I remember the Plains well as I had an Uncle who owned a farm at Kerepehi, near Paeroa. He was not an "uncle" in the strict sense of being a relative, but was an old army POW friend of my father's. Brian Wiggins and his wife Buster had three daughters and they treated me as a son during my holidays with them.
The second of these when I was 11 or 12 could be termed a "working Holiday", as I worked as a farm hand learning to milk, hay-make and take an active part in the day to day routine of dairy farming. Throwing hay bales and stacking them on a truck, or in the shed, was also a great muscle building activity,
Earlier holidays on the farm had seen me roaming the hedge rows looking for birds eggs to add to my collection. This I might add was well before the days of conservation so a Pied Stilt egg was highly prized as was the art of being able to 'blow' and egg to remove the yolk inside without damaging the shell.
Two other memories I have of these times were learning to ride a motorbike - a Norton 500CC - and doing a 'ton' (100 MPH) as a pillion passenger on the same bike; clinging on, literally, for dear life to the jacket of the farm labourer who was the proud owner of the machine. This was also without any form of crash helmet which in hindsight was foolish in the extreme.
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| Church - Waihi Click on the image to see the larger version |
The Martha Mine started as an underground digging but later in its life open cast methods were used. With the high price of gold it was reopened in recent times.
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| White Shed - Martha Mine Click on the image then click again to see the larger version |
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