Category Archives: Taranaki

Great Beaches, Taranaki

A Quick trip to the Naki

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Some of you may remember the Auction for Hospice Taranaki set up by my old friend and boss Rob Tucker in September last year.  Rob organised some of his old work colleagues and other close news photographers to each provide their 3 favourite images for the auction. They were framed and mounted and various businesses in New Plymouth banded together to donate their services to make it a huge success. The Auction raised over $200.000 for Hospice Taranaki and really helped them out financially.

The three images I contributed to the Auction taken during my time at the Auckland Star below.  Click on the images to enlarge.

Tina Turner at a press conference under TV lights.
Micheal Winslow outside the Regent in Auckland.
Run for your wife. One of the last shows at His Majesties Theatre in Auckland before it got bulldozed. L to R: Geoffrey Hughes (Coronation Street), Timothy Lea (Confessions of a Windows Cleaner) and Windsor Davies (It aint half hot mum) were staying at the White Heron lodge in Parnell where I met them early one morning.

I used to work as a photographer at the Herald with Rob. I was his first appointment when Rob was appointed as one of the youngest Picture Editors the Herald ever had. He had worked in Taranaki, at the Auckland Star and in the UK. The Herald did a really good video of Rob’s career highlights which you can see here. Rob was also appointed a medal in the recent Kings Birthday Honours for services to Photography.

A couple of weeks ago, Rob sadly passed away after fighting cancer for the last few years. The day we knew would come arrived, but it never makes it any easier when you lose a good friend.

Click on any image to enlarge

On the drive down

So, I jumped into Rafe and set off for Fitzroy Holiday Park to attend the funeral which was in Rob’s hometown of New Plymouth. The weather wasn’t fantastic, but I still managed to get some nice moody images coming down the coast into New Plymouth.

Lovely Coast

I checked into Fitzroy Holiday Park and the next day at the funeral caught up with my old darkroom buddy and fellow Herald Photographer Ross Land. We both started within a year of each other as young 20 yr olds, both appointed by Rob so have known Rob for over 40 years. As Rob was confined to a wheelchair, Ross was Rob’s right-hand man at the Auction, helping with the mounting, putting the book together and helping get the Auction under way. Despite the loss of our good friend Rob, it’s always nice to see Ross.

At a get together at Rob’s place 6 or so years ago. LtoR, Rob, Rob’s brother Jim and me. Rob’s wife Bonnie took the photo.

I also caught up with a few other photographers and Journalists present including Robs brother Jim who was my boss at the Auckland Star for 5 years or so in the 80’s. It was also really nice to see Robs wife Bonnie and their family.

Click on the Gallery below to see an enlarged slideshow

Well used walkway
The Kiosk and surfclub.
Water isn’t far away.
Cabins

Fitzroy is one of those Holiday Parks you never get tired of. It’s in a great location right on the beach and the facilities are fantastic and its reasonably priced at this time of the year. It’s also handy to the city.

There is a walkway/bike lane that runs all the way up the coast and back into the city which is amazing.  It runs through the front part of the camp and a really popular coffee Kiosk just outside.  It’s a really popular place for the surfers and the walkers and bike users, both on the walkway and beach are nonstop.

Surfy heaven.

A lovely town.   Farewell Rob.

Rafe’s tracker map to New Plymouth – Armada GPS
Taranaki

Auction for Hospice of the best NZ news photos!

One of the saddest things I had to deal with earlier this year was finding out that my old buddy and ex boss, Rob Tucker had  cancer.

Several years ago when I went down his home town of New Plymouth,  Rob went to some trouble to give me a guided tour of New Plymouth. We later adjourned to his house for tea where I caught up with his wife Bonnie and brother Jim who was also an ex boss when I was at the Auckland Star.

While we were in the South Island earlier this year I received a phone call from another old friend Ross Land to tell me that Rob has organised an auction of our 3 best images from our days in newspapers. We were in Plimmerton at the time about to cross on the ferry and as there was plenty of time, we’d find some images for it  when we got back.

Once we got back to Auckland a few weeks later, I sent a selection of 10 or so images to Rob for him to pick what he thought would work and the three images below are what he picked.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Tina Turner at a press conference under TV lights.

Rob was one of the NZ Heralds youngest ever Picture Editors.  A vacancy came up at the Herald for a junior and I jumped at it. I was 19yrs old, welding and repairing containers at the time biding my time so it came just at the right time. Rob did me a big favour getting me on board at that early stage as the Herald was a fantastic training ground and a great place to work.  Once you were out of the Newspaper industry, it was really hard to get back in.

Ross joined not long after me and later we shared a darkroom together and became good friends.

Ross and Kay have done a spectacular job over the last few years doing up a classic Caravan!

Michael Winslow outside the Regent in Auckland.

Hospice Taranaki have taken really good care of Rob and he felt he wanted to do something to help them fund their financial situation. He came up with the idea of getting as many of NZ Newspaper photographers to provide their best three images to be mounted and auctioned off for Hospice Taranaki.

Here’s a story from the  NZ Herald of Rob  Its an interesting video and well worth watching.

Run for your wife. One of the last shows at His Majesties Theatre in Auckland before it got bulldozed. L to R: Geoffrey Hughes (Coronation Street), Timothy Lea (Confessions of a Windows Cleaner) and Windsor Davies (It aint half hot mum) were staying at the White Heron lodge in Parnell where I met them early one morning.

There is also a coffee table book with all the images in which will be a collectors item in years to come. The proceeds for this are also heading Hospice’s way.

Its a great idea of his to get behind a great cause and we need to support it.  I’m sure once you see some of the images, you will remember seeing them published.

Here’s a few that didn’t make Robs selection that I sent as well to give you an idea of some of the others.

Click on the Gallery below to Enlarge.

NZ girls win at Han river rowing regatta in Seoul during 1984 Olympics.
Audrey Hepburn at a press conference in Auckland.
Mark Todd with Charisma in Seoul.
Edgecumbe earthquake.. this image was used all over the world.
Victor Borge under TV lights during a Holmes show interview at the Town Hall.
David Lange looking chuffed with poll results a week before the 1984 election.

The Auction is being held at Plymouth International Hotel in New Plymouth on the 24th September.

Most if not all the photographers involved will be there too so it’ll be quite a reunion 🙂

Check out the Photo Journalism NZ page here.