Although not trained in marine life, he learned from people around New Zealand such as Ron Sharp, a Bushells tea traveller, and Arthur 'Twiggy' Twigge, a Palmerston North manual telephone operator.
Being a skilled joiner, Gordon was able to supervise and construct the fish tanks for the original War Memorial Hall basement aquarium.
The job of being curator in the early days of the aquarium would involve Gordon taking a row boat past the breakers in heavy seas on the Marine Parade beach to anchor a hose to draw the salt sea water. When the Hawke's Bay Aquarium Society members thought this was too dangerous, a well was made near the high tide mark to pump sea water to the aquarium.
During heavy seas the well would get clogged with shingle, so Gordon would be in his underwear bucketing out the shingle in freezing weather.
Wife Barbara recalled in 2018 that Gordon used to bring penguins back from the Port of Napier, which had oil on them, and he would bring them home to clean them up, and they used to go into the bath.
They would eat their weight in fish, and Gordon would put them in the car if he was going to the fish sheds to buy fish, and they would hop out of the car and trot over to the guys who would feed them.
When they were cleaned up, he would take them back to the port, and release them and say "righto, off you go".
Gordon would be barely back to the aquarium when the penguins would be trotting up the beach as if to say "Right - we are back dad".
One day when Gordon was home for lunch, he had a ring at home from the Marine Parade baths (now Ocean Spa). The penguins had got into the pools and were swimming with the people, and could Gordon please retrieve them.
During what would often be 60-hour weeks, Gordon would perform a multitude of tasks, including in the early days catching food for the animals. He would put on waist-high waders and do this four day a week in the drains bordering the airport.
There were problems for Gordon operating a basement aquarium in a public hall. The basement floor was the supper room, so people attending functions when the aquarium first opened were able to peruse the exhibits for free. When a function attendee tipped alcohol into the seahorse tank (and Gordon noticing the unusual behaviour of the tipsy seahorses the next day) some screens were put up to block off the aquarium.
Gordon took delivery of the aquarium's first crocodile, Davy, in the mid-1960s. The cost was a pound per inch ($38 per 2.54cm) and the 1 pound, 32-inch crocodile was transported from Wellington to Napier by a founding Hawke's Bay Aquarium Society member and long-time supporter, Ian Mills.
When a purpose-built aquarium became a reality, Gordon spent 10 months making polystyrene shells for the tanks as well as being heavily involved in the design of the new building. This innovative approach covered the 10cm thick polystyrene with fibreglass cloth and given three coats of resin – the last was painted blue.
Several overseas trips were made to the United States and Canada – not only for Gordon to gain education and knowledge of aquariums, but to build contacts to arrange sales, and swaps of animals such as seahorses for piranhas.
Gordon built some of the boats used to catch animals over the years, and took dolphin shows at Marineland when someone wanted a day off – showing how versatile and multi-talented he was.
It's difficult to list all of Gordon Dine's achievements in a column, but Napier, due to Gordon's dedication and support of his wife Barbara and family, probably would not have a strong aquarium today if it were not for him.
*Michael is doing a fundraising talk based on his favourite Hawke's Bay Today Historic Hawke's Bay articles and donating all proceeds to the Hawke's Bay Knowledge Bank. This takes place at 6pm on Thursday, March 21 at the Havelock North Function Centre. Tickets are $10 and to book please email Linda at admin@knowledgebank.org.nz or phone 8335 333. No door sales.
- Signed copies of Michael Fowler's Historic Hawke's Bay book are only available from the Hastings Community Art Centre, Russell St South, Hastings for $65 or by emailing mfhistory@gmail.com
- Michael Fowler FCA (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a chartered accountant, contract researcher and writer of Hawke's Bay's history.
