flirting with the young men preparing to fight.
"We did not even think about them maybe dying. We did not want to think about it and no one wanted to talk about it . . . I knew a man from a flying boat that had been shot down. I knew him very well and when I heard he had died that made me think about it. That brought it home to me as to what it was all about."
She says she knows of a few other ex-WAAFs in New Plymouth but there may be more. To her, meeting with these women who share similar memories is not a time for nostalgia. They never talk of their war.
"It's just that contact we enjoy," she says. "The chance to chat with people."
By MATT RILKOFF - Taranaki Daily News 25-4-09
Open to any ex-RNZAF, Commonwealth or Allied air forces members, the branch suffers from being isolated from former air bases and major airfields where former pilots and flight crew naturally settle.
Although counting more than 30 members on their books, many are in rest homes or hospitals, too frail or sick to participate in association activities.
In the past three months alone seven members have died.
Whether the Taranaki branch will continue in its current form was the subject of a special meeting held last week.
Seven members attended, bringing with them walking sticks, glasses, hearing aids and faces lined with memories.
Matt Rilkoff talked to three of them about their lives.
Samuel West
On Friday evenings Sam West meets with his regular group of ex-servicemen at the RSA for a beer or two before dinner.
The former Royal New Zealand Air Force flight sergeant chuckles about solving the world's problems that way, a common joke among men with time to fill and beer to drink.
Gentle and intelligently spoken, the Hawera-born man sits comfortably in his overstuffed armchair, his ankle a stripe of white between slippered feet and dark trousers.
As president of the Taranaki branch of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association, much of the responsibility for finding a solution to the membership problem falls to him.
He is quietly pragmatic about the issue, which for many provokes sadness and dismay at a period of time falling from the nation's living memory.
"Its inevitable that we will amalgamate with another association. Whether that is this year or next, I'm not sure. But it's our only option. As these things operate now, even the RSA will have trouble in time."
Mr West left the Air Force in 1975, having joined as a 16-year- old aircraft apprentice in 1951.
His first posting was to England where citizens still carried ration cards and bomb craters dotted the cities. He met his wife Doris there, and made lifelong friends.
His time in England was as close as he came to the world war, to the type of aggression he was trained to mete out and defend against. For a long time, association members like Mr West, those who were not veterans of World War II, were a minority. Now they are the only hope for its survival.
Without young ex-RNZAF members the association will continue its decline.
"Oh, it's changed all right. We used to make trips, overnight trips or longer. We used to have dances and everyone would stay out late at night. Now our members prefer lunch and we don't get many along to that either. So many are in rest homes or in hospital. Most people accept that is the way these sort of clubs go," he said.
The problem for the Taranaki branch is geographical. Pilots and ground crew tend to live in bigger cities where larger airports and services offer employment. Mr West himself lived in Auckland when he worked for Air New Zealand after leaving the air force. He moved to Bell Block only when he retired.
The presidency came Mr West's way because of his age. At 74 he's younger than the people he has been charged with organising for the past few years. Sometimes he wishes he had those years the other members own.
"If I had been five or 10 years older I would have been living in a better period than today. Life was more settled, people were more communicative. They knew what was wrong, what was right."
dummy word
William Edhouse
Freshly demobilised WWII veteran Bill Edhouse slept through his train stop, arrived in New Plymouth and decided to stay.
It's a polished story, worn smooth by telling and one of many age and experience have equipped him with.
There is the tale of bunking school at Ohakune to peer at planes from the bushes, of Kingsford Smith and the barnstormers, of white coated "spies" at a wartime plywood factory and the Chinese family that helped his own survive the Great Depression.
They are a spiderweb of history and now and then there is a strand about the Pacific, a place he first knew as a venue for war against the Japanese.
It was there he served as a gunner, radio operator and almost any other job required except flying the PV1 Ventura bombers of his squadron.
His face, unlined and smiling, peaks out from history books he owns.
In these photos he is a young man meeting the governor general with the rest of his aircrew on an island airfield captured from the Japanese.
Pointing to the insignia on the bomber's wings he has another story to tell.
"You can see our roundels don't have the white lines on them yet. At that time the Yanks were shooting at anything that looked like a red circle, like the Japanese. They were trigger happy. They shot at anything that moved."
He should know. At one time his plane very nearly came under attack from two American P-38 Mustang fighters planes who mistook it for a Japanese bomber.
"They came in so fast. They were there and then they were gone and they must have been going at a rate because for an instant I could see the vapour trails coming off their wingtips. You get those at higher altitudes but when they came at us we were low so they must have been just thundering."
From time to time he makes promises to get back to the topic he agreed to talk about - the Airforce Association - but there are memories and distractions everywhere.
"When I applied for the air force I got a telegram telling me to report to Te Kuiti at oh-nine- fifteen. I asked my father "what's this oh-nine-fifteen". We didn't know about any 24 hour clock," he laughs.
Then he laughs again recalling his father's advice. "Ask the post office, they'll know."
The next telegram confused them just the same, telling the 18-year-old to report to Ohakea "forthwith" a word, like the time before, he had never heard.
He asked his father what would happen if he went "without".
"Ask the post office," he said. "Ask the post office."
There is no doubt his children have heard the story, his grandchildren too. Like the one about his arrival in New Plymouth, it has the good humour and timing of a well practised skit. Though his squadron did not lose a man in the theatre of war, they did not escape unscathed.
During training one of their pilots lost control of the Tiger Moth he was flying, slammed into the side of a shop and was killed.
"We all got airborne straight away. It was what we did. It was the way to make sure nobody lost their nerve."
He pauses, takes a bite of his cracker.
"These are all just memories coming out. You work them in to make them fit."
dummy word
Lorna Sarten
Before her own war, a young Lorna Sarten knew Anzac Day simply as the one when her brother got a birthday cake.
Now each year the former WAAF rises at 5am for the dawn ceremony to see children wear the medals their grandparents won in a war so devastating it changed the world forever.
"That makes me smile when I see them wearing those medals. It is really special to me to see that," she says.
The 86-year-old enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in 1941 at Bell Block. Just months later she was in Wellington training as a cook at Rongotai airfield dealing with the massive quantities of food to feed 2000 airmen.
"We used to fry eggs in a pan that was about two feet long. It was half an inch deep with fat and we'd start cracking eggs in at one end and by the time we got to the end we'd be going back and taking the first ones out."
While civilians were dealing with rationing, there were no such restrictions on the fighting men and women, some of whom saw opportunity in the excess.
She recalls her "battleaxe" boss at the base and the fate of a bacon and egg pie.
"I had to make it for an exam and I know she took it to the guards to keep them sweet so they would not search her bags when she left. There was food in them, of course."
Like other ex-servicemen and women Mrs Sarten remembers the friendships of that time, the bond their common experience gave them. Despite the horrifying reason behind their mobilisation, the memories are happy ones.
There were the weekly dances, the trips to town in their civilian clothes and the innocent flirting with the young men preparing to fight.
"We did not even think about them maybe dying. We did not want to think about it and no one wanted to talk about it . . . I knew a man from a flying boat that had been shot down. I knew him very well and when I heard he had died that made me think about it. That brought it home to me as to what it was all about."
She says she knows of a few other ex-WAAFs in New Plymouth but there may be more. To her, meeting with these women who share similar memories is not a time for nostalgia. They never talk of their war.
"It's just that contact we enjoy," she says. "The chance to chat with people."
By MATT RILKOFF - Taranaki Daily News 25-4-09
Gerald McNaughton Chong
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/features/2362813/Siblings-recall-fathers-untiring-efforts#share
When dawn breaks on Anzac Day, Taranaki resident Brian Chong will remember his father's medal-winning World War I service as a stretcher-bearer.
Brian's father Gerald McNaughton Chong was one of only a handful of Kiwis of Chinese descent to serve in the war - a source of immense pride for his family.
His bravery under intense German shelling saw him awarded the Military Medal for "conspicuous bravery" but Brian says his father was "just an ordinary man who did his bit for his country".
"My brother and I would visit our father's grave after the parade, to put a poppy on it," he says.
"We used to compete to see who would get there first and my brother would beat me to it."
But his father was one of the many men who returned from the war and preferred to leave it behind, refusing to talk about his experiences, not wanting to be reminded of the horrors he had seen.
"He would say, though, that on Christmas Day they would yell out season's greetings to the Germans - because their lines were very close," he says.
"He said they would throw tins of jam to each other."
Many Chinese-New Zealanders declined to serve in the war because of their marginalised status. But Gerald McNaughton Chong volunteered to join the Medical Corp.
The youngest son of Chew Chong, a prominent member of the community who pioneered selling and manufacturing the pound of butter and built one of the first butter factories in 1885, and Taranaki local Elizabeth Whatton, the daughter of a settler involved in ironsand smelting, was a chemist's assistant.
He enlisted and joined the New Zealand Medical Corp as a stretcher-bearer, being attached to work with the No 1 Field Ambulance.
Initially an officers corp, an amendment in 1908 defence regulations saw "all officers, non-commissioned officers and men connected with the medical service of the permanent force, militia and volunteer, formed into the New Zealand Medical Corps".
General Sir Ian Hamilton ordered the corp organise field ambulances and "make every use of men whose civilian training fitted them to the work".
With his training as a chemist's assistant, Gerald Chong was quickly admitted and in May 1916 sailed for Plymouth on the Willochra, reaching England two months later.
He was sent to Bapaume in France, where www.britainatwar.org.uk records: "The ground shook and tolled humanity by the second."
Being a stretcher-bearer was exhausting work.
Chong carried wounded men to aid posts to receive treatment and later to dressing stations where they would have their bleeding stopped, splints applied, or have their wounds stitched.
In his book The New Zealanders at Gallipoli Fred Waite wrote: "A man without a load can dash from cover to cover, but the stretcher-bearers, with their limp and white-faced burdens, must walk steadily on, ignoring sniper and hostile gunners. Hour after hour the work went on, until after 20 hours' stretcher-bearing these unheeded heroes fell in their tracks from sheer exhaustion".
Chong's life was constantly at risk from bullets, shells and gas as he waded through mud and shell craters to remove the wounded from the battlefield.
One corp sergeant said he would never forget the experience: "A 12-stone weight on the stretcher, a dark night, a little drizzling rain, groping our way down the steep incline through prickly scrub, our wounded man crying with pain and begging for a drink every few yards, incessant rifle fire and bullets whizzing all around us."
In 1918 Bapaume came under intense enemy bombardment on August 25. The New Zealand Division suffered heavy losses and more than 300 were wounded. Heavy overnight rain meant heavy mud made the conditions for the stretcher- bearers almost impossible.
Chong was on duty at one of the bearer-posts and worked continuously for 36 hours carrying the wounded despite the weather and heavy shelling, winning his medal.
It is not possible to determine how many Chinese-New Zealand men served in World War I, a time of intense and open racism against the Chinese.
But like Chong, that did not deter Arnold Wong Lee, who also had a European mother, from "answering his country's call", as the inscription on his parents' headstone in Hastings reads: "He was killed in action on November 24, 1917 at the age of 19."
Another soldier of Chinese ethnicity was Clarence Eric Kee, who stayed in France with the Canterbury Infantry Regiment from 1917 until the end of the war, despite being wounded during his service.
In 1920 his father, Frank Kow Kee, was granted naturalisation because of his son's service, making him one of only four Chinese naturalised between 1908 and 1952 - years when Chinese were not allowed to become permanent citizens.
Michele Ong is a Fairfax intern student at AUT
When dawn breaks on Anzac Day, Taranaki resident Brian Chong will remember his father's medal-winning World War I service as a stretcher-bearer.
Brian's father Gerald McNaughton Chong was one of only a handful of Kiwis of Chinese descent to serve in the war - a source of immense pride for his family.
His bravery under intense German shelling saw him awarded the Military Medal for "conspicuous bravery" but Brian says his father was "just an ordinary man who did his bit for his country".
"My brother and I would visit our father's grave after the parade, to put a poppy on it," he says.
"We used to compete to see who would get there first and my brother would beat me to it."
But his father was one of the many men who returned from the war and preferred to leave it behind, refusing to talk about his experiences, not wanting to be reminded of the horrors he had seen.
"He would say, though, that on Christmas Day they would yell out season's greetings to the Germans - because their lines were very close," he says.
"He said they would throw tins of jam to each other."
Many Chinese-New Zealanders declined to serve in the war because of their marginalised status. But Gerald McNaughton Chong volunteered to join the Medical Corp.
The youngest son of Chew Chong, a prominent member of the community who pioneered selling and manufacturing the pound of butter and built one of the first butter factories in 1885, and Taranaki local Elizabeth Whatton, the daughter of a settler involved in ironsand smelting, was a chemist's assistant.
He enlisted and joined the New Zealand Medical Corp as a stretcher-bearer, being attached to work with the No 1 Field Ambulance.
Initially an officers corp, an amendment in 1908 defence regulations saw "all officers, non-commissioned officers and men connected with the medical service of the permanent force, militia and volunteer, formed into the New Zealand Medical Corps".
General Sir Ian Hamilton ordered the corp organise field ambulances and "make every use of men whose civilian training fitted them to the work".
With his training as a chemist's assistant, Gerald Chong was quickly admitted and in May 1916 sailed for Plymouth on the Willochra, reaching England two months later.
He was sent to Bapaume in France, where www.britainatwar.org.uk records: "The ground shook and tolled humanity by the second."
Being a stretcher-bearer was exhausting work.
Chong carried wounded men to aid posts to receive treatment and later to dressing stations where they would have their bleeding stopped, splints applied, or have their wounds stitched.
In his book The New Zealanders at Gallipoli Fred Waite wrote: "A man without a load can dash from cover to cover, but the stretcher-bearers, with their limp and white-faced burdens, must walk steadily on, ignoring sniper and hostile gunners. Hour after hour the work went on, until after 20 hours' stretcher-bearing these unheeded heroes fell in their tracks from sheer exhaustion".
Chong's life was constantly at risk from bullets, shells and gas as he waded through mud and shell craters to remove the wounded from the battlefield.
One corp sergeant said he would never forget the experience: "A 12-stone weight on the stretcher, a dark night, a little drizzling rain, groping our way down the steep incline through prickly scrub, our wounded man crying with pain and begging for a drink every few yards, incessant rifle fire and bullets whizzing all around us."
In 1918 Bapaume came under intense enemy bombardment on August 25. The New Zealand Division suffered heavy losses and more than 300 were wounded. Heavy overnight rain meant heavy mud made the conditions for the stretcher- bearers almost impossible.
Chong was on duty at one of the bearer-posts and worked continuously for 36 hours carrying the wounded despite the weather and heavy shelling, winning his medal.
It is not possible to determine how many Chinese-New Zealand men served in World War I, a time of intense and open racism against the Chinese.
But like Chong, that did not deter Arnold Wong Lee, who also had a European mother, from "answering his country's call", as the inscription on his parents' headstone in Hastings reads: "He was killed in action on November 24, 1917 at the age of 19."
Another soldier of Chinese ethnicity was Clarence Eric Kee, who stayed in France with the Canterbury Infantry Regiment from 1917 until the end of the war, despite being wounded during his service.
In 1920 his father, Frank Kow Kee, was granted naturalisation because of his son's service, making him one of only four Chinese naturalised between 1908 and 1952 - years when Chinese were not allowed to become permanent citizens.
Michele Ong is a Fairfax intern student at AUT
McCormick's death end of an era
The death on Anzac Day of Don McCormick marked the end of quite an era in Hawera's history.
It might even be called the day the music died when Donald Irvine McCormick passed away in the Trinity rest home at the age of 87 years.
He was a funeral director, a skilled musician and closest friend and drinking buddy of Hawera's late and not always lamented posthumously famous novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson.
They were both born in Hawera in 1922 and both died there. Morrieson drank himself to an early death in 1972 at the age of 50, three years after his mother died and not long after McCormick embarked on a similar path.
They were mates from about age nine. McCormick joined the RNZAF when he was 18 and graduated as a sergeant pilot just before World War II ended.
McCormick learned piano from Miss Winifred Thomas, played in local competitions and sang in a church choir. Morrieson was born into a musical family and became a music teacher himself. He played violin and double bass hand-crafted by his grandfather Charles Johnson, an outstanding instrument maker.
McCormick and Morrieson played in dance bands together for some 20 years, from about 1946. Both men were talented multi-instrumentalists, firstly playing in the five-piece Premiere Band, Don on drums, piano or sax (his first sax was acquired from an American serviceman in exchange for a bottle of whisky) and Ron on piano, bass or guitar.
They then formed the Rhythm Masters trio and played all around Taranaki, tearing through the night in Ron's nine-seater Hudson, which was big enough to take all their gear.
Later they joined Colin King's eight-piece The Harmonisers.
While Morrieson was secretly writing his novels based on Hawera life, McCormick inherited his father's funeral parlour and furniture store business, then based where Barrie's Restaurant and Bar is now located in Princes St.
The firm buried Morrieson, but McCormick chose to be just another mourner. Shortly after this event, he sold it to his partner Russell Bassett, invested the money and began living off the interest. Bassett sold out to Michael Clegg in 1975.
McCormick boasted to me about his drinking prowess in a published 1988 interview after I met him at the Railway Tavern. At that stage his daily routine was to begin at the Railway about 9am, move to the South Taranaki Club when it opened at 11am, go home for lunch and a snooze and head back to the club at 3pm.
When I asked him how long he'd been living like this, he replied: "Not bloody long enough."
He later shocked Hawera by giving up alcohol. This was when people began telling him he'd go the same way as Morrieson.
On the subject of Morrieson, McCormick said: "Actually I'm a bit sick of talking to journalists about Ron. A lot of rubbish has beenwritten and a lot of people are suddenly discovering that they knew him.
"He's getting to be larger than life. He wanted success but not fame. He never told anyone outside of his mother and aunt he was writing books until after the first one was published."
Don McCormick was a lifemember and former Rangatiraof the Hawera Savage Club and very proud of what he helped the club achieve.
By RICHARD WOODD - Taranaki Daily News
Last updated 05:00 02/05/2009
It might even be called the day the music died when Donald Irvine McCormick passed away in the Trinity rest home at the age of 87 years.
He was a funeral director, a skilled musician and closest friend and drinking buddy of Hawera's late and not always lamented posthumously famous novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson.
They were both born in Hawera in 1922 and both died there. Morrieson drank himself to an early death in 1972 at the age of 50, three years after his mother died and not long after McCormick embarked on a similar path.
They were mates from about age nine. McCormick joined the RNZAF when he was 18 and graduated as a sergeant pilot just before World War II ended.
McCormick learned piano from Miss Winifred Thomas, played in local competitions and sang in a church choir. Morrieson was born into a musical family and became a music teacher himself. He played violin and double bass hand-crafted by his grandfather Charles Johnson, an outstanding instrument maker.
McCormick and Morrieson played in dance bands together for some 20 years, from about 1946. Both men were talented multi-instrumentalists, firstly playing in the five-piece Premiere Band, Don on drums, piano or sax (his first sax was acquired from an American serviceman in exchange for a bottle of whisky) and Ron on piano, bass or guitar.
They then formed the Rhythm Masters trio and played all around Taranaki, tearing through the night in Ron's nine-seater Hudson, which was big enough to take all their gear.
Later they joined Colin King's eight-piece The Harmonisers.
While Morrieson was secretly writing his novels based on Hawera life, McCormick inherited his father's funeral parlour and furniture store business, then based where Barrie's Restaurant and Bar is now located in Princes St.
The firm buried Morrieson, but McCormick chose to be just another mourner. Shortly after this event, he sold it to his partner Russell Bassett, invested the money and began living off the interest. Bassett sold out to Michael Clegg in 1975.
McCormick boasted to me about his drinking prowess in a published 1988 interview after I met him at the Railway Tavern. At that stage his daily routine was to begin at the Railway about 9am, move to the South Taranaki Club when it opened at 11am, go home for lunch and a snooze and head back to the club at 3pm.
When I asked him how long he'd been living like this, he replied: "Not bloody long enough."
He later shocked Hawera by giving up alcohol. This was when people began telling him he'd go the same way as Morrieson.
On the subject of Morrieson, McCormick said: "Actually I'm a bit sick of talking to journalists about Ron. A lot of rubbish has beenwritten and a lot of people are suddenly discovering that they knew him.
"He's getting to be larger than life. He wanted success but not fame. He never told anyone outside of his mother and aunt he was writing books until after the first one was published."
Don McCormick was a lifemember and former Rangatiraof the Hawera Savage Club and very proud of what he helped the club achieve.
By RICHARD WOODD - Taranaki Daily News
Last updated 05:00 02/05/2009
Sunday, January 18
The lazy days of summer
There are all sorts of botanical secrets stashed away in South and Central Taranaki, says South Taranaki District Council property and facilities manager John Sargeant.
"In Eltham, there is Bridger Park on Bridger Street that's worth a visit. Children will enjoy looking at the toy wall, which has many hundreds of toys cemented into it."
Naumai Park in Hawera is good this time of year, and there's also the Goodson Dell, on the corner of High and Cambria streets, Mr Sargeant says. It is a small reserve gifted to the council some years ago and it has been developed and is cared for by a group of volunteers who call themselves the Goodson Guerrillas because they wage war on weeds and vandals.
"It's one of the best-kept secrets in Hawera. It's a bit like Dr Who's Tardis bigger on the inside than on the outside."
A trip a little farther afield is to Glen-Nui Park, at the top end of Lake Rotokare, a jaunt designed to be accompanied by a chicken sandwich and a flask of tea, Mr Sargeant says.
"Turn inland at the Eltham library and head out east. Follow your nose out over the Mangamingi Saddle and through Mangamingi. About 10 minutes past Mangamingi, turn right up Glen Nui Road and you'll find the park, which overlooks the lake. And it's fenced, so it's safe for kids and there's room to kick a ball around.
"In spring, it's full of bluebells and in autumn, there's chestnuts. Kids can skim stones on the river and it's well worth the journey out there."
There are good toilet facilities and barbecues there.
"It's one of my favourite out-of-the-way spots, where I go for some peace and quiet."
Farther south, at the Manaia Domain, is a rich trove of local history. To get there, go down Bennett Drive to the sports ground, walk around the 18th hole on the golf fairway and look for the watchtower poking up through the trees. The watchtower is part of the Manaia redoubt and it is a replica of one built in 1880 for the use of Parihaka chief Te Whiti o Rongomai and his followers.
"It's got some exceptional history there. and on one wall is some amazing graffiti. It's the names of people who wrote them before they went away to war, promising to come back, but they never did. It's hugely poignant."
Drive a bit farther south to Waitotara and you'll find a good beach called Wai-nui, Waitotara or Nukumaru, depending on who you ask, Mr Sargeant says. If you want some respite from the summer heat, there are six free public swimming pools cared for by the council at Kaponga, Rawhitiroa, Eltham, Waverley, Patea and Manaia. At Kaponga, the pool is in a lovely sheltered spot and as it's not very deep, gets quite warm and is ideal for families. The region's only public diving board is at Rawhitiroa. All pools are free to use and have qualified lifeguards on duty and are all open until 7pm, so it's a great way to cool off after exploring sunny South Taranaki.
In the north around New Plymouth, walkers looking for a quieter adventure than they'll find on the super popular coastal walkway could head to Lake Mangamahoe, suggests parks programme manager Steve McGill of the New Plymouth District Council.
To get there, turn off into Lake Mangamahoe opposite Kent Road and you'll find a sign board that shows the various trails through the forest. There is a bridle trail for horses, tracks for mountain bikers and others for walking. Many of these tracks require reasonable mobility, but those who are not up to walking far can enjoy the drive alongside the lake, which has several picnic areas, waterfowl to watch and feed, and toilets near the gates.
At Barrett's Lagoon, on the western end of New Plymouth, is an area of bush and grassy spaces with several quite gentle walks through it. One track meanders through a forest of young kauri, others though established bush full of birdsong. It is suitable for family rambles or for walking dogs, and there are ducks to feed from a wooden platform on the lagoon itself.
Another city walkway worth a wander is the Herekawe, which begins at Manadon Street on the city's southern boundary and trickles along beside the Herekawe Stream to Back Beach. It's gentle enough for the youngest of walkers to enjoy.
One of the most obvious places to go walking right now is in the centre of the province the good old mountain, Mr McGill says.
On a good day, pack up a lunch and head up to Dawson Falls or North Egmont for a short stroll or an invigorating tramp.
"It's certainly nice up there at this time of year. It can be a little cooler and there are lots of tracks for different levels of fitness and experience."
Taranaki Daily News | Friday, 02 January 2009
"In Eltham, there is Bridger Park on Bridger Street that's worth a visit. Children will enjoy looking at the toy wall, which has many hundreds of toys cemented into it."
Naumai Park in Hawera is good this time of year, and there's also the Goodson Dell, on the corner of High and Cambria streets, Mr Sargeant says. It is a small reserve gifted to the council some years ago and it has been developed and is cared for by a group of volunteers who call themselves the Goodson Guerrillas because they wage war on weeds and vandals.
"It's one of the best-kept secrets in Hawera. It's a bit like Dr Who's Tardis bigger on the inside than on the outside."
A trip a little farther afield is to Glen-Nui Park, at the top end of Lake Rotokare, a jaunt designed to be accompanied by a chicken sandwich and a flask of tea, Mr Sargeant says.
"Turn inland at the Eltham library and head out east. Follow your nose out over the Mangamingi Saddle and through Mangamingi. About 10 minutes past Mangamingi, turn right up Glen Nui Road and you'll find the park, which overlooks the lake. And it's fenced, so it's safe for kids and there's room to kick a ball around.
"In spring, it's full of bluebells and in autumn, there's chestnuts. Kids can skim stones on the river and it's well worth the journey out there."
There are good toilet facilities and barbecues there.
"It's one of my favourite out-of-the-way spots, where I go for some peace and quiet."
Farther south, at the Manaia Domain, is a rich trove of local history. To get there, go down Bennett Drive to the sports ground, walk around the 18th hole on the golf fairway and look for the watchtower poking up through the trees. The watchtower is part of the Manaia redoubt and it is a replica of one built in 1880 for the use of Parihaka chief Te Whiti o Rongomai and his followers.
"It's got some exceptional history there. and on one wall is some amazing graffiti. It's the names of people who wrote them before they went away to war, promising to come back, but they never did. It's hugely poignant."
Drive a bit farther south to Waitotara and you'll find a good beach called Wai-nui, Waitotara or Nukumaru, depending on who you ask, Mr Sargeant says. If you want some respite from the summer heat, there are six free public swimming pools cared for by the council at Kaponga, Rawhitiroa, Eltham, Waverley, Patea and Manaia. At Kaponga, the pool is in a lovely sheltered spot and as it's not very deep, gets quite warm and is ideal for families. The region's only public diving board is at Rawhitiroa. All pools are free to use and have qualified lifeguards on duty and are all open until 7pm, so it's a great way to cool off after exploring sunny South Taranaki.
In the north around New Plymouth, walkers looking for a quieter adventure than they'll find on the super popular coastal walkway could head to Lake Mangamahoe, suggests parks programme manager Steve McGill of the New Plymouth District Council.
To get there, turn off into Lake Mangamahoe opposite Kent Road and you'll find a sign board that shows the various trails through the forest. There is a bridle trail for horses, tracks for mountain bikers and others for walking. Many of these tracks require reasonable mobility, but those who are not up to walking far can enjoy the drive alongside the lake, which has several picnic areas, waterfowl to watch and feed, and toilets near the gates.
At Barrett's Lagoon, on the western end of New Plymouth, is an area of bush and grassy spaces with several quite gentle walks through it. One track meanders through a forest of young kauri, others though established bush full of birdsong. It is suitable for family rambles or for walking dogs, and there are ducks to feed from a wooden platform on the lagoon itself.
Another city walkway worth a wander is the Herekawe, which begins at Manadon Street on the city's southern boundary and trickles along beside the Herekawe Stream to Back Beach. It's gentle enough for the youngest of walkers to enjoy.
One of the most obvious places to go walking right now is in the centre of the province the good old mountain, Mr McGill says.
On a good day, pack up a lunch and head up to Dawson Falls or North Egmont for a short stroll or an invigorating tramp.
"It's certainly nice up there at this time of year. It can be a little cooler and there are lots of tracks for different levels of fitness and experience."
Taranaki Daily News | Friday, 02 January 2009
Thursday, January 1
Family doctor
WALKING into Peter Rich's waiting room comes very close to travelling through a time warp. The walls of the reception office bulge with handwritten patient notes.
"He's a technophobe," his long-serving staff share fondly with broad smiles. In our modern world, where doctors are surrounded by computers and are grouping together to share costs in sprawling offices, his surgery in the front room of a big old villa in New Plymouth's Powderham Street stands proudly alone.
There's no sign of a computer on the battered wooden desk that his GP dad purchased in 1945 for his Hawera family practice. Apparently he does own a computer, but it is hidden away in a cupboard.
"I can't type and I'd lose a lot of time if I used a computer," he explains.
The 66-year-old estimates there are about 2100 patients on his books, some of whom are now the third generation of the loyal patients who signed up with him 30 years back, when he hung up his first shingle in his rooms next door to the police station. The shingle, which reads Dr Peter Rich, MB ChB (Otago) FRNZCGP and Dip Obst (Auck), has now shifted with him and his patients three times around New Plymouth.
His great sorrow is that his Dip Obst (diploma in obstetrics) has become redundant. New Zealand now has a rare few GPs who continue to assist in the birth of babies.
He regrets that there's now a generation of GPs who have never witnessed the joy of a birth.
"It is a privilege to go to deliveries. I think it's a tragedy that GPs have been sidelined from obstetrics and working with midwives as our colleagues. Midwives do a great job but we can add an extra dimension."
As a result, GPs are now missing out on that special bonding with families when babies are born. He's also a fan of families being together during the birth just as he had done when he was young.
While computers might not be his thing, he is passionate about keeping up with health trends and drugs.
"People are living longer with the introduction of ace inhibitors (which lower blood pressure). They don't have that slow decline."
The ace inhibitors help your heart pump better and by lowering the blood pressure, you also protect your kidneys, Dr Rich says.
And he's already on the record supporting the use of cholesterol-lowering statins, which he describes as "wonderful".
In the interests of good bowel health and lowering the likelihood of putting yourself at risk of the ever-expanding diabetes epidemic, he believes white bread should be banned.
"I wish we could get people to eat less white bread and more wholemeal. All white bread should be ditched," he says with feeling.
The message about healthy eating is slowly getting through to adults, he says, but he fears for the young, a generation seemingly brought up on a surfeit of fast foods.
Some Taranaki practices are already being swamped with diabetics.
"On average, diabetes has added 8% to our workload. In 15 years in South Auckland, there won't be any money for anything but diabetes."
However, in Taranaki, patients are well served by GP diabetes checks used to identify those at risk.
"Poos" are a great diagnostic tool and the sure way to find out if you are getting enough roughage in your diet and what might ail you, Dr Rich says. It's a great icebreaker when you ask the kids in the surgery about their poos.
"Their faces light up. They love talking about their poos."
Dr Rich is a great supporter of the monthly GP peer review groups that were made compulsory at the beginning of the year.
His own group is a mini League of Nations, where they benefit from sharing their different methods of diagnosis and treatment.
His love of diversity and desire to keep up his skills means he enjoys taking his turn at the city's community medical and accident after-hours clinics the type of work that the 24/7 family GP would have taken care of in the past. "You never know what's going to walk through the door."
It's a message to the younger docs coming through that they, too, should hone their skills by doing the same.
"The younger ones do need to keep up their interest in emergency medicine."
Another of his fears for the future of general practice is that government restrictions, which stop GPs putting up their fees, is financially strangling them.
"Helen Clark froze the fees for the last two years. And John Key said they would continue to be frozen. They are allowed to go up with inflation only. The problem is it did not keep up with pay rises."
It was a painful blow when they were facing pay rises of 20% for their practice nurses and clerical staff pay. And there's another in the pipeline. There's no similar restrictions on any other business in New Zealand, he says.
"As a result, we're unable to do maintenance or buy new equipment. The result is a lot of unhappy younger doctors do not want to come into private practice because they don't want their prices frozen."
In the meantime, Dr Rich proudly remains computer illiterate. He is adamant he works faster, leaner and meaner without a computer.
And his patients love the fact that they get his full, undivided attention. There's a few on the books who have left the bigger practices in preference for the handful of sole-GP practices that remain in Taranaki, he says.
"Not everyone wants their GP to be part of a bigger practice. I think solo practices will continue to thrive."
By LYN HUMPHREYS lyn.humphreys@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Wednesday, 31 December 2008
"He's a technophobe," his long-serving staff share fondly with broad smiles. In our modern world, where doctors are surrounded by computers and are grouping together to share costs in sprawling offices, his surgery in the front room of a big old villa in New Plymouth's Powderham Street stands proudly alone.
There's no sign of a computer on the battered wooden desk that his GP dad purchased in 1945 for his Hawera family practice. Apparently he does own a computer, but it is hidden away in a cupboard.
"I can't type and I'd lose a lot of time if I used a computer," he explains.
The 66-year-old estimates there are about 2100 patients on his books, some of whom are now the third generation of the loyal patients who signed up with him 30 years back, when he hung up his first shingle in his rooms next door to the police station. The shingle, which reads Dr Peter Rich, MB ChB (Otago) FRNZCGP and Dip Obst (Auck), has now shifted with him and his patients three times around New Plymouth.
His great sorrow is that his Dip Obst (diploma in obstetrics) has become redundant. New Zealand now has a rare few GPs who continue to assist in the birth of babies.
He regrets that there's now a generation of GPs who have never witnessed the joy of a birth.
"It is a privilege to go to deliveries. I think it's a tragedy that GPs have been sidelined from obstetrics and working with midwives as our colleagues. Midwives do a great job but we can add an extra dimension."
As a result, GPs are now missing out on that special bonding with families when babies are born. He's also a fan of families being together during the birth just as he had done when he was young.
While computers might not be his thing, he is passionate about keeping up with health trends and drugs.
"People are living longer with the introduction of ace inhibitors (which lower blood pressure). They don't have that slow decline."
The ace inhibitors help your heart pump better and by lowering the blood pressure, you also protect your kidneys, Dr Rich says.
And he's already on the record supporting the use of cholesterol-lowering statins, which he describes as "wonderful".
In the interests of good bowel health and lowering the likelihood of putting yourself at risk of the ever-expanding diabetes epidemic, he believes white bread should be banned.
"I wish we could get people to eat less white bread and more wholemeal. All white bread should be ditched," he says with feeling.
The message about healthy eating is slowly getting through to adults, he says, but he fears for the young, a generation seemingly brought up on a surfeit of fast foods.
Some Taranaki practices are already being swamped with diabetics.
"On average, diabetes has added 8% to our workload. In 15 years in South Auckland, there won't be any money for anything but diabetes."
However, in Taranaki, patients are well served by GP diabetes checks used to identify those at risk.
"Poos" are a great diagnostic tool and the sure way to find out if you are getting enough roughage in your diet and what might ail you, Dr Rich says. It's a great icebreaker when you ask the kids in the surgery about their poos.
"Their faces light up. They love talking about their poos."
Dr Rich is a great supporter of the monthly GP peer review groups that were made compulsory at the beginning of the year.
His own group is a mini League of Nations, where they benefit from sharing their different methods of diagnosis and treatment.
His love of diversity and desire to keep up his skills means he enjoys taking his turn at the city's community medical and accident after-hours clinics the type of work that the 24/7 family GP would have taken care of in the past. "You never know what's going to walk through the door."
It's a message to the younger docs coming through that they, too, should hone their skills by doing the same.
"The younger ones do need to keep up their interest in emergency medicine."
Another of his fears for the future of general practice is that government restrictions, which stop GPs putting up their fees, is financially strangling them.
"Helen Clark froze the fees for the last two years. And John Key said they would continue to be frozen. They are allowed to go up with inflation only. The problem is it did not keep up with pay rises."
It was a painful blow when they were facing pay rises of 20% for their practice nurses and clerical staff pay. And there's another in the pipeline. There's no similar restrictions on any other business in New Zealand, he says.
"As a result, we're unable to do maintenance or buy new equipment. The result is a lot of unhappy younger doctors do not want to come into private practice because they don't want their prices frozen."
In the meantime, Dr Rich proudly remains computer illiterate. He is adamant he works faster, leaner and meaner without a computer.
And his patients love the fact that they get his full, undivided attention. There's a few on the books who have left the bigger practices in preference for the handful of sole-GP practices that remain in Taranaki, he says.
"Not everyone wants their GP to be part of a bigger practice. I think solo practices will continue to thrive."
By LYN HUMPHREYS lyn.humphreys@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Wednesday, December 31
Shot at victory
Taranaki Daily News | Wednesday, 31 December 2008
CAMERON BURNELL
Former Taranaki and Hawera player Frayne Bloor returns a shot from Waikato's Jayden Grinter on his way to victory in the open men's final of the Taranaki Open tennis tournament in Hawera yesterday. Bloor, who is coaching professionally in Queensland, beat 15-year-old Cambridge and leading New Zealand age-group player Grinter 6-4, 6-4 in the final.
CAMERON BURNELL
Former Taranaki and Hawera player Frayne Bloor returns a shot from Waikato's Jayden Grinter on his way to victory in the open men's final of the Taranaki Open tennis tournament in Hawera yesterday. Bloor, who is coaching professionally in Queensland, beat 15-year-old Cambridge and leading New Zealand age-group player Grinter 6-4, 6-4 in the final.
Gang fight in Hawera leaves residents shaking
Police are hoping that a violent confrontation between two rival gangs in the Taranaki town of Hawera yesterday was a one-off incident.
Officers from through Taranaki were called in after about 60 Mongrel Mob and Black Power members armed with baseball bats, tomahawks and machetes clashed.
The drama began after the Mongrel Mob members stopped in Patea, 28km from Hawera, to refuel as they made their way from Hawke's Bay to Taranaki -- considered Black Power territory.
By the time they reached the southern boundary of Hawera a large group of Black Power members were waiting for them, and violence erupted.
The rioting stopped when the Mongrel Mob members were escorted out of town
Officers from through Taranaki were called in after about 60 Mongrel Mob and Black Power members armed with baseball bats, tomahawks and machetes clashed.
The drama began after the Mongrel Mob members stopped in Patea, 28km from Hawera, to refuel as they made their way from Hawke's Bay to Taranaki -- considered Black Power territory.
By the time they reached the southern boundary of Hawera a large group of Black Power members were waiting for them, and violence erupted.
The rioting stopped when the Mongrel Mob members were escorted out of town
Monday, December 22
Thursday, December 18
Old-school pub crawler recalls
Taranaki Daily News | Thursday, 18 December 2008
Rob Hansen hasn't been on the Hawera push bike pub crawl since 1981.
When Rob Hansen and his mates set off on Hawera's first push bike pub crawl in 1977 they never dreamed it would get as big as it has.
He thinks it's great hundreds, possibly thousands, of riders will join in on Saturday and even chase a world record.
Rob, 49, got the idea from his big brother Bernie who had done something similar on his last day of teachers college in Palmerston North.
"Three of us, Chris Johnston, Kevin McCutcheon and I, got together and decided to have the pub crawl on the last Saturday before Christmas," he said.
People thought they were crazy.
"We'd been in the pub on the Friday night before and people were saying `you're mad buggers'," Rob said.
But the rules were simple.
"One handle in every pub, all participants must ride a bike, you had to ride from one pub to the next even with three pubs situated on one corner."
The three were joined by five others and they pedalled their way from a flat near the racecourse to the Normanby hotels.
Locals saw they were actually going through with their plan and by the time they'd reached the Furlong another six had grabbed bikes to tag along.
There was a slight diversion to someone's house for repairs but by the time the group had got through seven more pubs, numbers had grown to around 20.
Back then a three-speed bike was a luxury.
Monkey bars and banana seats were in and the chopper even made an appearance.
There was the odd injury but it didn't stop anyone carrying on and of course there were antics galore.
"One rider even managed to get his bike into the Dominion and rode the length of the pool table."
Rob has since left Hawera but has been keeping himself up-to-date on the event.
He'd love to have another crack at the crawl and knows some of the originals still get involved.
His last appearance was in 1981 and it had grown to about 100 riders.
"The girls joined in for that one too. Before that it was only for the boys," he said.
"I might wait until the 40th year. It'll still be going and I won't be too old by then."
Meanwhile, local contractor Dick Sybrandy has offered to help carry out and cover the cost of a traffic management plan to NZTA for Saturday's event.
There will be a coned off cycle lane and event signage with the normal 70km/h and 100km/h zones reduced to 50km/h.
Police will provide traffic control at various locations along the route and there will be fixed and moving patrol cars.
Sergeant Robyn Burnetts said in the absence of organisers Mr Sybrandy has shown great generosity and community spirit.
"All we want is for people taking part in the ride to have fun and stay safe, and it is pleasing to know that there are people in the community who understand and share our motivation."
Residents who live along the route and are affected by the annual event are being advised to consider the delays there may be in the area before setting off on any journeys on Saturday.
If staying at home and in a position to park vehicles off the road and on driveways, they are advised to do so.
Taranaki Daily News | Thursday, 18 December 2008
Rob Hansen hasn't been on the Hawera push bike pub crawl since 1981.
When Rob Hansen and his mates set off on Hawera's first push bike pub crawl in 1977 they never dreamed it would get as big as it has.
He thinks it's great hundreds, possibly thousands, of riders will join in on Saturday and even chase a world record.
Rob, 49, got the idea from his big brother Bernie who had done something similar on his last day of teachers college in Palmerston North.
"Three of us, Chris Johnston, Kevin McCutcheon and I, got together and decided to have the pub crawl on the last Saturday before Christmas," he said.
People thought they were crazy.
"We'd been in the pub on the Friday night before and people were saying `you're mad buggers'," Rob said.
But the rules were simple.
"One handle in every pub, all participants must ride a bike, you had to ride from one pub to the next even with three pubs situated on one corner."
The three were joined by five others and they pedalled their way from a flat near the racecourse to the Normanby hotels.
Locals saw they were actually going through with their plan and by the time they'd reached the Furlong another six had grabbed bikes to tag along.
There was a slight diversion to someone's house for repairs but by the time the group had got through seven more pubs, numbers had grown to around 20.
Back then a three-speed bike was a luxury.
Monkey bars and banana seats were in and the chopper even made an appearance.
There was the odd injury but it didn't stop anyone carrying on and of course there were antics galore.
"One rider even managed to get his bike into the Dominion and rode the length of the pool table."
Rob has since left Hawera but has been keeping himself up-to-date on the event.
He'd love to have another crack at the crawl and knows some of the originals still get involved.
His last appearance was in 1981 and it had grown to about 100 riders.
"The girls joined in for that one too. Before that it was only for the boys," he said.
"I might wait until the 40th year. It'll still be going and I won't be too old by then."
Meanwhile, local contractor Dick Sybrandy has offered to help carry out and cover the cost of a traffic management plan to NZTA for Saturday's event.
There will be a coned off cycle lane and event signage with the normal 70km/h and 100km/h zones reduced to 50km/h.
Police will provide traffic control at various locations along the route and there will be fixed and moving patrol cars.
Sergeant Robyn Burnetts said in the absence of organisers Mr Sybrandy has shown great generosity and community spirit.
"All we want is for people taking part in the ride to have fun and stay safe, and it is pleasing to know that there are people in the community who understand and share our motivation."
Residents who live along the route and are affected by the annual event are being advised to consider the delays there may be in the area before setting off on any journeys on Saturday.
If staying at home and in a position to park vehicles off the road and on driveways, they are advised to do so.
Tuesday, December 16
Children want sporting chance
y HARRIET PALMER harriet.palmer@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Tuesday, 16 December 2008
CAMERON BURNELL
There was no basketball for Hawera Intermediate students, from left, Liam Doherty, Oliver Porter, Alexander Gilbert, and Arnez Close, all 13, yesterday. The hall was being used and the school doesn't have vital facilities such as a gym or a pool, a situation deputy principal Craig Simpson, centre, says is not good enough.
A Taranaki school says pressure to spend money on expensive technology means children are missing out on the basics.
Hawera Intermediate has no gym and no pool, a situation that's not going to change despite repeated calls by government to get children exercising.
Deputy principal Craig Simpson said pressure to keep investing in technology was taking big chunks from small budgets and other areas were seriously missing out.
"There is such a high ICT (information and communication technology) demand on schools now. A lot of funding and vision is going to that," he said.
"It would be lovely if the government could recognise that. We're still selling cakes to buy computers."
Mr Simpson said the cost and distance to the community pool meant swimming was out of the question.
Recent figures show only 50% of Year 6 students can swim 25m and drownings are expected to rise almost 50% by 2030. Despite being on the coast, Mr Simpson said he had seen a massive deterioration in the Hawera students' swimming ability.
"We have swimming sports here in February, I imagine most schools do. I'm amazed each year how few students can swim a distance, let alone strongly."
Mr Simpson said the situation was comparable with South Auckland schools where he had also taught.
"Going to the local pool is just out of reach. And we're not putting any worth on it. Less and less city kids are swimming and I see the same stuff happening in rural kids.
"Gone are the days where we could take kids down to the river for a dip. There's always safety procedures."
The school used its hall as a gym, but would love a purpose-built facility where they could store gear and exercise throughout winter.
Mr Simpson said not having one meant they were missing out on developing sports talent or offering a consistent physical health programme.
"If we had a gym children could say, `let's go down to the gym' instead of `what are we going to do this lunchtime?'
"It's just a huge ask. When I think about a gym, I don't want to say it's impossible. It just seems like a big endeavour and we're raising money for technology."
CAMERON BURNELL
There was no basketball for Hawera Intermediate students, from left, Liam Doherty, Oliver Porter, Alexander Gilbert, and Arnez Close, all 13, yesterday. The hall was being used and the school doesn't have vital facilities such as a gym or a pool, a situation deputy principal Craig Simpson, centre, says is not good enough.
A Taranaki school says pressure to spend money on expensive technology means children are missing out on the basics.
Hawera Intermediate has no gym and no pool, a situation that's not going to change despite repeated calls by government to get children exercising.
Deputy principal Craig Simpson said pressure to keep investing in technology was taking big chunks from small budgets and other areas were seriously missing out.
"There is such a high ICT (information and communication technology) demand on schools now. A lot of funding and vision is going to that," he said.
"It would be lovely if the government could recognise that. We're still selling cakes to buy computers."
Mr Simpson said the cost and distance to the community pool meant swimming was out of the question.
Recent figures show only 50% of Year 6 students can swim 25m and drownings are expected to rise almost 50% by 2030. Despite being on the coast, Mr Simpson said he had seen a massive deterioration in the Hawera students' swimming ability.
"We have swimming sports here in February, I imagine most schools do. I'm amazed each year how few students can swim a distance, let alone strongly."
Mr Simpson said the situation was comparable with South Auckland schools where he had also taught.
"Going to the local pool is just out of reach. And we're not putting any worth on it. Less and less city kids are swimming and I see the same stuff happening in rural kids.
"Gone are the days where we could take kids down to the river for a dip. There's always safety procedures."
The school used its hall as a gym, but would love a purpose-built facility where they could store gear and exercise throughout winter.
Mr Simpson said not having one meant they were missing out on developing sports talent or offering a consistent physical health programme.
"If we had a gym children could say, `let's go down to the gym' instead of `what are we going to do this lunchtime?'
"It's just a huge ask. When I think about a gym, I don't want to say it's impossible. It just seems like a big endeavour and we're raising money for technology."
Saturday, December 13
It's on with the annual Pukekura light show
HELEN HARVEY - Taranaki Daily News | Saturday, 13 December 2008
The trees will receive special attention when the lights go on at Pukekura Park.
It is that time of year again when the lights go on in Pukekura Park. More than 800 light fittings and 6km of cable has been put up this week and the lights get switched on tomorrow night after Christmas at the Bowl.
This year's TSB Bank Festival of Lights has new features as well as oldies but goodies such as Grimace the Gorilla. New features include a moving digital artwork and an interactive piece that uses motion-sensitive technology to bring people's shadows to life.
And for the first time, the festival has its own lighting designer. Nicola Haines, who last year worked on the black-light area and poet's bridge, has been working with the council on the overall design.
While reluctant to give anything away and ruin the surprise, Ms Haines says the lights around the lake have changed.
There will be layers of colour and people can lift up their eyes and see all of the trees. She has taken special care with the notable old trees and people are definitely going to notice them more.
The lights in the islands are different and there will be a special centrepiece in the lake. She imagined it to be like a fairyland.
"I wanted a filigree of lights, tiny little lights, like fireflies, all the way around the lake. It glitters, then all other colours come up into play."
Wells Lighting has done a remarkable job considering the budget, she says.
There are always constraints.
"With a design, you go as far as you can and then come inwards. Aim for the stars."
Last year, Ms Haines designed a large signature for the poet's bridge. This time round, the fibre optic light has been remodelled and will float in the middle of the lake.
Her inspiration for the design was New Plymouth's dramatic weather.
Ms Haines witnessed first hand the tornado in Oakura last year and was inspired by the power and the rawness of it.
"But if people think it looks like a Christmas tree floating in the middle of the lake, I can live with that."
She has also expanded her oversized luminous garden in the black light area, which has been moved to a different place in the park.
It works better in its new space, she says. The trees lend themselves to the display, which works in unison with the trees. Ms Haines has had numerous walk-throughs at night to test them.
As well as the three lilies, three calla lilies and three groups of three kowhai, she has added large orchids and three flutes. The large concrete sculptures were inspired by the flowers in Pukekura Park and took a week each to make.
A designer and artist, her background is in interior design and architecture in the UK, where she also used to do sculpture.
She came to New Zealand about seven years ago to visit and thought she would love to come back here to live one day. Then her circumstances changed and she moved out two-and-a-half years ago to Oakura.
"New Plymouth completely blew me away. It's a beautiful country. It's not difficult to be inspired by the flora and fauna."
The TSB Bank Festival of Lights costs about $500,000, half of which comes from rates and the other half from sponsors.
This year's festival route is from the children's playground to the main lake through to the TSB Bowl of Brooklands.
The trees will receive special attention when the lights go on at Pukekura Park.
It is that time of year again when the lights go on in Pukekura Park. More than 800 light fittings and 6km of cable has been put up this week and the lights get switched on tomorrow night after Christmas at the Bowl.
This year's TSB Bank Festival of Lights has new features as well as oldies but goodies such as Grimace the Gorilla. New features include a moving digital artwork and an interactive piece that uses motion-sensitive technology to bring people's shadows to life.
And for the first time, the festival has its own lighting designer. Nicola Haines, who last year worked on the black-light area and poet's bridge, has been working with the council on the overall design.
While reluctant to give anything away and ruin the surprise, Ms Haines says the lights around the lake have changed.
There will be layers of colour and people can lift up their eyes and see all of the trees. She has taken special care with the notable old trees and people are definitely going to notice them more.
The lights in the islands are different and there will be a special centrepiece in the lake. She imagined it to be like a fairyland.
"I wanted a filigree of lights, tiny little lights, like fireflies, all the way around the lake. It glitters, then all other colours come up into play."
Wells Lighting has done a remarkable job considering the budget, she says.
There are always constraints.
"With a design, you go as far as you can and then come inwards. Aim for the stars."
Last year, Ms Haines designed a large signature for the poet's bridge. This time round, the fibre optic light has been remodelled and will float in the middle of the lake.
Her inspiration for the design was New Plymouth's dramatic weather.
Ms Haines witnessed first hand the tornado in Oakura last year and was inspired by the power and the rawness of it.
"But if people think it looks like a Christmas tree floating in the middle of the lake, I can live with that."
She has also expanded her oversized luminous garden in the black light area, which has been moved to a different place in the park.
It works better in its new space, she says. The trees lend themselves to the display, which works in unison with the trees. Ms Haines has had numerous walk-throughs at night to test them.
As well as the three lilies, three calla lilies and three groups of three kowhai, she has added large orchids and three flutes. The large concrete sculptures were inspired by the flowers in Pukekura Park and took a week each to make.
A designer and artist, her background is in interior design and architecture in the UK, where she also used to do sculpture.
She came to New Zealand about seven years ago to visit and thought she would love to come back here to live one day. Then her circumstances changed and she moved out two-and-a-half years ago to Oakura.
"New Plymouth completely blew me away. It's a beautiful country. It's not difficult to be inspired by the flora and fauna."
The TSB Bank Festival of Lights costs about $500,000, half of which comes from rates and the other half from sponsors.
This year's festival route is from the children's playground to the main lake through to the TSB Bowl of Brooklands.
Tuesday, December 9
We've had it wrong all the time
We've had it wrong all the time - Mt Taranaki is in the South Island, not the North.
That's according to calendar manufacturer John Sands.
One of the Melbourne-based company's New Zealand pictorial calendars contains a photograph of Mt Taranaki at dusk, and the caption tells us that our mountain is in the South Island.
The error was spotted by New Plymouth's Charles Delworth, who had bought five of the $4.99 calendars to send to friends overseas. "It's a lovely wee calendar - except for the blunder," he said.
But how did it happen?
A John Sands' spokeswoman said she would find out how the error made it into the calendar, which was printed in China.
If anyone who had purchased the calendar was offended by the error, it would be replaced with another.
But she had no idea how the error had occurred.
So we contacted Dunedin photographer David Wall who took the photograph of Mt Taranaki at dusk.
He'd already been emailed about the captioning error, and he also had no idea how it happened.
"I think we just need to put it down to being one of those things," he said.
"I'd like to assure everyone that Mt Taranaki is indeed still in the North Island - in fact we have 700 images of the mountain on our website.
"And I've just been up there taking more pictures.
"We flew over and around the mountain at sunrise, and as the sun came up it was orange and then pink. Absolutely stunning."
That's according to calendar manufacturer John Sands.
One of the Melbourne-based company's New Zealand pictorial calendars contains a photograph of Mt Taranaki at dusk, and the caption tells us that our mountain is in the South Island.
The error was spotted by New Plymouth's Charles Delworth, who had bought five of the $4.99 calendars to send to friends overseas. "It's a lovely wee calendar - except for the blunder," he said.
But how did it happen?
A John Sands' spokeswoman said she would find out how the error made it into the calendar, which was printed in China.
If anyone who had purchased the calendar was offended by the error, it would be replaced with another.
But she had no idea how the error had occurred.
So we contacted Dunedin photographer David Wall who took the photograph of Mt Taranaki at dusk.
He'd already been emailed about the captioning error, and he also had no idea how it happened.
"I think we just need to put it down to being one of those things," he said.
"I'd like to assure everyone that Mt Taranaki is indeed still in the North Island - in fact we have 700 images of the mountain on our website.
"And I've just been up there taking more pictures.
"We flew over and around the mountain at sunrise, and as the sun came up it was orange and then pink. Absolutely stunning."
Wednesday, September 24
The pied piper of Tawhiti
The pied piper of Tawhiti
By HELEN HARVEY helen.harvey@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Wednesday, 24 September 2008
BRADLEY AMBROSE/Taranaki Daily News
Nigel Ogle in his workshop.
Nigel Ogle plays the Irish pipes. Little bagpipes that sound really good when they are played well. Nigel also likes Jimi Hendrix.
He plays piano, guitar and drums and has all the equipment to amp up the sound. Lucky he lives in the country. He can make as much noise as he likes.
But it is his work in heritage and historical interpretation that he is known for, not his music. And it was this work that saw him awarded a QSM in January.
Nigel is happiest tucked away in his workshop, music blaring, making his models. He has even got a TV out there so he can keep up with what's going on in the world without really trying.
For one part of the process, he has to sit in a small room behind a square pane of glass. Visitors to his Tawhiti Museum stop and watch him at work, as if he were one of the full-size fibreglass models that tell stories of the past.
Nigel hates sitting in that room, doesn't enjoy people watching him like that. It's horrible. He's quietly spoken, shy, but because of his teaching background doesn't have a problem getting up and talking to groups of visitors about the stories they are going to see.
Usually he is out the back, but today he is working on the front counter. He greets the visitors, takes their money, offers them a brochure and tells them to turn left and then left again.
Nigel, who is aged "40 plus GST", never had a grand plan to start a museum it came about by default.
With a vague idea that he might be able to make a living from his art at some point, Nigel and wife Teresa bought the old Tawhiti Dairy Factory, which included almost a hectare of land, in the mid 1970s.
"I was mad keen on pottery and ceramic sculpture at that stage. It seemed like a good way of getting a big cheap property where we could build kilns and convert part of it into a house. It just seemed to have lots of creative possibilities."
They renovated the old house and put two kilns in other buildings out the back.
The factory was unused and just sort of sat there. Over time, it became a great place to store Nigel's bits and pieces. The first displays and models he made weren't for the public they were purely for his own interest.
Nigel has always been interested in old things old wagons, old tools just the feel and character of the things. "I love it."
He has an old flintlock musket and does a bit of black powder shooting. He takes people out with him if they are interested in seeing how the old guns work. But he wasn't always a history buff. He took history at school, but was disappointed that there was no New Zealand component. He found that component while he was at teachers' college in Palmerston North. He met people interested in New Zealand history and for the first time got into books on the subject, which in those days were a bit thin on the ground.
"By the time I got back to Hawera, I was avidly reading anything I could on local history."
The museum evolved on its own, a combination of that interest in local history and having a spare building to store his increasing collection of artefacts.
"There was never a point in time when I said, I'm going to build a museum."
He remembers a local farmer asking him how his museum was going that was the first time he thought it did look a bit like a museum. He had never called it that. It was just a big shed full of all his old stuff.
Beginning in 1980, the museum was open 10 days a year. Then, in 1988, Nigel decided there had to be more in life than teaching. So he quit, with the plan to combine what was looking more and more like a museum with his pottery.
Teresa kept teaching until 2000. She now runs the cafe and does the books.
The couple met at Hawera High School and got married while they were at teachers' college. It was Nigel's interest in art that made him decide to go to Palmerston North. And it was art that kept him there.
Art students went on a lot of field trips and one was to New Plymouth, where Nigel saw some "absolutely inspirational" teachers working on what were then called integrated programmes, where the whole programme worked around a theme maths, language, art.
"They were groundbreaking in what they were doing. After seeing these teachers working, I felt, Yeah, teaching is something I could really do, because I had really seriously considered leaving teachers' college and doing something else."
Finding out there were people who lived their art was an entirely new concept to Nigel, who grew up on a dairy farm just out of Hawera.
His father used to take the milk to the dairy factory that is now the museum. Nigel went to Tawhiti School, Hawera Intermediate, where he later taught for two years, and Hawera High School, where he taught art for 13 years.
In 1987, when their three children, Jeremy, Jenni and Paula, were still small, the family went off on an overseas holiday. Nigel came back fired up with ideas he had seen in museums around the world.
"When I came back, I thought I wanted to build the figures, the scale models, that present artefacts. They just tell stories, really, the social stories on what artefacts say."
If he was going to have a museum and charge people it would have to pay its way then he needed to look at ways to present history in an interesting way that would catch people's attention.
He couldn't just put rows of artefacts in front of people and hope by some sort of infusion process they'd understand what those artefacts meant.
An example of this is a young boy who visited with his school from New Plymouth.
He got out of the bus, threw away the worksheet he was supposed to study while at the museum and did a runner into the building.
Nigel followed him and found him entranced by a display of small-scale figures of Maori in canoes. The boy told Nigel he knew where that was, he went fishing there with his dad. Then he asked what the Maori were doing there and then he wanted to know how come they had guns. That's exactly the sort of reaction Nigel wants. In three questions, the youngster had got to the core of that display and related to it as a place he recognised and had experience of.
"If everyone who came to the museum went through the process he went through, we'd be winning."
The first models he made were ceramic. He sculpted all the body parts as one-offs and fired them in the kiln. "When I had six blow up in the kiln because I'd fired it up too quickly, I thought, Oh, there's got to be a better way to do this."
That's when he started using fibreglass, which while smelly and dusty is a stunning process, he says.
He either sculpts the figures or casts them from life.
"I've just finished a face of a guy who was working here for a while, from England." He thought the face didn't look like a Kiwi face and would be good for a sailor in his new trading display.
All of the faces of the children in the museum are sculpted, not cast. "They wouldn't enjoy the process."
Nigel uses a range of silicon products and for a cast, the person has to sit for between 10 to 15 minutes while it sets.
Some people find the process a little claustrophobic, things go dark and suddenly they are breathing through their nose and dribbles go up their nose and they cough and splutter. It's the next part of the process that Nigel loves.
"I enjoy the sculpting because once you have taken the cast, you get a very bland looking face. The eyes are closed. It's what to do with it after that that brings it to life. That's the creative part trying to turn something that is essentially a blank face into something that has expressive eyes."
Adding the hair makes it look like a real person with real expression. "We swap noses and change features and ears, aiming to make them look alive."
The little figures, in the dioramas, are started off in wax.
The are all sculpted. It's very fiddly it takes as much time to make a scale figure as it does to make a full-size figure.
"I love sculpting the small figures. I'll sit there with a lump of wax on a stick making a new face and a new head as I watch TV."
Hours and hours go into making new heads, but because he uses silicon for casting the time is not wasted. He can use them again.
"I love that sculpting of figurines and building them into display. Some people weave or knit. I sculpt figures."
And he likes it when they connect with people, which doesn't always happen in the way he expects. One day a bus group came through and a woman told Nigel he had a very romantic view of childhood because all the child figures look happy and contented. Nigel thought that was a reasonable comment.
"I saw a photo in the Daily News of a boy absolutely distraught on a piece of playground equipment in New Plymouth. I sat down and sculpted his face."
He then added two crying children to the museum. Another bus group came through. A woman saw the crying children and told Nigel that he must have had a very unhappy childhood. "I can't win."
The first day the crying little girl figure was there, a wee girl, aged about three, came in with her mum. While her mother was paying, the girl walked up to the crying figure and burst into tears. It's never happened again.
At the moment Nigel is making one full-sized figure a week. He has 60 to do for his new display.
That's pushing it along. Normally he makes about one a fortnight.
The new display is called Traders and Whalers and is looking at that very early contact period between Maori and Europeans 1820 to 1840. It is being made in partnership with the South Taranaki District Council.
"We are telling the public what we are doing in terms of stories, but exactly how we are doing it we are keeping under wraps because it is very different.
"It's incredibly exciting. I'm working on it 24 hours a day every waking moment." He has been working on it for two years and has one year to go. Despite seemingly spending every waking hour in his workshop, Nigel has time to go beachcombing, tramping around the mountain. He paints when he has time and makes bone carvings.
But it is telling stories through his museum that gives him the most pleasure. That and the four grandchildren.
They think all granddads have their own museum.
By HELEN HARVEY helen.harvey@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Wednesday, 24 September 2008
BRADLEY AMBROSE/Taranaki Daily News
Nigel Ogle in his workshop.
Nigel Ogle plays the Irish pipes. Little bagpipes that sound really good when they are played well. Nigel also likes Jimi Hendrix.
He plays piano, guitar and drums and has all the equipment to amp up the sound. Lucky he lives in the country. He can make as much noise as he likes.
But it is his work in heritage and historical interpretation that he is known for, not his music. And it was this work that saw him awarded a QSM in January.
Nigel is happiest tucked away in his workshop, music blaring, making his models. He has even got a TV out there so he can keep up with what's going on in the world without really trying.
For one part of the process, he has to sit in a small room behind a square pane of glass. Visitors to his Tawhiti Museum stop and watch him at work, as if he were one of the full-size fibreglass models that tell stories of the past.
Nigel hates sitting in that room, doesn't enjoy people watching him like that. It's horrible. He's quietly spoken, shy, but because of his teaching background doesn't have a problem getting up and talking to groups of visitors about the stories they are going to see.
Usually he is out the back, but today he is working on the front counter. He greets the visitors, takes their money, offers them a brochure and tells them to turn left and then left again.
Nigel, who is aged "40 plus GST", never had a grand plan to start a museum it came about by default.
With a vague idea that he might be able to make a living from his art at some point, Nigel and wife Teresa bought the old Tawhiti Dairy Factory, which included almost a hectare of land, in the mid 1970s.
"I was mad keen on pottery and ceramic sculpture at that stage. It seemed like a good way of getting a big cheap property where we could build kilns and convert part of it into a house. It just seemed to have lots of creative possibilities."
They renovated the old house and put two kilns in other buildings out the back.
The factory was unused and just sort of sat there. Over time, it became a great place to store Nigel's bits and pieces. The first displays and models he made weren't for the public they were purely for his own interest.
Nigel has always been interested in old things old wagons, old tools just the feel and character of the things. "I love it."
He has an old flintlock musket and does a bit of black powder shooting. He takes people out with him if they are interested in seeing how the old guns work. But he wasn't always a history buff. He took history at school, but was disappointed that there was no New Zealand component. He found that component while he was at teachers' college in Palmerston North. He met people interested in New Zealand history and for the first time got into books on the subject, which in those days were a bit thin on the ground.
"By the time I got back to Hawera, I was avidly reading anything I could on local history."
The museum evolved on its own, a combination of that interest in local history and having a spare building to store his increasing collection of artefacts.
"There was never a point in time when I said, I'm going to build a museum."
He remembers a local farmer asking him how his museum was going that was the first time he thought it did look a bit like a museum. He had never called it that. It was just a big shed full of all his old stuff.
Beginning in 1980, the museum was open 10 days a year. Then, in 1988, Nigel decided there had to be more in life than teaching. So he quit, with the plan to combine what was looking more and more like a museum with his pottery.
Teresa kept teaching until 2000. She now runs the cafe and does the books.
The couple met at Hawera High School and got married while they were at teachers' college. It was Nigel's interest in art that made him decide to go to Palmerston North. And it was art that kept him there.
Art students went on a lot of field trips and one was to New Plymouth, where Nigel saw some "absolutely inspirational" teachers working on what were then called integrated programmes, where the whole programme worked around a theme maths, language, art.
"They were groundbreaking in what they were doing. After seeing these teachers working, I felt, Yeah, teaching is something I could really do, because I had really seriously considered leaving teachers' college and doing something else."
Finding out there were people who lived their art was an entirely new concept to Nigel, who grew up on a dairy farm just out of Hawera.
His father used to take the milk to the dairy factory that is now the museum. Nigel went to Tawhiti School, Hawera Intermediate, where he later taught for two years, and Hawera High School, where he taught art for 13 years.
In 1987, when their three children, Jeremy, Jenni and Paula, were still small, the family went off on an overseas holiday. Nigel came back fired up with ideas he had seen in museums around the world.
"When I came back, I thought I wanted to build the figures, the scale models, that present artefacts. They just tell stories, really, the social stories on what artefacts say."
If he was going to have a museum and charge people it would have to pay its way then he needed to look at ways to present history in an interesting way that would catch people's attention.
He couldn't just put rows of artefacts in front of people and hope by some sort of infusion process they'd understand what those artefacts meant.
An example of this is a young boy who visited with his school from New Plymouth.
He got out of the bus, threw away the worksheet he was supposed to study while at the museum and did a runner into the building.
Nigel followed him and found him entranced by a display of small-scale figures of Maori in canoes. The boy told Nigel he knew where that was, he went fishing there with his dad. Then he asked what the Maori were doing there and then he wanted to know how come they had guns. That's exactly the sort of reaction Nigel wants. In three questions, the youngster had got to the core of that display and related to it as a place he recognised and had experience of.
"If everyone who came to the museum went through the process he went through, we'd be winning."
The first models he made were ceramic. He sculpted all the body parts as one-offs and fired them in the kiln. "When I had six blow up in the kiln because I'd fired it up too quickly, I thought, Oh, there's got to be a better way to do this."
That's when he started using fibreglass, which while smelly and dusty is a stunning process, he says.
He either sculpts the figures or casts them from life.
"I've just finished a face of a guy who was working here for a while, from England." He thought the face didn't look like a Kiwi face and would be good for a sailor in his new trading display.
All of the faces of the children in the museum are sculpted, not cast. "They wouldn't enjoy the process."
Nigel uses a range of silicon products and for a cast, the person has to sit for between 10 to 15 minutes while it sets.
Some people find the process a little claustrophobic, things go dark and suddenly they are breathing through their nose and dribbles go up their nose and they cough and splutter. It's the next part of the process that Nigel loves.
"I enjoy the sculpting because once you have taken the cast, you get a very bland looking face. The eyes are closed. It's what to do with it after that that brings it to life. That's the creative part trying to turn something that is essentially a blank face into something that has expressive eyes."
Adding the hair makes it look like a real person with real expression. "We swap noses and change features and ears, aiming to make them look alive."
The little figures, in the dioramas, are started off in wax.
The are all sculpted. It's very fiddly it takes as much time to make a scale figure as it does to make a full-size figure.
"I love sculpting the small figures. I'll sit there with a lump of wax on a stick making a new face and a new head as I watch TV."
Hours and hours go into making new heads, but because he uses silicon for casting the time is not wasted. He can use them again.
"I love that sculpting of figurines and building them into display. Some people weave or knit. I sculpt figures."
And he likes it when they connect with people, which doesn't always happen in the way he expects. One day a bus group came through and a woman told Nigel he had a very romantic view of childhood because all the child figures look happy and contented. Nigel thought that was a reasonable comment.
"I saw a photo in the Daily News of a boy absolutely distraught on a piece of playground equipment in New Plymouth. I sat down and sculpted his face."
He then added two crying children to the museum. Another bus group came through. A woman saw the crying children and told Nigel that he must have had a very unhappy childhood. "I can't win."
The first day the crying little girl figure was there, a wee girl, aged about three, came in with her mum. While her mother was paying, the girl walked up to the crying figure and burst into tears. It's never happened again.
At the moment Nigel is making one full-sized figure a week. He has 60 to do for his new display.
That's pushing it along. Normally he makes about one a fortnight.
The new display is called Traders and Whalers and is looking at that very early contact period between Maori and Europeans 1820 to 1840. It is being made in partnership with the South Taranaki District Council.
"We are telling the public what we are doing in terms of stories, but exactly how we are doing it we are keeping under wraps because it is very different.
"It's incredibly exciting. I'm working on it 24 hours a day every waking moment." He has been working on it for two years and has one year to go. Despite seemingly spending every waking hour in his workshop, Nigel has time to go beachcombing, tramping around the mountain. He paints when he has time and makes bone carvings.
But it is telling stories through his museum that gives him the most pleasure. That and the four grandchildren.
They think all granddads have their own museum.
Wednesday, September 17
State of grace(land)
By HELEN HARVEY helen.harvey@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki D
Elvis is not allowed inside the house. Or in the car, at work or down the pub. He is confined to the garage. And Hawera's biggest Elvis fan, Kevin David Wasley KD to his mates is quite happy about that.
He doesn't have tunnel vision. His whole life doesn't revolve around the king of rock 'n' roll. But part of it does ... and has done for more than 45 years.
KD was about 12 when he first heard Elvis Presley sing. But it wasn't until he saw what the singer looked like that he became totally hooked. He saw the cover of an EP record with a black-and-white head shot of Elvis taken side on.
"The way his hair hung down in front motivated me to find out what Brylcream was." Later, KD's parents banned mirrors from the house because he was always combing his hair.
His hair is gray now, but KD still has the same swished-back hairstyle. And he still has the sideburns.
Wife JJ has never known him without the sideburns, though his three now adult sons, David, Greg and Chris, once planned to shave one while their dad was sleeping. Their mother talked them out of it. Just as well, KD growls, or they would have been sleeping out here.
Elvis is not allowed inside the house. Or in the car, at work or down the pub. He is confined to the garage. And Hawera's biggest Elvis fan, Kevin David Wasley KD to his mates is quite happy about that.
He doesn't have tunnel vision. His whole life doesn't revolve around the king of rock 'n' roll. But part of it does ... and has done for more than 45 years.
KD was about 12 when he first heard Elvis Presley sing. But it wasn't until he saw what the singer looked like that he became totally hooked. He saw the cover of an EP record with a black-and-white head shot of Elvis taken side on.
"The way his hair hung down in front motivated me to find out what Brylcream was." Later, KD's parents banned mirrors from the house because he was always combing his hair.
His hair is gray now, but KD still has the same swished-back hairstyle. And he still has the sideburns.
Wife JJ has never known him without the sideburns, though his three now adult sons, David, Greg and Chris, once planned to shave one while their dad was sleeping. Their mother talked them out of it. Just as well, KD growls, or they would have been sleeping out here.
Saturday, May 10
A giant billboard in Auckland is telling thousands of city drivers a day to get their bums to Taranaki.
The billboard is promoting Taranaki as part of AA Travel's 101 must-do weekends advertising campaign and reads: Get your bum to Taranaki.
Hanging above Newmarket's Khyber Pass Rd, the billboard is on one of Auckland's busiest routes and has raised the eyebrows of some city dwellers.
Newmarket Business Association general manager Cameron Brewer, a former Taranaki man, is amused by the billboard and is bemused some people are offended by it.
"Some precious people have rung me and told me they think the language is a bit crass for upmarket Newmarket. One person even wanted me to complain to the Auckland City Council and try to get rid of it," laughs Mr Brewer, pictured in Auckland.
"I love the billboard. In fact people have suggested I was the one who organised it given I'm so pro-Taranaki. It makes me homesick every night I drive under it."
Mr Brewer, who grew up near Hawera, says about 60,000 cars drive down Khyber Pass Rd every day. He says the billboard is great free advertising for Taranaki.
AA Tourism general manager Peter Blackwell said the whole 101 must-do campaign has the theme of "get off your bum New Zealand".
"The premise is we spend enough time on our bums on the couch, so people need to get out there in the world and get off their bums," said Mr Blackwell, who also used to live in Taranaki. He said the AA hadn't received any complaints about the billboards but there had been some about the television advertising.
The billboard is promoting Taranaki as part of AA Travel's 101 must-do weekends advertising campaign and reads: Get your bum to Taranaki.
Hanging above Newmarket's Khyber Pass Rd, the billboard is on one of Auckland's busiest routes and has raised the eyebrows of some city dwellers.
Newmarket Business Association general manager Cameron Brewer, a former Taranaki man, is amused by the billboard and is bemused some people are offended by it.
"Some precious people have rung me and told me they think the language is a bit crass for upmarket Newmarket. One person even wanted me to complain to the Auckland City Council and try to get rid of it," laughs Mr Brewer, pictured in Auckland.
"I love the billboard. In fact people have suggested I was the one who organised it given I'm so pro-Taranaki. It makes me homesick every night I drive under it."
Mr Brewer, who grew up near Hawera, says about 60,000 cars drive down Khyber Pass Rd every day. He says the billboard is great free advertising for Taranaki.
AA Tourism general manager Peter Blackwell said the whole 101 must-do campaign has the theme of "get off your bum New Zealand".
"The premise is we spend enough time on our bums on the couch, so people need to get out there in the world and get off their bums," said Mr Blackwell, who also used to live in Taranaki. He said the AA hadn't received any complaints about the billboards but there had been some about the television advertising.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)