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"..