The Landscape of my Heart covers the history of Auckland’s west coast from Anawhata to O’Neil Bay, beloved of the surfing fraternity. The many pioneering families who attempted to farm hard unyielding land were eventually forced to seek other means of surviving in the place that was for many the landscape of their hearts.
Excerpt from The Landscape of my Heart
The ‘Yanks’ were very popular during the war years; they brought ‘candy’ and chewing gum for the kids, nylon stockings, Bourbon whisky and cigarettes for the grown-ups, and arrived on dates bearing flowers and with a tankful of petrol which was heavily rationed for civilians. Everyone loved them except the men who feared to be displaced by them and saw them as ‘over-fed, over-sexed, and over here’.
Most homes of the time might have had a bottle of brandy for use in emergencies, but alcohol was not commonly consumed outside of pubs, and not often by ladies. But now there was talk of highballs and martinis, and bonfires and parties seemed to happen every night. Scandals were rife as love affairs among the guests blossomed, and rumours were relayed to the kitchen of nude sunbathing in ‘Fagan’s Oven’, and couples caught in delicto flagrante under the lupin bushes. But for us young ones it was all harmless fun.
From Sunset Point a few giant leaps would take us to the base of the great dune, as it was then, and with a short dash over hot sand we were in the waves, where I would see with trepidation that the boys were always going out too far. On wet or windy days we chose to swim at Lake
Kawaupaku, where the pohutukawa branches hung over the water tempting the brave ones to
The hilarious evening that followed owed little if anything to alcohol though our mothers may not have agreed.