Mansion House Bay On A Bad Day

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Mansion House Bay On A Bad Day
photo ex Juliana Cooke (nee Turnwald)

Not sure of the date on the above photos but the presence of all the plastic fizz boats & the navy vessels in Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island, must make dating the photo easier.
If you look at the top photo & out into the bay, it must have been the start of ‘the end’ 🙂 i.e. the arrival of plastic fizz boats & plywood Vindexs .There is a cluster of classics in the right hand corner.
In the 2nd photo, who can ID the launch at the wharf – given the origin of the photos, the Turnwald family, I would suspect its ‘Robyn Gae’ but it does not look right to my eye.

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14 thoughts on “Mansion House Bay On A Bad Day”

  2. Mansion House had the Snake pit prior to the monkey bar.(about1960) It was open all hours. That was the attraction to the yachts. A quart bottle of beer cost Three shillings and three pence. At the Gluepot in Ponsonby the same cost Two Shillings and Sixpence and closed at 6pm. A twenty two foot mullet boat could carry twenty dozen quart bottles in the bilge. There was still room for some food.

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  3. Yeah, I’ll drink to Lilian -that sheer fwd is HER! Snot Robyn Gae Yep, Tasman Star had borad sponsons (nice boat though). Ngaroma looks a bit commercial with the bridge and the awning stanchions fwd which she didn’t have in Skip Lawler’s time. She also has stanchions fwd and not the bulwarks that she had when Fullers had her in her final forms. Point of order: There are sheilas around -Mansion House Bay on a good day. Not a mullety on the beach so it is pre the Monkey House booze bar.

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  4. I hesitate to question Baden’s identification of the fishing boat, but my recollection of the Tasman Star is that she had very pronounced sponsons almost the full length of her hull which are not evident on this vessel. Unfortunately I can’t offer an alternative.

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  5. LLLIAN A was moored at Sandspit for many years in the era, belonging to a local couple I knew them well to say hello to so apart from the very individual classic concept she has in the bow all in all it head to be her–KEN R

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  6. I’m not sure that “the end” was signified by the arrival of “plywood Vindexes.” To start with they were not plywood. The original Vindex was Kauri construction and launched in 1962. Probably well before this photo.

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  8. I think the little fishing boat is the Tasman Star with one of her many sheds on top.

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  9. In photo # 2 KOURA’s radar is visible. Also,pic #3 she has the Fishery Protection badge on the side of her bridge.According to Bob McDougall’s book,she left the FPS in 1975

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  10. Comment from Grant Middlemiss
    Hi Alan
    I was on crew of HMNZS Toroa (P3564) (Dunedin RNZNVR) on Xmas Cruise 1964/65 we were at Kawau for New Years Eve. Officers got ashore, most of the troops were watch on, stop on. It would have been around this time as radar had not been fitted.
    Cheers Grant

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  14. In the second photo the launch at the wharf is the LILLIAN A (or LILLIAN these days, if you prefer), but at that time she was certainly called the LILLIAN A –KEN R

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