Christchurch The 1St 10 Years
So I set off for Christchurch in 'The Van'. Over to Picton on the Aramoana then down the coast to Christchurch.
John the Alcan South Island Rep ,helped me settle in and I originally stayed in lodgings in Bealey Ave before then boarding with a relative of my old night school tutor Frank at 24 Burwood Rd
I fitted in very well with the others at E C Gough Ltd and the job was much as had been described. I travelled extensively throughout both islands in the company car (a Mark 3 Zephyr) visiting customers old and new.
Not having to return to base each week meant that I simply stayed where I was for the weekend thus my knowledge of New Zealand geography is pretty substantial.
One thing I did do though was to attend church each Sunday wherever I was, This too added to my overall knowledge.
In those days toll calls were quite expensive, countrywide RTs non existent and the same applies to cell phones.
I had a Stenograph (a dictating machine) mounted in the car, and EVERY NIGHT without fail I recorded my day's activities and mailed the tape back to the office in a special tube.
This way at least they know where I was, who I had seen etc.
I do recall one night I was at Criterion Hotel in Napier about 9 p.m. (in the bar probably) when George rang and said I needed to be in New Plymouth by noon the next day. A 7 or 8 hr. drive. This then became my life!
Over this time I do not know just how many customers I met (there must have been thousands) many of whom actually became firm friends.
Not that I was away from the office all the time – but as I had the Motor sport Calendar on my office wall most people could guess when I was going to be around or else away.
One of my work colleagues was Errol, who handled incoming orders and one day he asked if he could borrow 'The Van' to collect his sister from the Airport and take her to the Railway Station to catch the train 'back home'.
I said “Sister?.Sister?. How old is she?? 18 !!So I agreed as long as we could all spend the waiting time together. Pat and I married three years later.
In the meantime I carried on much as before working my ass off and travelling extensively.
Whilst not supposed to use my company car on motor sport events (yeah right) I still had 'The Van' and it was used considerably.
Mind you it is strange how so many events that required officials just happened to be where I was staying for work.
Whilst not entirely true, we could describe the way the company worked was that each area of the
country had its own Sales Representative who if they unearthed a big job I was called in to seal the deal.
It was typically up to eighteen months from initial enquiry to completion and payment for the job.
Not instantaneous by any means.
One product we sold was F&P Traffic counters.
This lead me to associate with Traffic Engineers throughout the country and piqued my interest in that industry – very much so.
We added other similar products to the line, created a Traffic Engineering Division and managed to include 'The Van' in our various brochures and advertising material.
I designed the SORT (Special Oval Road Tube) which had ridges across the bottom and did not roll like others did.
We also made small traffic control systems.
One of the more interesting products though was the Solartron Radar Simulators.
The role of simulators is reasonably well known, they allow training that would be pretty much impossible in real life unless disaster struck.
The commercial use (in our case) was a Radar simulator to cover the Wellington/Picton Ferry route.
It allowed a wide variety of wind direction and speed, similarly tide direction and speed etc.
It was possible for ferry masters to 'drive' the ship in either direction from one little room, and be observed by an examiner or such outside.
This was my excuse to do several trips on the bridge of the various cook strait ferries.
I was also given some grounding in a little 60ft 'Enterprise' the other end of the spectrum to look at (read hold on tightly) their real radar.
Although I tried many times during our installation and commissioning to manoeuvre a ship to dock in either Wellington or Picton I never actually managed to do it successfully.
The other version was for military purposes, and here we had the installation at the Navy's Navigation and Directional School at North Head in Auckland.
This installation had two rooms set up to reflect (as far as was humanly possible) those of the frigates Canterbury and Otago.
The main control room was able to 'throw all sorts of challenges' at them including enemy aircraft and similar.
Once more without putting any one in real danger, but still honing really important skills.
The Naval Simulator
The Cook Strait Ferry Simulator
Top and middle – THE INSTALLATION AT TEKAPO Bottom – RIGHT INSIDE THE NEWMARKET VIADUCT
In each of the simulator installations it was not unusual for the participants to appear from the respective rooms ashen faced – the simulators being so realistic.
It was here that I learned the difference between having the radar being set to either Ships Head Up, (where you are pointing) or North Up (just like having an eye in the sky showing where you are).
Another good learning curve for me.
Another product we were very proud of was Data Loggers. These were (are?) digital versions of a multipoint recorder.
Taking data from up to 1000 points (20 was more normal) processing it and then 'printing' it out. For the installation high in the Southern Alps behind Cass (for the University of Canterbury Geography Department) it was temperature and rainfall being outputted to 8 hole punched tape.
For the installation at Tekapo, 40 temperature readings were printed out on the one electric typewriter. Strain gauges, measuring movement in bridges, to milk flow from cows – we did it all!!
Whilst Pat was training in Dunedin, that city became 'very well served' by the Instrumentation Specialists from E C Gough Ltd. Say no more. George also had sisters there so there was always a bit of juggling to who would do Dunedin next week.
Pat then got a job at Mairehau High School (by now she was a qualified Secondary School Teacher) living in her own flat (I continued to board by this time with Mr & Mrs Bates. )
Pat and I did not live together until after our marriage
But we were organised enough to buy a section, arrange a mortgage and have a house built to suit supposedly for us to move into straight after our honeymoon – which incidentally was spent organising the Lakeland Rally to Queenstown.
This way we got company car to use and all expenses paid !!
We married at St Martins in Lincoln Rd, where I was already a 'lay reader' taking services from time to time, on Saturday 6th Jan 1968. I had just turned 27, Pat was 21, the same day as NZ Grand Prix.
And no the house wasn't quite finished.!
It was a 1200 sq ft house with 3 bedrooms on a full quarter acre opening on to a sweeping drive. Which with the double garage built by ourselves and the carport could park (and often did) at least 10 cars!!
I did the wiring of course.
I had always felt that houses had been built with insufficient power points so ours had a double power power point every six feet around every wall in the house. We ended up with a total of some 73 power points. They were all at waist height , no more scrabbling around the floor to plug something in. I also wired a speaker system into every room.
Top – LOOK AT THE SPEEDO Middle – EVENT PLOTTING Bottom – GYMKHANA
Being Christchurch and having decided on a concrete floor we embedded heating cables therein. We also insulated the ceiling and had two Revo night storage heaters too.
In those days power was normally supplied to ordinary houses by overhead wires – but this was not good enough for me (us) we had 3 phase underground cabling, and incidentally one phone line feeding our PABX and a ph in each room.
Not that it was all beer and skittles once we did move in.
To say money was tight would be an understatement.
Someone lent us a little portable TV which we placed on a chair and we did not even have a couch we could sit together on.
What we did plan though was to be mortgage free by the time I was 40.
This gave us 13 years to pay off a 25year mortgage and it is something we did actually achieve,
Possibly because of our layout and there were obviously other reasons too, 42 Gainsborough St became the meeting place not only for work colleagues but motor sport and others too.
About this time I had to write an article for a magazine booklet to be entitled 'Electrical Heating of Christchurch Homes'.
It was to be 5000 words, and I just sat down and wrote it from end to end pretty much in one sitting. Finding it now may be something of a problem though!
Errol Inwood and I organised the 1970 Shell Silver Fern Rally the 1st Marathon Rally in the South Island. And I still have the real framed Silver Fern subsequently given by Shell Oil, on my wall.
Another real highlight of our lives to date was our involvement in the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
We had been organising a VERY large Motor sport Rally covering both Islands as an associated event of the Commonwealth Games when because of the oil crises in 1973, our major sponsor Shell Oil felt it was not a good look for them to be involved with and we had to cancel.
This meant that they had shelled out thousands of dollars for no return but just the kudos for doing the right thing.
I therefore offered the services of our team to the Games Organisers – they jumped at the opportunity to have us as an already organised team.
We ran newsflash control.
We had one of our team giving verbal input from each venue (9 in all) including all medal ceremonies and anything else of possible interest. This came back to either Errol (Pat's brother) or myself at Newsflash control and we either patched the feed through or regurgitated the information ourselves.
When we pushed the button we brought about 100 or more speakers to life throughout the city and another 700 media headphones.
We had to operate from about 8 a.m. till about midnight.
Originally we were going to use 3 people each on duty once per day. But Errol and I decided it would be better with just two – him and me. We still had the 3 shift format so it meant one day one of us would do morning and evening the other would do afternoon. Swapping around each day.
When we were not on duty our passes got us into the event of our choice. So we both spent our 'not on duty' time at some venue or another.
So what this meant was we were 'working' if that is the term from 8 till midnight for some 15 days without a break.
But wait there's more. We used to 'have to' socialise (read drink) with media reporters till probably 2 or 3 a.m. each morning. Yes Pat was one of the team!
Once the games were over , tired but happy doesn't even start to describe it.
This was INDEED one of the highlights of my life.
Meanwhile I continued working hard, travelling extensively. by this time I had graduated to a Mark 4 Zodiac – the nicest car I have ever had the pleasure to drive ( except perhaps the brand new Toyota Aurion I had the pleasure to drive some years later from Wellington to Auckland) then later in 1974 Pat found herself pregnant.
We were not really fussed either way, not over the moon. but not worried either. We prepared one of the bedrooms for the new arrival and all was going sweet until a week or two before due date Pat was rushed to Chch Women's Hospital and was delivered of a stillborn boy.
We named him Charles.
BUT most of you have never seen me really angry.
What the hospital did was put her in an open ward with other mothers who had had (live) babies!!!!
Not even in a room of her own!!!
I ranted and raved, eventually rang and appealed to our own GP who rushed in and negotiated that I could take her home forthwith – which I did.
It is not an experience I would recommend to anyone.
In 1976 Kathryn(Louise Lillian) was born followed in 1978 by Lucy (Elizabeth Mary).
We agonised over the name Lucy in case she found it too old fashioned so having Elizabeth and all its derivatives as another option, as a middle name seemed a sensible move. This gave us a Kat and Goose. Names that seem to have stuck with them ever since.
I was about to move into my next sphere – Traffic Engineering
Mark Iv Zodiac
The Gang
The Van
Oops
More Drama
