Living here in Perth West Aust has been, like retracing my foot steps. As a young lad of 15yrs and 6weeks I was here in this very city, (that was forty two years ago dam!!!) I need to explain, at the tender age of 14yrs I decided to join the navy, however I was not old enough, that's what they told me at the seaman's union in Auckland, when I tried to sign up come back when your 15!! was what they said, still they took all my details including my phone number, I was still at college and living in Auckland with my mom and dad and many other people. (whanau)

Almost one week after my 15th birthday dad comes to see me at my, after school job at the local fruit & veg store, !!I need to talk to you!! he says he then tells me, he had a phone call from a seaman's union they need a deck-boy on a ship called the Kawatiri and the ship is in Mt Maunganui, why didn't you tell me about this and when did you join the seaman's union, all these questions and information my mind was racing needless to say, excited.

Well after my dad consenting and the family getting over the shock, next day I was at the NZ Road Service bus station downtown Auckland about to board for Tauranga then there, a taxi to collect me for Mt Maunganui, well after the bus trip and taxi to the ship I was a bit disappointed, you see I thought I had signed up for the Royal Navy, guns uniform etc etc, after the taxi driver telling me, !!no son this is the Merchant Navy! and none of the above, so one can't blame me for being disappointed.

I board the ship and found the mess-room, and was shown to my cabin, which I shared with the mess-man, I met him not long after I fell asleep, (which was no easy feat
I was still very excited) he woke me, and said that's your bunk up there (above his) this is the couch, silly bugger was what I heard him say after walking out of the cabin, and he smelt very strongly of beer, something I had to get used too as time went on.  The next day we set sail for a place called Port headland, didn't have a clue where this Port Headland was, but I wasn't gonna ask anyone and appear clueless, so I kept it to myself for 3 days. However after being out of sight of land for at least 2 days I thought surly the Sth Island can't be that far away, yep! I thought we were heading to Port Headland somewhere in the Sth Island of NZ, well I almost jumped overboard when told we were heading to Western Australia.

The first person I thought of was my mom what is she gonna say when she finds out I 'm in Ozzie I was so excited as well, all this happened in June 1965 those days you didn't need a passport to enter Australia, well it took 17 days to reach our destination and when I finally got ashore to look around
I thought if this was Ozzie I wasn't at all impressed 3 houses and 1 shop which sold everything even grog and my 1st encounter with aboriginal they were eating and drinking under a tree a group of about 6 or more, I had never seen people so black and I must have stood there for at least 10 Min's before one of the men from the ship pulled me away and we headed back to the ship. 24 hours later after loading gypsum, we set sail for Fremantle, Port of Perth city. Not long after docking we heard due to malfunction in the engine of the ship we would be here at least 6 days everyone of us deckhands were glad it meant for the men more time ashore pubs etc, me I was to young to go the pub also it was not what I wanted to do anyway, I wanted to explore and shop and go to the pictures and milk-bar and restaurants the 1st day ashore after getting my pay 2 weeks wages heaps of money more than I ever seen in my whole life I headed for the milk bar, than after I caught the train to Perth city, wow! this was much better, what a beautiful city it was then and still is. 1st a haircut, then some shopping, then a feed, I must have walked for miles around the city, shops galore and many people, from that day on I must have been the best dressed deck-boy in NZ, I eventually headed back to Fremantle and the MV Kawatiri , my ship it wasn't a very big ship about 7 thousand tonnes, maybe a hundred metres in length and total crew of about 18, included 8 deckhands (me) 2 cooks (1st & 2nd)2 stewards 2 motormen, and 4 officers, including the Captain. I was the deck-boy a job I enjoyed, work for everyone, deck crew mainly started after brekky (the food at sea was awsum) 8.am my job was cleaning, the cabins of the deck crewmen also mine and the mess-mans, and last was the toilets and showers just the deck-crew the rest of the crew were served by the 2 stewards, who were quite often Gay and most were good workers and clean, they would often give me tips on cleaning.

I was a deck-boy for 1yr, getting back to my first trip, after Fremantle we set sail for Busselton still in WA, there another small town, however unlike Port Headland this town had a bit more to offer other than a pub, a milkbar and pictures (movie theatre) one of the unique things about Port Busslton was the mile long Jetty then if one needed to go ashore you had to time it to catch the train which was used to load and unload the ships and the last run was 5pm up to the town,so you had to finnish work earlier to catch this train ashore, comming back after dark was not so good that mile long walk along the jetty to the ship was no easy task espececially for some after the pub. One night we had all met @ the top of the jetty me after the movies and others from pubs ... etc our engineer dicided why walk when we can all board the train standing there and ride back on the engine,once he had workout how to start it we were up and running in no time, that was great fun me and and all these drunken seaman hanging of this little green engine the next day one very mad train driver had to walk all the way to the ship take it back to pick up the wharfies and rail trucks to begin unloading our ship.

Late that evening we set sail for Melbourne and I was told it was a big bustling city I remember the men dicussing what they were going to when we docked in Melbourne, 1st to Cloe's Bar to see Cloe then onto other bars and pickup a few women then back onboard for a party Cloe sounded like a interesting person, the other place dicussed was the London Hotel also sounded interesting there they had bunny girls who dressed in skimpy outfits and little tails on their backsides of the costumes these women served in the bars as well as the restaurant also had the best meals in town, well for me this was ideal because I was to young to go into the bars of the London, but could still go to the restaurant for a meal.

Finally after some shopping and checking out Cloes Bar who turned out to be a painting of a women sitting on a chair facing you leaning on the back rest of the chair her legs spred, well I didn't see what all the fuss was, till it was explain to me later. (that I let you work out) I am @ the London Hotel quite posh and me sitting in the restaurant, waitng to be served, quite happy waitng the decor was quite splended with the high patterns in the plaster, curtains, and a couple of statues but "pas du ressistance" was the georgous waiting staff "The Bunny Girls" after gathering my thoughts, not to mention my mouth of the floor, I ordered my meal, those days steak, eggs and oysters were the go, so that was what I was going to have, minutes later arrived this plate with all this lovely food, she left and I could not see my moysters on the plate excuse me says I when she next past I think you forgot the oysters oohh! then she said, "cut your steak" aye!! "cut your steak" she repeated so I did not seeing this was gonna make any difference, well I cut the steak and out came the oysters whooo!! I was totally amazed that night I wrote a letter to my mother saying they feed thier cows on oysters in Aussi,  well I found out that this type of steak is called a carpet bag steak sadly its almost I think impossble to find a restaurant which serves the Carpet Bag Steak.

The following year I became an "Ordinary Seaman" bucko, this was the shorten version of the former, in my 1st year @ sea, I managed to travel all over Ozzie and NZ coast, then after 2mths being a Bucko I was one of a crew of 17 to fly to Scotland, London 1st then onto Glasgow Scotland to pickup the new ferry for NZ Rail, "MV Aramoana" which would be used to ply between Wellington and Picton. Going to England and Scotland was the highlight of my travels, can one imagine how that felt, it was the most amazing 3 months of my life and only 16yrs,of age. I remember thinking to myself as I boarded the plane @ Whenuapai Airport, my heart racing, (1st time on a plane) and me saying to one of the others, "is this for real" we were soon in the air, and with so much power in the take off, my head was thrown back into the headrest of the seat, shortly after take off the drinks trolley came round, I was still not really into drinking, its more than I could say for the rest of the crew, 1 in particular a Welshman who we simply called Taffy" he drank my share and double the amount of the others, I supposed it all being free certainly helped, well by the time we arrived @ our first stopover in Fiji, Taffy was told he could not re-board because he was to drunk, and he could follow on the next day, providing he was sober.

Hawaii, LA, Seattle then Finally London 36 hrs we spent on the plane, that was enough for me. We were booked into an Hotel in London before heading to the train station for Glasgow, the next morning, that night we went out on the town, I was just blown away by all the people and traffic, taxis I had never seen so many taxi's and they were all black. Restaurants, pubs, theatres, and not one Beatle insight, (1966) never mind, I was so excited to be in the biggest city in the world, one place I wanted to see was Carnaby Street, where all the fashion and famous people shopped, sadly I got lost and ended up being stopped by man in the street and told to "come in and see the most beautiful women in the world and they will
teach you the facts of life my son" Yep! a strip joint, and 2 hours later I was taught there was more to life than, milk bars and clothes, mind you come to think of it the latter was not something these beautiful women had much of (on I mean) oh!! so much excitement I had to head back to my digs for tomorrow
was another day more to see and Scotland a great time for a young Maori boy alone in
 "A Far Away land"..

Wirimu piritahi Rudolph

Our Father: Wirimu Piritahi Rudolph (policeman)
had a very strong character, he was of average height, thick set, fair skin, and hazel eyes, sometimes green, very funny and he had a very generous nature many friends, he could at times be forth rite and going beyond bounds to prove his point the local policeman. Mr Garbolinski, a friend, it was said this policeman deputized my dad as the local policeman for Pawarenga and from then on he became known simply as "Policeman" his command of English was excellent as was his Maori, his brothers and sisters the same, I enjoyed listening to them speak on the marae. he often read, even the best bets (horse racing bible) I detested Saturdays when he was listening to the races on radio, one darn't make a sound around him. He was a bushman, cattleman, fisherman and hunter, he worked in the Warawara Bush when it was allowed to fell timber. and a company had the contract to fell trees almost all the men in Pawarenga were bushmen.

He was the best fisherman in the whole of Pawarenga and would return with many fish, far to much for our family but he Knew that before he caught the fish, if the fishing was good he would continue to fish until he caught enough for most of the village, that's if the village didn't follow him to the coast. When dad decided to go fishing one could be sure it was the right time to go and that would be the next day he would tell us that evening before, to prepare the horses and things for a whole day-out, fishing lines and food (bread and drink) it was so exciting to be going out with my father to the coast, so much so I would hardly sleep the night before.

I used to marvel at my dad he knew exactly where to fish, another thing he was good at was netting. That morning early before sun up (dark) everyone was up, the milkers 4am 2-3 hours later we would head off, those going fishing, we would also take a bucket of skim milk with us and on our way-out to the coast we would stop at the kawhi at the inlet to the harbour dad would throw handfuls of skim milk into the sea feeding shoals of herring 2 people would get into the water with the small net and surround the fish then drag it in and in the net would be dozens of fish at least 6 inches long and 1-2 inches thick they would be used for bait for fishing at the coast and the remainder cooked, on a campfire, for lunch with crabs, mussels, boobo hot billy tea, and bread, when you had this at the coast it would be the best lunch ever, all that salt air made you so hungry....and it tasted so good.

It would take approx 1hour, to reach the coast, the horses would have to negotiate a narrow track gradually climbing the side of the hill the track was so narrow just wide enough for one horse at a time followed by the rest, at places on the track we would have to get of our horse and let the horse go on because parts of the track would have slipped away and the horses had better footing without the rider, and if they slipped, in some cases the drop to the bottom into the sea was about 100 feet, in all the times I had gone to the coast we have never lost a horse or injury to man or beast the track also followed the inlet which ran into the mouth of the Whangapei harbour, at the beginning of the track, a beautiful sight and at high tide on a fine day it was worthy of many a master piece painting, and also the start of Pawarenga from the west.

Just getting to the coast was exciting in it self when you got near to the top of the track after, clearing the brush (trees) and uncle Bob Hunia's house A big beautiful 3 brm house. Uncle, had built this house himself and his son Boy Boy hand carted all the material, by row boat from Pawarenga, down thru the channel then directly below where the house was to be, they would haul all it to the top of the hill, by horse, some 3-4 hundred ft. The house was made of the finest timber, Kauri, brick, (chimney) steel, and corrugated steel roof, It was a red roof, and most of the timbers painted creamy and the veranda and windows were green. as I already mentioned it was a beautiful house, when it was completed I'm sure, it would have rivaled most of the modest off homes in Auckland. I remember this house still standing when I was about 17yrs old, home for a holiday, I also remember a billiard table in the games room it had a large fire place in the same room, also there was a very flash stove in the kitchen it was painted cream with green edging I remember thinking it looked so big to a 7-9yr, it could have cooked a whole cow. To get that stove up the very steep hill would have taken skill, strength, and a lot of patience.

I remember saying to someone when we 1'st went in the house
"what are those"? pointing to the ceiling and being told they were to make light, those are light bulb's, and they were everywhere, electricity by generator, Whoooo!! and the house overlooking a magnificent view, the Tasman Sea and a beautiful sandy beach and also the Warawara native bush, which came all the way down to the sand and stretching south and in the far distance, and out of sight was the Hokianga Harbour , (SADLY THIS HOUSE IS NO MORE).

Dad would choose the spot before we descended down mainly on the rocky outcrop along the beach where good fishing, Te Pahi, or Otoi mussels and crabs could be had, and the kids would fish for Nga-koikoi.
My granny Ewa, dads mum had land at Hau-tuaru/Hauteru, my brother Paul and our cousin Moana Campbell built a batch there with bro, Johnny and I there as the gofo's. When completed this Batch one big room, windows and a big open fireplace and fenced off outside also later within the fence was a small garden mum had manage to grow some Verge's riwai, onions and cabbage.

How we got to the batch was by truck (moana's) via Pangaru& Mitimiti I think
this way was the first time we went there to camp the truck was used to get the heavy stuff there and that's where it all stayed for further camping, otherwise by horse and via the "Golden Stairs" as mentioned above.

we use to have some of the best ever times there, I remember after being out fishing and collecting kutai, kotere-moana grabs, and mum making bread, in the big umu, rewai,& kotere-moana curry stew, fish, and kutai, and crab and corned beef (salted meat) with cabbage, big kai, then play, then horoi then bed and sleep to sound of nga ngaru (the waves) crashing on the sand and knowing you'r in your bed all snug and warm, and your whanau nearby. What more is there to life for a little Maori boy.


I remember as a very young lad going to the bush (Warawara) with dad and at a safe distance watching huge trees being felled I think they were kauri, and also watching the men, pit sawing the timber, this was done by one man on the log and the other in the pit directly below and with a long saw, handles on both ends, splitting the timber with the saw and someone else hammering wooden wedges into the timber as it was being sawn, all this was really hard work, this and much of the other work all done by a lot of men and beast My uncle Formby Rudolph, and uncle Swampy Wikitera, both had a team of bullocks these were magnificent beast very powerful, and also quite docile, uncle Swampy had the most in his team about 10 in all at least 2 were kept out of the pulling, not sure why, every one of the bullocks had a name, I remember Barney and Darky, uncle Swampy would call out their names individually, and also using the stock-whip, when more effort was needed to pull on the one huge log. I was aged about 7-9yrs it was was all so amazing watching these bollocks pull huge logs out to the clearing, thru the mud, water, and scrub, I would sometimes be allowed to ride on the log to the clearing and a waiting truck by a bank or what I learned later were skids to which the logs were hauled onto it, then onto the truck, when I say logs only 1 log at a time was hauled out by the truck they were so big. My dad later became the driver of this truck him, mom and I would sometimes all go together to take the log to the timber mill in Broadwood sometimes we stayed in a hut in Broadwood, and I remember eating the best sausages ever for our kai there I still recall the taste of those delicious sausages I think they came from the butcher shop in Broadwood
or from Jim Dotchins shop.

Quite often it was too dark to travel back to Pawarenga, because the lights on the truck were so weak our candles back home were brighter, according to my dad.

He was also the bus driver for the local school bus run by uncle Suru Peri I would sometimes go with him to pick the children up for school, which in those days the catholic school by the beach, next to rabbit Island, I would yet be of school age
4-5yrs I thought this was such a flash bus, it had 3 doors down the side 1 on the rt for the driver when one got into the bus you got in from one of the three doors and
slid along the bench seats to make make room for others 15-20 passengers

I remember an incident when still a child,coming home at night in a car my dad was driving, from the Herekino pub, my mum, dad I and some others I think uncle Reg Stephens was with us (him and my dad were very close friends) everyone happy all singing, and dad turning to me whilst singing a song (he enjoyed singing) when suddenly bang!!! we hit a bump in the road, next thing we are are in a big drain sideways, trees sticking into the car thru the open windows after climbing out, I was alright a few scratches had by the rest
after awhile everyone was laughing and they continued drinking and singing
I think someone came to tow us out eventually.

When the timber mill shut down dad went to Auckland for work, and leaving most of the family in Pawarenga, I remember that day it was very sad, especially for me I think my father spoilt me a little being the youngest .

Much later as I grew older I heard my dad was father too 18 children 13 to my
mother and 5 too 5 different women from Pawarenga.
One in particular was a pakeha women who ran the local shop Her name was Alice? and her son was Clive, first/last time I saw Clive was at the "Pawarenga
Sports Day " 2002 it was like looking at my dad same built, same eyes and
colouring (fair skin) Clive would have been in his late 60s early 70s then.
Clive past away in 2006 Kataia, where he lived with his family.

My Mother: Erina Wiripo Maihi, (mama)
was the only child of Wiripo (1st) and Merania Maihi( Marsh) as a child she lost her father in the 1st w.war, her mothers brother in-law Anaru Marsh, eventually became her adopted father whom we all loved, years later,he was killed while crossing Karangahape rd Auckland, they said saving his mokopuna, kare (my sister) from a speeding car. He was sadly missed by all
much so by our Ganny (our mums mum and his whangaied daughter, my mother whom he loved very much.

Nga Maumahara o nga wa o mua.....Tommy Rudolph