Auckland to Raoul
Why go to the trouble to write about something that happened
so long ago? Not an easy question to answer. Maybe as one gets older
nostalgia becomes important, maybe one is spurred on by reading other
accounts of a similar nature such as Jack Paton’s story of
his time in Fiji during the war or Bruce Evatt’s articles on
coast watching on the Auckland Islands.
Or maybe it’s just
the old ego thing coming through. Whatever the reason, and even if the
only good thing to come out of it is some much needed typing practice,
here are my recollections of a year on Raoul Island.
Thomas Bell with his wife and young family settled on Raoul in 1878. He was to remain there apart from brief visits to New Zealand till 1914. His story is told in the book by Elsie K Morton .
The Crusoes of Sunday Island.He had a marked influence on Raoul in the time he was there, planting an amazing variety of vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and even tobacco. Almost all signs of his stay have disappeared by the time of the following account. However I will refer to him occasionally as it would be difficult to write about Raoul without some mention of him.
WHY AN EXPEDITION.
First a little history. Raoul was known by the Cook Island and New Zealand Maoris as Rangitahua, but was given its first european name by a French explorer Admiral D'Entrecasteaux. He called it Raoul after, I think, one of his lieutenants. This was in 1793, however three years later a British ship the Brittania came across it on a Sunday and unaware of the earlier visit called it Sunday Island.
This name stuck until 1938 when the New Zealand government restored the original name of Raoul. During the early to mid 1800's Raoul was used as a base and provisioning point for whalers working the rich Kermedec grounds.
Several attempts were made to settle Raoul, but none of them
survived
for long with the exception of Thomas Bell and family. By 1937 Raoul
was finally left in peace, but not for long. In1938 the New Zealand
government set up Raoul as a Meteorlogical station and during the war
it was used as a coast watching station.
One of many scattered round
the Pacific whose job it was to keep a watch on shipping, particularly
Japanese military movements.
After the war Raoul reverted to its Met. station status and the
annual expeditions were started.
That was the situation when I
joined the 1957 expedition.
Whenuapai Airbase in 1957 was an important RNZAF base, and was
the home
of 42 Transport Squadron.
Also, and more importantly as far as I was concerned, it was New
Zealand’s International airport as well as
Auckland’s domestic airport.
At the time I was working at Whenuapai in my capacity as Radio
Technician with the Civil Aviation Branch of the New Zealand Air
Department, having as my main responsibility the ME7 met radar
installed there. The Whenuapai radar was one of a chain of 6 similar
sets of equipment sited at Invercargill, Christchurch, Wellington,
Ohakea, Whenuapai and Nadi, Fiji. My job was to maintain the equipment
to allow the Met observers to make their balloon flights four times a
day to obtain accurate measurements of wind direction and velocity from
ground level, up to a height usually determined by the balloon bursting
or drifting out of range.
Two of the Met observers working there at the
time, Chris Rogers and Merv Rennie, announced one day that they had
applied to join the 1957 expedition to Raoul Island. Now we all knew
that Raoul and Campbell Islands were places that one could apply for,
but up till then I, for one, had never really considered it . Life was
good for a single man at the time so it seemed a pretty big step to
take.
However after thinking for a while about the decision Chris and
Merv had made, I decided I would also apply for a position on the
Expedition. As it happened, Chris and Merv had no problem being
accepted, but in my case I was told that someone else had been
appointed. This was a disappointment as I had become rather taken with
the idea.
However eventually all was well, as the first person pulled out. So with three weeks to go before departure, I was told that I had the posting. Things happened fairly quickly from then on. As we had to report to Wellington a week before the ship sailed, it only left me two weeks to get my affairs in order and organize my gear. Clothing was not much of a problem as the Island is subtropical and there was no need for formal wear of any sort. I just packed all casual clothes, which could be worn out and thrown away if necessary. I also had a good pair of work boots, sandals and sandshoes, and that was it.
The big question
was what we should take for leisure time? All three of us were pretty
keen skin divers, so that sort of gear and spares were essential. Both
Chris and Merv were interested in photography and had good cameras,
whereas I had not been interested up to that point. This seemed a good
chance to learn something about it .
I was given the job of stocking up
on supplies and was sent to a friend of Merv’s who worked in
the Agfa Company’s store. He would tell me what we would need
and sell it to us at wholesale rates. I duly presented Chris and Merv
with an account for 200 odd pounds, and when they calmed down after a
day or two, they realized we really did need an enlarger and developing
trays, chemicals, paper, etc. As it turned out we needed every bit of
the supplies I bought and the equipment was put to very good use.
Other
outdoor recreation gear was taken, fishing rods, lines, tennis rackets
and balls, and that was about it.
WELLINGTON.
The ship we were due to
sail on was the MV Holmglen run by the Holm Shipping Company, which had
the contract to supply Raoul and Campbell Islands. The contract for
Raoul was a once-a-year supply visit when the expedition was changed
over. The old staff were taken off and the new staff installed,
complete with their supplies for a year. That was the idea, but things
do not always work out as planned, as we shall see later.
We duly
arrived in Wellington on the 14th of November where we stayed at
Barretts Hotel. The Holmglen was to sail four days later. Those four
days were very busy for all of us.
Chris and Merv disappeared into the
Met system for briefing, and the Head Office engineers and technical
people briefed me on my equipment. It was here that I learned that 1957
was designated the International Geophysical Year. (IGY) and that a
considerable amount of new equipment was to be taken up to Raoul Island
and installed. This equipment was mostly for measuring seismic
activity, tide levels and similar information, and in the Met case,
extra upper air readings. I also spent some time at the Kelburn Seismic
Observatory learning about earthquakes and how they showed up on
seismographs, together with how to interpret the seismograph readings.
All this was very new to me and very interesting.
The Director of the
Seismic Observatory, Mr. Eiby, also explained to me that I would be
installing a seismometer and would be responsible for daily readings
and interpretations of the results. I left there thoroughly confused
and hoping it would all sort itself out later.
Apart from the hassle of
last minute shopping, and generally rushing around, two things stood
out in that period. One was meeting the rest of the expedition members,
the other was seeing the Holmglen for the first time. Meeting the other
members was an interesting experience and I wonder if they all regarded
me in the same way I regarded them.
I suspect they did, and that they
too wondered what this joker was going to be like to live with for the
next twelve months. We were all a bit wary at first, but as the meeting
was a social occasion, it did not take long to get to talking, at least
we had plenty to talk about. The people we met that evening and with
whom we would be living and working for the next year were.
The Holmglen at the wharf in Wellington.
CHRIS ROGERS The senior Met. observer.
MERV RENNIE Met. observer.
JOHN (HORSE) HARRIS Met. observer.
PETE SPINETTO Technician (That’s me)
BILL ANDREWS Diesel mechanic.
DICK SIMMONDS Farm manager
NOEL BONNINGTON Handyman.
The cook was already on the island. This made a total complement of
nine, which was about normal. All were new to the island. The MV
Holmglen turned out to be a small coaster of 600 tons. She had been
built in Holland and, to our eyes, seemed to be fairly small for the
job being asked of her, particularly as the tide was out when we first
saw her with only her upper works rising above the wharf.
This was my first trip on a boat of any size if you except the Auckland
ferries, which were let’s face it not much smaller. It
crossed my mind that I had been on aircraft that were bigger then the
Holmglen. However she looked solid enough and had done the trip many
times.
The great day came and we assembled on the wharf with our personal gear. There were several well wishers to say goodbye, and finally we were all aboard. The hawsers were slipped and soon we were sailing down Wellington harbour. Too late for regrets or uncertainties now!
There were two six berth cabins for passengers and everyone soon sorted out a berth and settled in. Horse had gone pale as soon as we boarded and retired straight away. He stayed in his bunk for the entire five-day voyage. The trip was fairly uneventful with only one day of rough weather when the poor Holmglen crashed head-on into big seas, coming to a complete halt at times. She did not really seem suitable for the conditions and I was not at all surprised when she was lost with all hands several years later.
The five days went fairly quickly, the crew were friendly and we had the run of the ship. The food was good though eating became a challenge when we struck rough weather. The wee Holmglen was really tossed around. This was no problem normally, in fact it was quite exciting.
Meal time was something else. The dining table had its fiddle in place. This is a small railing to stop anything on the table sliding off. Also the tablecloth was wet to stop things sliding round, and everything was laid flat. You ate with one hand while the other held the plate. Soup was a particular problem. Luckily I was never seasick though at times I had the table pretty much to myself. When the weather was good, which was most of the time, we spent the day on deck, reading, talking, checking the animals and just generally being lazy.
Young Ferdy on the Holmglen
Some livestock was carried with us. The most noticeable being a young Jersey bull. He came to be called Young Ferdy to differentiate him from an old Jersey bull already on the Island called not surprisingly Ferdinand. Young Ferdy spent the whole trip in his transport crate and never complained.
On the morning of the fifth day the skipper, Captain Grieves, said the Island should come into sight any time, so with mounting excitement, for me anyway, we kept a lookout ahead. We had already passed the other Islands of the group, Curtis, MacCauley and Esperance Rock. Esperance rock was just that, a rock sticking up out of the sea all by itself. An unnerving sight.
In fact these waters though deep are studded with seamounts that come quite close to the surface and some of these are active volcanoes. Though we saw no signs of that.
Curtis and Macauley are small Islands with grass and a few trees. These were interesting but once past them we waited for the real thing to appear on the horizon.