Holiday Travel

Christmas Holidays 1972

 

Over the holidays at the end of the 1972 school year, the children and I decided to spend three weeks touring the South Island.

 

In the previous August, we had a trial run, a trip to Taranaki and Wanganui, with a tent and small stove for cooking.  We camped at Hawera and Wanganui (Kowhai Park as I remember it) and visited our cousin, Alison, in Wanganui while we were there. It seemed to work well.

 

So almost as soon as the 1972 school year was washed up for the children (Judy in Form II and Terry in Standard 4), we left, with a hired Leroy's canvas tent in the boot of the car, and headed for the ferry in Wellington.

 

The first night on the other side of the strait we camped at Goose Bay, close to Kaikoura, and explored the rocks of the sea-shore there and the town and sights of Kaikoura.

 

Our next stop was at Spencer Park, just north of Christchurch, where we stayed for about four days. I can't remember what we did in Christchurch, but I'm sure we visited the usual places, like the Cathedral, Sumner Beach, and Lyttelton.

 

From Christchurch we headed on down State Highway 1, with a stop at Timaru, and arrival in Dunedin on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas morning with Don and Fran and their children in Dunedin, and had dinner with them at noon, enjoying getting to know the family of four, who were similar ages to our two.

 

Later in the afternoon we headed off, and turned inland up the Central Otago highway towards Queenstown, stopping near Lawrence to pitch our tent for a few nights, while we explored the southern part of the island.

 

We had a day trip to Invercargill, including looking across the strait from Bluff to Stewart Island, and another to pan gold in the Kawerau Gorge, until we shifted camp to Cascade Creek, up the valley from Te Anau on the Milford Road.

 

After visiting Milford Sound, and celebrating the New Year at Cascade Creek, we shifted again, this time to Arrowtown motor camp, where we found a tiny space among the hundreds of visitors, while we explored the Queenstown area.

 

Then we headed north up the Haast road, then recently opened, towards the West Coast, but the moment we crossed the divide, it began to pour with rain, and we stopped for the night at Fox Glacier, and woke in the morning with a couple of inches of rain running through our beds!

 

So we packed our stuff in the boot as best we could and headed on through the downpour, looking for sun and warmth to dry out. We eventually found some fine weather when we reached St Arnaud, in  the Nelson Lakes National Park. So we pitched the tent in the motor camp at the outlet to Lake Rotoiti, on the bank of the Buller River, and let ourselves enjoy the warmth again.

 

We walked around the lake the next day, and then, on the next, Terry and I climbed the range of mountains to the east to look down the valley towards Blenheim. This was the afternoon Judy stayed back, because she had a bad headache, the first symptom of what we later found was her brain tumour.

 

A couple of days later we drove down the Wairau Valley to Blenheim, and caught the 2 am ferry to Wellington, sleeping in the car in a suburban Hutt street, before driving on to Hastings and a stopover in the motor camp, before our last day's trip home to Auckland.

 

I counted it a success, really; the kids pulled their weights in setting up and packing the tent and our other belongings, and we were a pretty close team for those three weeks; a wonderful memory, really for Terry and me, of our last holiday with Judy.

Family History 2.07

Bigelow History: pre-1630

 

Berenguer Ramon, Count of Barcelona

 

Berenguer Ramon succeeded his father in 1018 as a young child, and was controlled by his mother, Ermesunde, who was a strong, dominating woman. As a result, Berenguer Ramon is portrayed as weak and ineffective as a ruler. Even when he became of age, his mother refused to relinquish her regency, and continued to rule the county along with him.

 

 

The nobles of the districts under his rule were always spoiling for a fight with the Moors, because they were able to enrich themselves from the plunder they took in raids. But Berenguer Ramon was a peaceful man, who maintained good relations with his neighbours, like the Moorish leaders, and the Pope, and especially with his own overlord, the King of Navarre.

 

In fact, Berenguer Ramon was always plotting with the Navarre ruler how to get the better of the King of Toulouse.

 

Anyway, the result of the strain between the nobility and his mother, her inability to meet their demands, and Berenguer Ramon's ineffectiveness in dealing with them all, meant that the power of the county was eroded. In the event Ermesunde split the area into three counties and gave each of Berenguer Ramon's three sons a share each.

 

Berenguer Ramon died in 1035.

More Paihia Politics

Paihia Community Council (continued)

Over the next few years we worked on three developments: rating, planning and sewerage system. 

When the time came for the striking of the annual rates (the County Council let us do this ourselves) we wanted to make sure that the people who used the services paid for them.  Being a tourist town, Paihia has to provide amenities for tourists, which few of the locals need. 

We found our answer in differential rating, which had recently been approved by Parliament.  When I had been in Wellington at a PPTA Conference in the preceding months, I called in to the Local Government Department and talked to the gentleman there about the differential rating rules.  He said if we wanted to, we could charge a different rate for houses with red rooves, and another for houses with green rooves, and so on. 

So I did some research and some trial runs and eventually came up with a proposal that accommodation businesses should pay twice the rates of residential properties, while other businesses should pay 150% of the residential rate. We discussed this in the council, on the basis that this would reflect the usage of the tourist amenities, because tourists were the ones who used the motels, while we all shared the shops. 

The proposal was approved by the Community Council and the County gave it the rubber stamp. Some residential ratepayers found themselves with a lower rates bill; the commercial people were reasonably happy to carry their share and the residents were delighted. 

The time came round for the review of the district scheme under the town planning legislation. So we prpared a series of objections and cross-objections to the planning proposals for Paihia, and submitted them. We appeared before the Planning Committee, which was chaired by Sir James Henare, and, as is common in such cases, we had around half of our proposals accepted. 

(Sir James was the last Colonel of the Maori Battalion in 1945; he was mentioned in a programme on Anzac Day on Maori TV about commanders of the battalion.)

By this time I was attending the County Council meetings each month; chairs of community councils were allowed to attend and speak but not, of course, to vote. I rarely spoke unless asked, preferring to defer to the local County Council member, who was our old colleague, Les Eden. But I chatted with the members over lunch and this kept us in the loop of council affairs. I particularly enjoyed getting to know Jim Henare.

Family History 2.06

Bigelow History: Pre-1620

Ramon Borrell, Count of Barcelona

 

 

In the year his father (Borrell II) died, 993, Ramon Borrell married. His wife was Ermesinde of Carcassonne, and they had three children.

 

From 1000 to 1003, Ramon had to deal with several marauding attacks from the Muslim ruler, Almanzor, to the south, but he died in 1002, so Ramon attacked in retaliation. He and his allies defeated Almanzor's son at the Battle of Tora. They also fought another battle at Albesa soon afterwards.

 

Further incursions into Muslim territory occurred between 1010 and 1012, and again about 1015, while the Muslims were involved in their own civil war. Ramon was able to reward his vassals with plunder taken on these expeditions.

 

Ramon was responsible for further encouragement to repopulating some of the deserted lands nearer to Barcelona, and was the first Catalan ruler to issue his own coinage.

 

He died in 1017.

Update on Political life

1969 - 1975

By 1969 I was living in Takapuna and was one of a few Labour members in that area. The North Shore candidate was Don Dugdale. Because Labour was so weak in North Shore, our Electorate Committee was combined with the neighbouring electorate and we met with them. In fact as I remember it only Ian Harris and I were active members. 

1972 was my first year in the Bay of Islands, living in Kawakawa, and our candidate was Richard Hendry. I accompanied him on Friday nights through the Kawakawa shopping centre taking turns haranguing the crowds through the loud-hailer. We were not surprised when National won Hobson; the popular story was that the National Party had only to stand a sheep in Hobson to win. 

At the 1973 Waitangi Day celebrations I watched Norman Kirk and heard him speak. The next day I met him at a Labour Party lunch. We discussed the flagstaff at Waitangi and why the Union Jack was flown from the top of the staff. We had both wondered if this was an old naval custom. The next year the Queen visited and her first gesture to Mr Kirk on her arrival was to present him with a New Zealand flag to be flown from the top of the mast at Waitangi. 

Local Politics 

At the 1974 local body elections I was persuaded to stand for the Paihia Community Council.  The Bay of Islands County had for many years had a handful of small towns operating with town councils: Kerikeri, Russell, Kawakawa, Moerewa, Opua, Paihia and Haruru Falls. In the event I was successful, along with three or four others.  

So during 1975 I was getting to grips with my responsibilities as a town councillor. The other members were Les Eden, who had been around for many years, and knew all about the town, Mark Hatherley, who became a close friend, John Williams, who ran a motel at Te Tii Beach, and Leo Bennett.  

Later in 1975 Les Eden moved over to take up the local seat as a member of the Council proper, and the members elected me to the chair to take his place. John  Pullen, the local bookseller, was appointed by the County Council to fill the vacancy. We all worked together pretty well for the next three years and became good mates. 

Williams and Pullen represented the commercial sectors of the town, while Hatherly, Bennett and I were residents. This was a good balance and we got through a lot of work. 

The first thing we did was build a boat-ramp. The boaties were tired of complaining about delays at the only boat-ramp in the area, the one at Waitangi next to the wharf.

We decided we could organise to have one at the southern end of Te Haumi Bay, the last beach before Paihia proper. So one Saturday morning all the Council members turned up very early at low tide and by 10 o’clock there was a new ramp ready for the boaties. 

Of course, we should have followed the rules – town planning, discussions with the Marine Department and Harbour Board and so on. But DIY won and the last time I looked the ramp was still there. Very naughty!

My Anzac Day

(In 1977, I was Chair of the Paihia Community Council, and conducted the Anzac Day ceremony at the local memorial. Here is the oration I wrote and delivered that morning.)

ANZAC DAY 1977

 

 

We have met to remember the price of war

And the value of the merchandise we got in return:

 

 

Let us remember the lives of those who died in battle;

Let us remember families shattered, scattered and homeless;

Let us remember beauty destroyed and good wasted;

Let us remember the toil and effort given to saving lives that should never have been put at risk;

Let us remember our friends and neighbours whose fitness, or happiness, or prosperity is still affected by old injuries and shocking memories;

 

 

Let us contemplate the waste of the earth’s resources,

                                    Waste of human intelligence and strength,

                                    Waste of capital and labour,

                                    Waste of emotion and waste of life.

 

 

At this cost we have received the freedom to live in peace;

At this cost we have received the freedom to choose our work;

At this cost we have received the freedom to bring up our children in an open society;

At this cost we have received the freedom to express our own opinions and think our own thoughts;

At this cost we have received the freedom to act with others, or alone, on the basis of our opinions.

 

 

On this day we do not only remember the past;

We look forward with hope into the future.

The only guarantee of a peaceful future is that

We recognise the cause of war and resolve to avoid it.

 

 

 

The cause of war is failure to look at the world from the other person’s point of view;

The cause of war is greed in the hearts of ordinary citizens;

The cause of war is greed of armament manufacturers who stir up trouble in hope of greater profits;

The cause of war is taking the easy way out: reaching for a gun when negotiation is difficult;

The cause of war is oppression of one nation by another;

The cause of war is the oppression of minorities by majorities, even in the name of democracy.

 

 

Let us resolve that the price of war shall never be paid again:

 

 

In the name of Gallipoli let us resolve to scale the heights of greed in our minds and in our economic life;

In the name of Passchendaele let us set ourselves against ignorance and narrow-minded bigotry which regards people of other nations as sub-human;

In the name of Monte Cassino let us resolve to treasure the good we have inherited from the past;

In the name of Coventry and Dresden let us resolve that never again shall rulers be elected out of hatred, fear and ruthless self-interest;

In the name of Stalingrad let us resolve to defend our freedom of action as individuals and as a society, wherever it is threatened;

In the name of Auschwitz let us resolve to help the powerless, the weak and the defenceless, no matter how much they may be the objects of prejudice or hatred;

In the name of El Alamein let us resolve to surround our children with such affection and good example that they may resist the temptation to violence;

In the name of Dunkirk let us resolve to build the future on truth, honesty and peace.

 

 

Let this be why these men died;

Let this be why we live.

 

Family History 1.111

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

Momentous Times (continued)

In his Presidential Address to the Baptist Union Assembly Noel said: “It is indeed a wonderful age in which to be alive and I am not suggesting that we be indifferent to the momentous events that are constantly happening about us.  Speed is now measured by thousands of miles per hour, height in hundreds of thousands of feet.  Men have crossed the poles and sailed under them, have climbed the treacherous heights of Everest, sent not only sounds but pictures to the other side of the earth in split seconds; have hurled not only sputniks but humans at unbelievable speeds around our earth; have brought back pictures from the outer face of the moon and have made weapons capable of destroying all life itself.” 

The revolution in household equipment was just as great: from coal-range to gas-stove and electric oven; refrigerators, washing-machines, electric irons and electric heaters.  Best of all these was electric hot water.  Which was not without its problems.  In the early electric heating systems, such as the one at Ruarangi Road, there were no thermostats, and Noel regularly had to rush out on Sunday mornings to turn off the heater, with hot water blowing out the steam vent on the roof like an old-fashioned Zip heater. 

He was also intensely interested in political change.  His post-graduate studies focussed on Constitutional Law.  He always admired the political system of the USA, and preferred it to the Westminster system of UK and New Zealand. (His admiration took a dent when he was required to be fingerprinted to get a visa to travel to the US in 1956.)  By the time of his death New Zealand had shifted from being “The Britain of the South” to falling much more under the leadership of the United States. 

Even the British system itself underwent massive changes during Noel’s life.  Women gained the vote finally in 1921, a generation after New Zealand.  And after the Second World War the vestiges of the old unreformed democracy were swept away when the House of Commons seats for Oxford and Cambridge Universities were abolished.  By 1945 the Labour Party in the UK permanently replaced the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives.

Sketching Week 15

A busy week

Here is the best portrait of the week:

 

 

In the Listener late last year was an article about voluntary euthanasia. This is a portrait of one of the medical people involved in the debate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been trying a series of cityscapes featuring major intersections in the city. Here is the corner of Devon Street and Liardet Street, looking south up Liardet Street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday our U3A Sketching group met for its fortnightly exercise. This week one of our members had prepared a still life.  This is my effort:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today our U3A geology group travelled to Wai-iti Beach half an hour north along the North Taranaki coast, beyond Urenui, to where the discontinuity is visible in the cliffs, just the same (or almost so) as the one we noted last month in South Taranaki. In other words, the same strata are piled up on the north coast as on the south coast.

 

Here is what I noted down quickly to remind me of the scene this morning.  It was a beautiful clear, still day, and I was looking south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family History 1.109

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

Momentous Times 

Noel was in later years very aware of the momentous times through which he had lived. Twice in his lifetime the world had shifted on its foundations.  And his years were marked by a series of amazing technological inventions. 

The first few years of the Twentieth Century were a period of change.  The awareness of that change did not become common until the Great War had been running for some months, but the death of Queen Victoria in 1900 really did signal a change in the atmosphere. 

Probably the greatest change we can see from a century later is the attitude that the community, as organised in the state, has a responsibility to improve the lot of its needier citizens.  In Victorian times, private charity by individuals and large voluntary organisations was the norm.  But by the first years of the new century, the responsibility for welfare was being taken up by the Government.  In the UK this happened under the leadership of people like Winston Churchill and Lord Beveridge, and in New Zealand it had already started under Seddon and Reeves a few years earlier. 

But even in the Nineteenth Century, the most far-sighted of philanthropists had also seen that there was a role for them in working in Parliament to have the laws changed to make life less brutal for the urban poor.  One of the most notable of them was the Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, whose work was admired by many liberal-minded people in the English speaking world.

So great was this admiration, that Fred and Julia gave their son the second name of Shaftesbury. 

The second shift, was a political and international one.  The lines in Europe had always been drawn between the German area of influence and the French one.  Along with the German princes and the Austrian Emperor went England.  On the side of France were Spain and some of the Italian states.  But by the early years of the Twentieth Century the balance had shifted.  The UK became more friendly with its old enemy, France, and they forged links with the Russian Empire, thus surrounding the nations of central Europe. 

Noel’s father was named after a Prussian King, probably under the influence of a German doctor whom Charles met on the ship on his way from London, who had worked for the Prussian rulers and sang their praises all the way from one side of the world to the other.  By 1902 that would not have been so likely.

(to be continued)

 

Family History 1.110

Momentous Times (Continued)

The inescapable difference between the second half of the Nineteenth Century and the first half of the Twentieth was the difference between peace and war.  In the Victorian era wars were little skirmishes fought on the edges of the Empire against under-resourced enemies who were little more than “noble savages”. Stories of the Indian Frontier battles and of the Boer War filled the pages of the boys adventure magazines which were so popular and which Noel read eagerly. In the Twentieth Century, wars were titanic struggles between heavily armed Empires fighting for their survival. Several of Noel’s cousins served in Europe in the Great War. His family had constant reminders of the effects of the fighting. And in the second war a second cousin, Viv Eady, was lost: Missing in Action navigating a Kittyhawk over the islands. 

Edward VII’s values were anything but “Victorian” and the hints which the public got of his activities out of the media spotlight during his days as the Prince of Wales blurred the edges of the classic straightlaced Victorian rectitude, of which the Royal Family was the model. His son, George V, from 1910, reversed the trend somewhat during the days of the Great War, but by and large the relaxation of Victorian taboos went on throughout the Twentieth Century. 

The year which marked the beginning of the real landslide is 1956, when a court case in the UK released Lady Chatterley’s Lover from the strict censorship which banned it.  1956 was also the year when the old maxim “The British Empire Right or Wrong” took a severe hammering from the British and French Governments’ attempts to browbeat Egypt over the Suez Canal.  Imperialism was no longer possible in a world which had seen countless colonies of all the major European Empires gain independence. And we remember it as the year of the beginnings of modern popular music: the Beatles and Elvis Presley. 

But the changes which struck Noel most were the technological inventions.  During his lifetime, radio, invented in the nineties, became a real everyday tool. When he was two years old the first powered aeroplanes took off.  In his fifties he travelled regularly by air. Motor cars became a universal phenomenon. Steam replaced sail finally on the sea-routes of the world. One of Noel’s ambitions was to travel in the greatest of all steamships, the Queen Mary. In 1956 he did.

 

(to be continued) 

1973

A new property

1973 was the year of Judy's illness and eventual death. I have posted the story of that year in her life last November, at the time of the fortieth anniversary of her death.

But things were happening for me as well.

When Judy finished intermediate school at Takapuna, the plan was for her to join me in the Bay of Islands. So I found a roomier two-bedroom flat at Te Haumi Beach on the road between Opua and Paihia.

When Judy got sick and was due to come home from Auckland Hospital, I realised that we needed more privacy and space, so I looked around for a house.

 

Properties in that part of the world were scarce, and the only house available that was at all suitable was a three-bedroomed house on Maori lease land at the bottom of Puketona Road, a few metres from the beach at Te Tii. Puketona Road is the one that leaves Paihia and heads to Haruru Falls and then on towards Kaikohe and Kerikeri.

I had saved enough for a deposit at this stage, and because I was a teacher on my first stint in  the country, I was entitled to a 5% State Advances loan.

 

When Judy came back from hospital in Auckland, it was to this house that she came.

 

While Judy was living there with me, and with Mary also with us to help look after Judy, I was involved with another tragedy.

 

I had become friendly with Ginny Hastie, one of my school colleagues, and we regularly shared transport to and from school. There was no particular attraction involved; we were just good mates. Ginny had two teenaged daughters, one of whom was still at school at our College.

 

One night after Judy, Mary and I had gone to bed, the phone rang, and it was Ginny's younger daughter to say her mother was very ill, they couldn't get a doctor, and could I come and help, because she couldn't think of anyone else handy to call. So I dressed and went round.

 

Ginny was sitting up in bed looking pretty sick. Her daughter said they had tried to get a doctor, but the nearest was at Russell, twenty minutes away by launch. The ambulance had been called from Kawakawa.

Almost immediately Ginny brought up her dinner. I said "So much for dinner!" trying to make light of it. She said, "So much for tea....(ching!)" and dropped dead.

We were assured there was nothing we could have done to help; it was a massive heart attack.  Ginny was pronounced dead when the ambulance arrived a few minutes later.

This episode left me feeling very shocked and depressed for about a week. I wandered around in a gloomy daze, going through the motions of normal life.

 

t the end of the year, after Judy's death, I bought a sunburst sailing dinghy, named "Solace", which seemed appropriate, and learned to sail it, largely with the help of Derek Challis.

 

 

Family History 1.108

 

St Leonard’s Road, Mt Eden

 

The last house Noel lived in was this 1930s structure near the south-eastern boundary of the Mt Eden Borough. St Leonard’s Road runs from Mt Eden Road to St Andrew’s Road, between Watling Street and Landscape Road. 

It is a long way from any shopping centre, when you think that Mary did not drive, but in those days there was a dairy on the corner of Empire Road and St Andrew’s Road, in reasonable walking distance.

 

 

Below the house, in the valley was a reserve area which stretches through to Watling Street.  All around were houses of similar age or older. 

The house was very high at the back with a basement.  Kitchen and dining room were in this back area, with a lounge immediately in front of the dining room.  Bedrooms were in the front of these rooms, with a glassed porch on the front left as you looked at the house from the road. 

Like Grange Road, the front door was straight off the driveway on the right hand side of the house. Most of the section was at the back in the hollow.  There was a drive running down the right hand side of the section to a large single garage beyond the house.

 

 

Family History 2.05

Bigelow History: pre-1630

Borrell II, Count of Barcelona

 

About 945, Borrell and his brother started acting as counts of Barcelona, along with their father, Sunyer.

 

Sunyer died in 950, and the two brothers worked together until Miro died in 966, leaving Borrell as sole ruler of the area now known as Catalonia. In those days, Borrell was regarded by his courtiers as "Duke of Gothia" (Gothia being the name for the old Visigoth kingdom which stretched roughly from Marseille to Taragona, on both sides of the Pyrenees).

 

Borrell was not a great military leader, having to accept defeat in a couple of battles with the Moors, but he was a competent diplomat, maintaining good relations both with the Moorish regime in Cordoba, and the Frankish regime to the north-east. He was also on good terms with the Papacy and the Roman emperor.

 

A patron of the arts and culture, Borrell helped with the education of promising young people, including a future Pope. He also continued the family tradition of endowing monasteries and strengthening the church's administration, and encouraging its leaders to take an independent line from the French Bishops.

 

In 985 Barcelona was attacked by the Moors and Borrell was defeated and the city largely destroyed. In spite of urgent calls to the French king, no help arrived, and the people had to rebuild their lives after the battle. Catalans regard this episode as the birth of their nation's independence in 987.

 

From 988, Borrell's sons began to help their father with the administration, and in 993 he died.

Family History 1.107

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

Churchill Road, Murray’s Bay

 

The first house built in this road, right at the top of the rise, on the landward side of the street, with a superb view down the Rangitoto Channel, was a novel design, now unrecognisable. 

In 1955 it had a butterfly roof, two low-pitched rooves which met in the middle.  As you looked at it from the street, it had a lounge/living room on the right in front and a kitchen behind that, about half as wide as the lounge.  Behind the kitchen was bathroom and toilet and a back bedroom. 

The Murrays Bay house around 2000

On the left of the lounge was the main bedroom, with another bedroom behind it.  The feel of the house, with its painted walls, bare floors, and undeveloped section, was very much of a holiday bach. 

The toilet was a separate shed down the back path, which contained a large black tin which was collected weekly by the nightcart men (during the daytime). 

The section and all the surrounding open areas were poor soil, covered with stunted grass and very low manuka plants.  In the wet weather the clay was slippery and the water poured off  the land into the drains and streams.  The street was unsealed at that stage, before the Harbour Bridge was built. 

But the North Shore Bus Company ran its buses along Beach Road at the bottom of the hill, about 500m away and so contact with the city by bus and ferry was very possible.  Driving to Murrays Bay from the city was more of a problem.  Most times of the day or night, there was a long wait in the ferry queue both ways.  Sometimes you could get a quicker trip by going by the Northcote vehicle ferry rather than the Devonport one. 

But to be sure of getting there in under an hour it was best to travel by the Great North Road to Riverhead and then through Albany and East Coast Road to the East Coast Bays.  When the Northwestern Motorway was opened to connect Pt Chevalier with Lincoln Road, that cut the time down considerably. 

Family History 2.04

 Bigelow History: Pre-1630

 

Sunyer, Count of Barcelona

 When Wilfred the Hairy died in 897, his two sons, Wilfred II Borell and Sunyer, jointly ruled the counties they inherited from their father.

 

In 911, Wilfred II died and Sunyer became sole ruler. He continued Wilfred's programmes of strengthening the populations of the border areas and building up the power of the church in those areas.

 

But instead of just standing ready to defend his domains from the Moorish kingdoms to the south, he actively sought to extend his control in that direction. But in 912 he was defeated by his neighbouring Moorish ruler, only to succeed in defeating and killing him in 914.

 

After the borderlands to the south had remained empty for fifteen years or so without incident, he started to repopulate them.

 

936-7 he made further gains against the Moors, but a few years later the Muslims sent a fleet to attack Barcelona and Sunyer was forced to eat humble pie.

 

In 947 he retired to a monastery, where he died in 950.

 

Bay of Islands College again

Extra-curricular

School outdoor education camps were beginning to be part of the programme at that time. I was involved in much of this work. One year we held three five-day camps on end for Third Formers in December and I ran the first and third ones.  All were at McLeod’s Bay on Whangarei Harbour, where we did rock-climbing, canoeing, yachting, overnight camping, seashore biology, and generally learning to rub along together. 

For the two years when I owned a yacht sports afternoon each week meant taken a team of around eight youngsters for a sail and teaching them the rudiments. I was not the only yacht-owner on the staff who did this, and several of us regularly sailed back later in the afternoon after the kids had had a great sail around the Bay. 

For three years I was an officer of the Far North Region of the Post-Primary Teachers Association, and visited the very small branches at the Area Schools at Houhora, Panguru, Punaruku and Taipa. I also attended two or three PPTA conferences in Wellington in the August holidays. When the teachers’ pay was put onto computer operated by the Auckland Education Board, I was able to help several of my colleagues who had mistakes made in their pay. The Education Board were very efficient at fixing them. 

We were also pioneers in the setting up of Ethics Committees, which in those days were for settling disputes between members of the Association. I had to chair a committee that was called because two of the teachers at a neighbouring school were at loggerheads, had been for years, and we tried to sort out their differences. 

One of my closest colleagues was Roger Taylor, who came to work in the English Department after crewing on the replica of Endeavour which was wrecked off Parengarenga Harbour after sailing from North America. He had also taken part in the Trans-Tasman solo race from New Plymouth to Malooloobah in Queensland, sailing the smallest ever entrant, a 19-foot concrete-hulled midget.  He was rolled completely by a wave in mid-Tasman but survived without damage because of the simple design of his boat: a clean wooden deck with no superstructure at all, and the possibility to stay below in the hull and sail the boat without coming out. 

My other close workmate was Frank Jones, a gentle, phlegmatic, quiet, solid teacher, Deputy Principal, and a great colleague.

Sketching week 14

More portraits this week, two new Zealand celebrities, from photos in  the Listener:

 

John Clarke

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and John Key

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And from a photo taken when we were in Granada in 2008, the Alhambra on its hill overlooking the old city:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next meeting of our U3A Sketching Group is on Easter Monday.

Bay of islands beginning

A New Experience

I started work at Bay of Islands in February 1972. And I was left in no doubt that this was a different world from Auckland in the first week. I had rented a flat in Kawakawa near the College, and in the first week of term Kawakawa was hit by a deluge. The lower parts of the town were flooded and traffic in and out was halted. 

I ended up with about a dozen students staying overnight marae-style in my flat because they, and lots of others, couldn’t get home. 

I was determined that we would set a high standard from the beginning: the sixth formers were taken to the local cinema on the first morning to see a film currently on the circuit. It was (unless my memory is faulty) a James Bond thriller. The students then had to write a review of the film for homework for the next Monday. 

Also in the first few days was a gala day to raise funds for a school gymnasium. I was asked to help the Biology teacher, Derek Challis, who was organising an art exhibition. Derek knew many of the best New Zealand artists, painters and sculptors, and had twisted arms to gather an impressive collection of works, by such names as Len Castle, Don Binney, Colin McCahon and Michael Illingworth. 

The best thing about this project was that it gave me the opportunity to get to know Derek, and his wife Lynne, and we became good friends.

 

This is the Bay of islands College staff in 1972. I am on the left of the front row. Third from left is Danny Walker, science teacher who organised the pyrotechnics for Mikado. Then Frank Jones, Deputy Principal, and Frank Leadley, our Principal. Front right is Diane Oliver, music teacher, who looked after the musical side of the productions. Derek Challis is fourth from left in the back row.

I continued my policy of giving the students a choice about teachers, and about textbooks to study. But probably the best thing about Bay of Islands College was that it did not prohibit outings. 

So eventually we organised trips to other High School drama productions, like Kerikeri and Dargaville, and even to Auckland to the Mercury Theatre. 

I was dragged in to the school production in the first year: Mikado. I modified the text a bit to set it locally, and had the science teachers produce some spectacular explosions to co-incide with Katisha’s appearance at the end of the first half. I was impressed by the keenness of many of the staff to help in one way or another. It was a real learning experience because of that. 

In subsequent years we put on “Music Man”, “Annie Get Your Gun”, “South Pacific”, “Viva Mexico” and, best of all, “Kismet”. We eventually developed a system of running the musical for a whole week, with two casts alternating their appearances. People came from around the Bay of Islands area to see them.