G'day Jolly.

No mate by 1967 I was in Aussie Long distance trucking, but getting back to 60/8. Our outfit used to cart all Stevies super up from Awatoto mate, and at any one time during Stevies development of that huge block there'd be up to 13 truck and trailers and it was spread by his own DC3 aircraft.

To get to his top airstrip (he had 2 airstrips) in winter, and as it was too steep for our rigs (lost traction) he'd have a bloody great D9 waiting for us at 5.0 am after our drive up from Napier and he'd hook on to 4 or 5 truck and trailers (we were all chained up together) and away we'd all go under power.

Those bloody photos of SF have brought back some beautiful memories of yesteryear....SF's hubby was a bushman.

Beer o'clock too.

Those Titiraupenga photos tell quite a story...he was asked to go in there with his HD21 as a "trouble shooter" and mill rimu to get the Crown to come to the party on a Waitangi claim. They sure came to the party as the timber started rolling...quite an exciting time...I should write a book
I never knew whether he ws going to be home at night or in jail. It all ended well with a successful claim

Now that is a very good idea, Silverfern. There are many books to be written by our GrownUp friends. I am waiting.

G'day again SF.

Those photos....when were they taken as it appears the rig (truck) is an R600 series Mack so that puts it in around the mid to late 70's...subject to how affluent the own of the truck was.

Cheers love.

Is that Hubby driving the HD21 SF??

It would have been about 1986. Yes he was on the HD21 ..... nobody else would have been stupid enough to drive it where he did...used to load the trucks straight off the skids with it. Dont know much about the truck...we had outside contractors carting.

Hey love,

That's the difference aye.... at least we had a spirit of adventure. You did not know your boundries till you put yourself to the test, and this testing oneself should never stop.

Cheers love.

Luv it SF and SQ and the others .. That was the way then, and us ones a wee bit younger should appreciate the HARD work that went on by the ones before us but as a teen that was the last thing on my mind lol.

When we were starting work late 60s ,we could really say life had done a huge turn ,and what we thought was hard work, was a walk in the park..

Loved the pics n the whole reminiscing of it. Just wish our parents were computa users ,,cos they would have such a ball...A couple of our aunties are so we share updates with them..


Cheers Kai

Hey Kai,

You'd better get you oldies sorted right out as they'd have one hell of a story to tell, and I for one would love to hear it, being fairly involved with similar folk.

Cheers love.

We were given a really beautiful video of the whole background of the claim when it was all settled. Unfortunately most of the main players have passed away now. I do have a lot of hard copy photos...no digital cameras or computers in those days.

I know SQ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, its like trying to get blood out of a stone,Lol

At 81 some think they are living in a time warp ,,,,n others are happy to share the memories....,,,,


When I said I was writing bout growing up in NZ for all of ours n Moko, it was WHY ????

Thats in the past the young ones of today arent interested!!!

I do tho,,, respect the opinion ,,,,cos thats what we are all about!!!!

Think its being a widower and not having the other half to buck them up
I also feel that they are worried bout it makin a Hollywood movie,,, like my book, maybe,,,, so wanna stay outa the limelight in case they are having a bad hair day

I get blamed for the grey hair on them and I wasnt even there!!!!!!

Cheersy Kai


Cheers Kai