Alexandra and Grandfather
My grandfather was travelling in Italy and was driving to the next town late at night. His hosts gave him a coffee, so strong and sweet that the spoon stood up in it.
This is why children aren’t allowed to drink coffee.
Declan and Poppa David
5 generations of our men have always fished and caught fish from the sea to feed their families.
Davids grand father, father, david, Ryan and now Declan.
Sea is important to us... it feeds us physically and spiritually.
The sea has to be respected..
Davids connection to the sea influenced him joining the navy.
Elise and Grandma Nelly
Grossmama - a Swiss children’s song
Det ene am Bergli, det stoht e wissi Geiss,
I ha si wöle melche, do haut si mer eis.
Hole duli, duli duli, hole duli duli duli duli
Hole duli, duli duli, hole duli duli duli du.
Si hät mer eis ghaue, das tuet mer so weh.
Jetz melch i minner Läbtig kei wissi Geiss meh.
Hole duli, duli duli, hole duli duli duli duli
Hole duli, duli duli, hole duli duli duli du.
~
Over there, at the little mountain, there stands a white goat.
I wanted to milk her, but she hit me.
Hole duli...
She hit me, and it hurts me so much.
Now I won’t ever milk a white goat again, as long as I live.
Hole duli...
Emily and Grandmother Sue
"Share a smile, they are free.
Pass it on and you'll make someone happy and get it back.
You can always find a reason to smile in your day."
Ethan and Grandad Parker
Grandad used to make toys out of wood- usually oak. He made wooden cars we can still play with.
Once he accidentally made a sheep. The wooden sheep is one of the animals on our farm. His carving looks really nice, because he has a kind of saw or chisel that he can take tiny bits out.
He is so clever- and he is still alive!
Eva and Great Grandmother Mere
Great grandmother Mere was really affected by the felling of the kauri in the Kauaeranga valley near Thames where her family had lived for generations. As each huge, ancient tree was cut down and pushed down the valley leaving so much destruction in its wake, she would round up the mokopuna and take them to the spot to mourn the tree with karakia and tears.
She was a strong woman and even in her 80s would walk from Coromandel Town to Mt Albert to see her family.
Fleur and God Grandmother Leana
Once when I was in Kenya I was given a birthday present to go in a hot air balloon. We got up at about 4 o’clock in the morning and there was fire and noise and I was scared to go.
I could see lots of animals from the sky. There were warthogs and I saw a little dot... but it was actually an elephant!
I was really scared of the landing. Someone had told me it was going to be a really good landing or a really bad landing. Luckily it was gentle. There was a tree at the bottom where we were going to have breakfast, but baboons were waiting for us. One was hiding behind a tree.
Flore and Grandma Jenny
Every time I go walking I always remember things I did in Stanley Bay when I was Flore’s age, like playing in Ngataringa park.
The tennis court was there, but the Naval Base was called the ‘sandies’ as it was still being reclaimed, and was mostly sand. We used it as a playground, and would play with all the kids from Glen Road there. We also swam a lot off the wharf. There used to be another wharf at Stanley Bay that went out from the right hand side of the beach in the 1950s. That was where the school had its school swimming sports, as there was no swimming pool.
I grew up in Devonport (in the house we live in today) and so did your great great grandmother that came in the 1920s from England to New Zealand.
Frankie and Nanny Jaye
When I was 5 years old I was swinging on the railings beside our back door steps. As I swung around I landed with my chin on my knee biting off part of my tongue! Ow!
Great-Grandfather Johann and Christian
My ancestor, Great- Grandfather, Johann (John) and his wife Elizabeth came to New Zealand from Bohemia (which is now part of the Czech Republic in Europe) on the ship the “War Spirit”, arriving June 29th 1863 (160 years ago). He was only 21 and he and his wife were part of the group who were the first founding settlers of Puhoi. They had been lured across the oceans by the promise of free Crown land for small farms, but on arrival after a 4 month sea voyage, they found the valley had little flat land and was hemmed by thickly forested hills.
They would not have survived without the help of the local Maori chief Te Hemara Tauhia who gave them food and showed them how to live off the land. Clearing the bush for pasture provided income. Firewood, kauri roof shingles and logs were sold in Auckland.
Johann built the first store and hotel in Puhoi. These buildings are still there today including the original house he built, behind the hotel.
One of Johann's children was John, my Grandfather, He had 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls and one of these was my mother, who is also a twin, like you.
I spent most of my school holidays at my Grandmothers house in Puhoi behind the hotel.
Great-Grandfather Johann and Sebby
(This is the same story as Christian, above)
My ancestor, Great- Grandfather, Johann (John) and his wife Elizabeth came to New Zealand from Bohemia (which is now part of the Czech Republic in Europe) on the ship the “War Spirit”, arriving June 29th 1863 (160 years ago). He was only 21 and he and his wife were part of the group who were the first founding settlers of Puhoi. They had been lured across the oceans by the promise of free Crown land for small farms, but on arrival after a 4 month sea voyage, they found the valley had little flat land and was hemmed by thickly forested hills.
They would not have survived without the help of the local Maori chief Te Hemara Tauhia who gave them food and showed them how to live off the land. Clearing the bush for pasture provided income. Firewood, kauri roof shingles and logs were sold in Auckland.
Johann built the first store and hotel in Puhoi. These buildings are still there today including the original house he built, behind the hotel.
One of Johann's children was John, my Grandfather, He had 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls and one of these was my mother, who is also a twin, like you.
I spent most of my school holidays at my Grandmothers house in Puhoi behind the hotel.
Hunter and Great Grandmother Elise
Elsie spent time in the beautiful green Welsh hills in her early 20s. This poem is by the Welsh poet, WH Davies, and it was an inspiration for her to write her own version later in life in the 1980s. Elsie spent many hours volunteering with the “Save our trees” in Sydney.
This precious original paper is in her own handwriting. I have treasured it for years, but now I have great pleasure in passing this on. I know my dear mother, Elsie, your grandmother and great grandmother, would be so happy to see how as a family, YOU so often make the time to “stop and stay” and enjoy nature and life‘s easy journey.
Isla and Grandad
One Christmas morning when we woke up, we saw one of our pet sheep bobbing up and down in our swimming pool...
We thought it was dead, but it wasn’t! So we fished it out of the water and it took a LOOOOONG time to get dry! When you squeezed him, there was a puddle of water flowing down the drain.
Lucy and Grandma Tammy
When I was a young girl, my favourite holidays were the Christmas Holidays. When School finished for the year, my parents would pack up their caravan and we would drive down to the Gold Coast. We had a big old car, with no seatbelts and no air conditioning. It was a long hot drive and my brothers and I would always be fighting with each other in the back seat. We didn’t have a radio or phones or Ipads to play on.
Once we were set up at the caravan park on the beach for the six weeks holiday, my dad would go back to work and only come and join us on the week-ends. We would get so excited on Friday afternoon waiting for him to turn up. When Dad arrived we would all go on a walk up the long street with the shops all lit up for Christmas. At the end was a fancy milk bar and we were allowed to get an ice-cream. I looked forward to this all week.
Just before Christmas, we would go into the bush and my father would chop down a fir tree. We would all drag it back to our caravan and put it in a bucket of sand. We decorated the tree with bits of coloured paper and milk bottle tops, pine cones and whatever we could find. Mum would buy some coloured paper and we would make paper chains and string them up in the annexe, which was attached to our caravan.
One year I got a pogo stick for Christmas. It was the best present I’d ever had and I spent hours and hours jumping around the caravan park on it.
We had a box of comic books and twice a week we were allowed to go to the Book Exchange Shop where you would take your 3 comic books back and take out 3 other comic books. Of course, I read them that very same day and couldn’t wait to exchange them for another three. By the end of the holidays, I had read every comic in the Book Exchange Shop.
Sometimes, my brothers and I would help the fishermen pull in their fishing nets. When the fish got close to the beach, we would run into the water and grab a big mullet by the tail and take it back for mum to cook up. We loved eating fresh fish in egg and breadcrumbs.
My brothers and I learnt how to surf the waves and skim board in the shallow water. We would build lots and lots of sandcastles and I would do the best fairy castle decorations. By the end of the holidays, my hair would be bleached white by the sun and I was as brown as a little berry.We were always so sad to pack up our caravan and say good bye to all our summer holiday friends. It would seem to take forever for the next Christmas holidays to come around.
Lucy and Great Grandpa James
The story of JAMES!
This true story was retold by Lucy.
James was 16 when his parents died. But a little while later he joined the navy and he went on a 6 month boat journey from Scotland to New Zealand. But it sank when it nearly hit land. and everyone died except James.
So he literally walked from all the way from the tippy top of the north island, all the way to Wellington. It took him ages to walk that far. He did some stops for food and rest because no human can live without food and rest on a walk like that. If he could, he would be a human god.
When James finally got to Wellington he built a big house and it turned out the house was actually worth billions of dollars -so he sold it … but if he didn't sell it I would be dirty rich like my family (but sadly he sold it) but it's still a pretty good story.
Lulah and Louise Wallace
In the school holidays we went to the zoo- my mother and sister and brother.
We were all enjoying looking at the animals , but after a while I realised I couldn’t see my mother. I was very scared and started to cry.
A nice woman came over to me and took me to the office. They decided a good place to meet up would be the elephant house. They announced over the loudspeaker that a little girl name Louise was lost- and to come to the elephant house to collect me. When they came we were so pleased to see each other! But I have never forgotten being lost in the zoo and I always watched where my mother was... and this became a family story- The day Louise got lost at the zoo!
Lyra and Grandad John
Our family name is a Scottish one. It means:
“A deer drinking from a stream”
And we have a family shield with a picture of that on it.
Mila and Grandad
When I was young, we made ourselves a little tree hut in a big tree.
All the kids in the neighbourhood used to go there. We kept lots of our treasures up there and would play board games like snakes and ladders or monopoly. You had to have a password to get up there and you weren’t allowed in if you forgot the password. No parents were allowed. We used to park our bikes at the bottom of the ladder and keep an eye on them from a little window in our tree hut. We used to play dress ups too and would get dressed up in pirate uniforms.
It was really good fun.
Mila and Oma
My Oma was one of the 11 kids in her family, and they lived on a farm in Holland.
When Oma was 12 the house was too busy with so many kids so Oma was sent to boarding school an hour away by train. She had her own room but it was really, really small. In it was a bed hanging off the wall and a cupboard with fabric for a door. To wash they used a large bowl to wash themselves. Oma didn’t like boarding school, the nuns were very strict and she was often punished for sleepwalking. The nuns also got very angry when one day they walked a long way to the ocean, but weren’t allowed to swim. The girls all went in anyway (in their bloomers) and the nuns were yelling from the shore. For breakfast they had toast and for dinner they ate beans. They sat at very long tables in a food hall. And every school holiday, when they got to go home, they all got apple pie, but only on that day. They had no uniform but they wanted a uniform so they felt unlucky.
Oma did not like boarding school, and was pleased when she got to go home to her family. She was at boarding school for 2 years.
Nina and Sue
When I was a child who lived on the sheep farm near Fielding, one spring when your baby lambs were being born dad brought home, a hungry land whose mother had died.
He gave it to me to feed with a bottle of warm milk and said I could have her for my very own pet. She had white wool and a black oily face. I called her Topsy and she grew up to be a very friendly sheep.
Olive and Grandad and Nana
Grandad, Damon and Nana, went away with a friend of Grandad’s to sail the friend’s yacht to Kangaroo Island, which is just off the coast from Adelaide. The body of water is called The Great Australian Bight, where the movie Jaws was filmed for some of the shark scenes.
We left on a beautiful New Years Eve day with light winds. After a few hours there were some sudden gusts of winds, and twice grandad was nearly knocked off into the sea by the swinging boom. Then a few hours from Adelaide it became very windy and seas became rough. The man whose boat it was became very seasick and went down into the cabin after vomiting and collapsed onto the floor . He went into a deep sleep. Grandad took over sailing and I helped. Damon was in the cabin and playing games or reading. We sailed into the night….I probably had a little bit of sleep on and off. After a while as the sun was beginning to rise I noticed Grandad was struggling to stay awake. I told him to go and have a sleep and that I would sail the yacht.
Imagine my surprise when he tied me onto the boat and told me to head back to Adelaide.
There were big waves and deep valleys, everyone else was still trying to get some sleep. There I was...
Then I happened to look up at a wave… And there above me was the underbelly of a large shark, it was about the length of the boat! Thank goodness the wave and shark didn’t fall!
We got back to Adelaide a few hours later.
Oliver and Grandad John
In World War 2 Denmark was invaded by the Germans.
Grandad remembers the day the Germans left. He was 5 years old. They left Denmark in long lines walking home back to Germany which was south of Denmark.
When the English came the danish people celebrated by lining the streets and throwing flowers at the English soldiers.
Far Far (grandads dad) was a local policeman.
After the war life was hard. Food was scarce, clothes hard to come by.
Savannah and Poppa
I remember when I was young and used to visit my Grandparents’ farm over the school holiday breaks . The farm was just outside Waiuku, on the Manukau Penninsula.
My brother and I had many adventures on these breaks- and some were more memorable than others… like going surfing on home-made sleds, made by Grandad. You rubbed the bottom with a candle to get the wax on the surface. We started from the top of a large sand dune (Hamiltons Gap) and set off for the bottom. Then trudge back to the top and do it all again!
...And to go fishing at Te Toro and Grahams’ beach for sprats and piper. Te Toro was the best for sprats and we used to only keep the large ones (up to 250mm long) and take them back to the farm for Nana to cook up for breakfast. She always rolled her eyes when Grandad bought us back with a catch- but My! They were yummy!
...Or if it was Grahams’ beach, Grandad and Uncle Tris, used to help us with the fishing net off the beach. We used to catch sprats, piper, flounder and mullet in good numbers. Uncle Tris would smoke all the mullet, Nana got the sprats, piper and , best of all, flounder -Yum Yum!!
Stanley Bay Primary School
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