They may have moved up the road to Taupō but Rob and Sue McCarthy say their hearts will always be in Tūrangi. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
They may have moved up the road to Taupō but Rob and Sue McCarthy say their hearts will always be in Tūrangi. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
Rob McCarthy was on his way to Manapouri to take up a job on the power scheme when his car broke down in Tūrangi.
It was May 1969. Rob (also known locally as Bob), had just finished his national service in the Army and the young Auckland coach-builder was on his way to Fiordland.
But fate had other plans. Rob's breakdown occurred at what was then known to locals as the White Glove, and to out-of-towners as the big Shell station on State Highway 1. While he waited several days for the car part he needed to continue his journey, Rob slept in his car and during the day wandered around the new town springing up to cater for the workers on the Ministry of Works' massive Tongariro Power Development scheme. One day he went up to the scheme's project office, where staff asked about his profession.
"I said 'I'm a coach builder by trade but I also do panel beating', and they said 'we've got nearly 400 vehicles - we can give you a house for $1.20 a week if you want to stay here and go to the workshops'."
It was too good an offer to refuse and had the added bonus of being closer to Auckland where Rob's girlfriend Sue was a dressmaker. He took the job and stayed at the single men's camp for a year.
"The food was fantastic - where else can you get six sausages and five eggs in the morning and as much scrambled egg as you could eat?"
A year of massive breakfasts came to an end when Rob and Sue married and Sue moved down to Tūrangi to join him. They bought a two-bedroom house from the Ministry at 3 Raukura St in 1971 for $6400 and went on to build a life in the town they have stayed in for 51 years.
Children Claire, Ruth and Ryan were all born in Tūrangi and Sue says it was a great place for a young family.
"We had a group of friends all with young babies. The ladies used to go out to Stump Bay with picnics and the kids and the men would jump in the car and come out and join us for lunch and we used to play soccer on Sunday afternoons with the Italian families.
"In the early days of Tūrangi there were amazing social events. We would have four balls a year and to get a babysitter you had to book weeks ahead...the 70s and 80s were really busy. The high school had 900 pupils and there were three primary schools."
The couple were both heavily involved in the community. Sue was a kindergarten helper, on the school and kindergarten committees, a Brown Owl (Brownie pack leader), a long-time member of the Tūrangi and Districts Women's Club and served four terms on the Tūrangi-Tongariro Community Board. She had done a dressmaking apprenticeship in Auckland and in the early years worked from home making dresses, including lots of wedding gowns. She kept the dressmaking business until recently although in later years she says it was mostly alterations.
Sue McCarthy (second left) promoting the Tūrangi Food & Wine Festival in 2013 in her capacity as Tūrangi & Districts Women's Club president. Photo / File
Rob did 28 years of service with the Tūrangi Fire Brigade.
"It was busy. We used to do lots and lots of car crashes, we were about the third-busiest brigade in the country for car crashes. My partner in the panel beating shop was Kerry Trethowen and [his wife] Dianne used to turn up in the ambulance and Kerry would turn up in the tow truck and I would turn up on the fire engine."
Rob also served 11 years with St John Ambulance as in those days the ambulances were supplied by St John but the volunteers were all Ministry of Works staff.
"I went in with something in my eye one day, and that's how they [St John] roped me in."
The McCarthys' three children were educated at Pihanga Primary and Tūrangi Primary and then went to boarding school. When all the children were at school, Sue worked in town: for Warnock's, Naylor's Bookshop and Lockyer's Furnishings before later opening her own haberdashery shop in the town centre, Buttons' n Bows, which she had for 12 years.
In 1980 Rob and Kerry Trethowen had started Tūrangi Motor Bodies, a panel beating business which employed five people which they eventually sold to Brendon Dally, their first apprentice, who still has it today as Tūrangi Panel & Paint.
"After that I went to work at Shell, in the old White Glove, with Chips Rafferty... he was a really good boss."
When the new Shell station opened down the road, Rob took on a permanent night shift and also worked during the day, a punishing schedule he kept up for years.
"The kids were at boarding school and we needed more money. So I'd do night shift and come home, have a lie down and then go up to the bus place from 10am to 2pm at Tūrangi Coachlines doing coach building and then come home to sleep and then go back to work to start at midnight."
When he was getting near 60, Rob had another career change.
"I applied for a job at the prison and stayed there for 11 years. I spent most of my time at Rangipo Prison and I loved it. It was a person thing, you're dealing with all sorts of people who have fallen off the rails and I liked talking with them and as long as you gave them what they needed and didn't tell them any lies, they would respect you.
"It was quite satisfying if you got some young guy that had come off the rails and you could get them going again but the recidivists, it was hard to turn them around."
Meanwhile, Sue and her friend Jan Lockyer decided they were going to run for the Tūrangi-Tongariro Community Board, feeling it needed some younger people on board. Sue's particular aim was to push for a revamp of the town's ageing Turtle Pools, a project that came to fruition in 2008.
"I got them [the community board members] all to go over and have a look at the pool and the [board] chair Lois Bennie was astounded at the state of the pool."
Sue says the refurbished Turtle Pools are a lovely complex now and her grandchildren enjoy going there but it was a challenge to get the project off the ground. She went on to serve four terms on the board.
The McCarthys say they're sad to be leaving Tūrangi but they're only going as far as Taupō. They plan to visit Tūrangi often and stay in touch with friends. While they initially looked at leaving the district all together, they just couldn't do it.
"I don't want to go anywhere," Rob says. "I like the fresh air and the winter and we know Taupō, it's been a second home really.
"We love Tūrangi and we've got some good mates... it's a bit of a wrench but we're only up the road."
The McCarthys were due to move last week and Sue expected there would be a few tears as they said goodbye.
