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The Jane Gifford: Memories: Daisy Coles of Warkworth

Daisy Coles of Warkworth remembers:

"It was a special treat on New Years Day to walk down to the Warkworth wharf - one and a half miles - to get aboard the Jane Gifford and travel down the river to Sullivans Bay for the annual regatta. My friend was Dorothy Collins, the daughter of the skipper of the Jane Gifford, she had taken my hand the day I started school.

The Collins family lived in a house between the old post office and the present Bank of New Zealand so he didn't have far to walk to the Jane Gifford at the wharf. When we got out of the scow on arrival at Sullivans we were taken ashore by dinghy, everyone had to be patient and wait their turn.

It was wonderful, we sat on the beach and ate our lunch - watched the boats racing, and played in the sand until the tide was high to sail home.

The river was an interesting place, on the way back we passed Bert Duke's place on the right bank. Bert brought children to school on his launch just the same as the school buses transport children today.

The Vialls and Anderson families lived on the same side of the river. On the other side of the river we passed the Wilson Cement works, the first cement works in New Zealand. High on the point before the Pukapuka River was the Mc Elroys house , then Jackson and Jamiesons.

I can remember it so clearly even though it was nearly eighty years ago."

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