New Zealand, 1976

[doubs43]

I spent two wonderful, memorable weeks in New Zealand in January, 1976, as part of Exercise Triad. It was the first joint exercise combining US, NZ and Australian military forces for increased security of the region. I was lucky enough to be able to travel a little while there and the following images are Kodachromes, now almost 31 years old. I used an Olympus OM-1 and OM-2.

The cat and the slogan on the side of the dumpster caught my eye. This was taken (IIRC) in Palmerston North.


This is an active volcano on North Island.


There's a speed boat on the river and sheep grazing in the meadow in the distance and on the near slopes.


These three delighful young women obviously knew their picture was being taken. They were awaiting their turn at scullery practice in Wellington.


Walker

[herron]

Walker:
Somehow the "Black Power" graffitti takes on a whole new meaning with that cat!

And those young ladies are the epitome of innocence and charm....almost makes you wonder what they are like as 40-somethings!

[kiev4a]

Beautiful shots! Old Kodachromes, unlike memories, never fade.

[John Parry]

Great shots Walker!

Two memories sprang up from this post. One was from Sembawang in Singapore back in 1970, when there was a 'SEATO' exercise. Our merchant ship was in dry-dock there, but the Royal Navy was still in overall control. (Our ship was one of the first commercial vessels ever to dry-dock in Sembawang). There was HMS Bulwark, with her complement of escorting frigates, HMAS Canberra with hers, a couple of American cruisers and destroyers (they didn't go in for painting the names very big did they?)

We went to the NAAFI, which was the naval base "pub", where we were allowed to drink until 9pm (Officer's Inspection time when they got rid of all the riff-raff), and then went into the village. By some massive coincidence it was pay night for all the ships in the SEATO fleet, and all the boys were out looking for trouble. When the bars heaved everybody out at 12 o'clock there was the biggest punch-up I've ever seen in my life! Luckily, as Merchant Navy, we were exempt, so we bought ourselves fish & chips and sat eating them as we watched the action. Know who were the only ones left standing at the end of the scrap? New Zealand Marines - most of them Maoris. You really don't want to tangle with those boys!

And on a lighter note! Although I was born and raised in Manchester (which is where I got my football allegiance), I have lived in Wigan for the last 30 years. Although Wigan have a football team who have 'come up through the ranks' and are doing very well, Wigan is basically a Rugby League (like American Football but they don't stop for a break every two minutes for the commercials - sorry that was below the belt!) town. Anyway, like most Rugby League clubs, Wigan have a large complement of Australian and New Zealand players. The club owns a number of houses in 'nice' areas where the overseas players live for the duration of their contracts.

Turned out that my daughter's best friend Melodie, while at primary school, was the daughter of one of those players. 'Sam' used to love coming around to our house with his lovely wife, son and daughter. What made it special for him he said, was that I couldn't care less about Rugby (wrong shaped ball for me), and as long as he was there he was no longer Sam Superstar - he was Melodie's dad.

Which is just about all that any father can hope for!

Regards - John

[doubs43]

John, what wonderful memories. My only experience around the Maoris came one afternoon on North Island when a gentleman by the name of Roy Carmody - an NCO in the NZRAF - took us on a trip that I've always been thankful for. We stopped for a dip in a local swimming pool heavily populated by Maoris. They weren't openly hostile but it was easy to see that we weren't particularly welcome there.

One of our guys left his wallet, along with his clothes, in the dressing room and when he returned, all of his money was gone. Roy suspected one of the Maoris but only the money was missing and who knows? Anyone could have taken it so it may be unfair to blame the Maoris. The rest of us kept our clothes and valuables with us.

Roy, BTW, was a fantastic host and we saw more on that day trip than almost the rest of our time there. The Kiwis threw a party for us before we left with a gas-cooled tank of Lion's Brown beer on a trailor pulled by a Land Rover into one of their hangars. I think it held 100 gallons of beer and few were left standing that night!!

Walker