news history		The boys from over the hill
			I was recently down in Hamilton and I stopped to see Margaret Clarke (nee Browne) who is now well into her 80's and record some oral history of her time at Karekare, where her father, Ted and mother, Stella ran the second weekend guest house by the waterfall. This was initially for members of the public and the Manukau Cycling Club. On February 3rd 1935 a young nurse, Hazel Bentham, was caught in a rip and carried out to sea where she drifted for nearly seven hours until she was picked up by a sea plane in one of the most amazing air/sea rescues of all time. Not only did the locals ring the Hobsonville base but in a stroke of absolute brilliance found that one of the giant sea planes could be made ready within an hour (they usually took between 4 and 5 hours to ready them) they also rang the fledgling Piha Surf Club and the Holt brothers and others came over in a truck and attempted with line and reel to reach the drifting Hazel. I have still yet to verify which of the Holt brothers made it out to the plane but the pilot's records show that a swimmer came out from the beach and they had some dialogue before Hazel was dragged up the ladder into the cock pit and the plane took off for Hobsonville. Margaret Clarke remembers the events clearly. She and members of her family, like most of the local valley residents, raced down to the "fishing rocks" now known as the "cauldron" and watched hopelessly as Hazel drifted in the giant swells. They saw the seaplane land on the water - it had been guided in by a Tiger Moth piloted by Squadron Leader L.M Isitt (later Sir Leonard) who would later be in charge of the New Zealand air force. The Fairey IIIF was a large single engine bi plane with an open cockpit and a three-metre climb from the floats to the controls and with a Rolls Royce engine, which had to keep idling as it was started from the front and this would make it impossible to restart while in the water. I am still of the opinion that this rescue may be the first air/sea rescue in the world. But I cannot get documentation to support this theory. A few months later the Manukau Cycling Club members decided to emulate the Piha Club, they ordered a line and reel from Australia. The line came hopelessly tangled and it took three weekends to unravel it but in the summer of 1935-36 the Club started patrolling. The Surf Clubs continued in a spirit of goodwill and competition and the first carnival was held in 1936 between the two clubs. Soon after Les Reed, the Club Captain, who owned a local butchery in New Lynn put up a large bone, which was mounted on a wooden plaque. This trophy became the famous "Bone of Contention" and it is still competed for between the clubs today. Piha & Karekare have over 70 years of life-saving on the coast, and the camaraderie has lasted throughout the generations and, like the bone of contention, the clubs are linked in both competition and friendship. Please dig out any documents, Karekare memorabilia, photos, stories, old film etc. If you have any stuff or stories about the Karekare Surf Lifesaving Patrol, we would love to hear from you. Please contact the Club's secretary Shalema on e-mail: wanden-hannay@xtra.co.nz or send stuff to Karekare Surf Lifesaving Patrol, P.O. Box 21 -636, Henderson. by Bob Harvey

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