Let's take five for a cuppa, son

Photo / Michael Tubberty

Photo recall: John Makoare never expected that a picture of him taking smoko with his 3-year-old son would make it on to an Amsterdam pub wall, says Nicola Shepheard.

In 1986, south of Auckland, smoko for the workers on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway meant a cuppa on the tracks. The kettle, cups, milk, sugar and tea bags were carried to the site. A portable water boiler provided hot water.

When Herald photographer Michael Tubberty saw John Makoare and his 3-year-old son, Te Arepa, sitting down for smoko, he saw a photo that needed to be taken.

"Here's this big monster of a guy and he's Dad, and here's this little son," recalls Tubberty, now retired.

The photo won two awards, and somehow found its way to an Amsterdam pub wall - where Makoare saw it years later.

As Makoare remembers it, Tubberty couldn't even wait for the tea to be made.

"We were thinking of putting the pot on but he was in too much of a hurry, so we made it look like we had made the tea.

"We were laughing, we thought it was a great joke.

"When Te Arepa looked up, I looked down at him and just smiled. We didn't say much."

Makoare and the other workers were extending the steam engine railway by 7km, to Waiuku.

Says Makoare: "I took Te Arepa along to have a look and see what Daddy's doing, and he got to like it.

"He sat on top of the engine and watched what everyone was doing.

"Mother would only let me take him out for about three months, because he knew too much.

"We'd be having smoko at the office and he and another little girl that belonged to my mate would be a kilometre away with the train."

Now 27, Te Arepa has six of children of his own, and lives in South Auckland, 15 minutes from his parents.

"We're still very close," says his dad.