In part three of our series, well-known Kiwis reveal their much-loved summer memories.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON
The Opotiki motel had a shop that was not much larger than your average wardrobe. It had an utterly distinctive smell that hides dormant in my memory. I can almost retrieve it — sweet, clean, a smell I associate with childhood summers as much as Coppertone suntan lotion. The shop sold emergency staples: bread, milk and butter, foodstuffs
that didn't interest me. I came for ice blocks, hot-day treats costing only cents then, way back in the 70s. The motel owners and their children staffed the shop. If the door was shut, you rang a bell and waited. Inside on the counter was one of those lamps with thin, waving fronds that light up in turn with different colours. They are common now, but to a 7-year-old in 1973, glamorous, exotic. I was always happy to wait outside the shop, and watch it change from green to blue to pink just like magic.
● Catherine Robertson's new book Gabriel's Bay is out now.
MEL HOMER
My holiday romance started when I was very young. I fell in love with this place over multiple summers when I was a kid. The Bay of Islands — there is just something so special about it, and when you round Cape Brett at the beginning of a Christmas cruise, you can almost hear the whole boat let out a collective "aaaaah". I fell in love cruising these waters with my mum, dad and sister, and now our three sons are sharing in the love as we sail with them. Boats, sun and saltwater equals happy families. The wonderful thing about the Bay of Islands is that there is always another beautiful bay to go and explore. It is ridiculously photogenic. This photo was taken on the first day of our last Christmas cruise in the Bay — we'd rounded Cape Brett earlier that day and anchored in Oke Bay. This was our sunset climb to the hill behind it. I think it accurately sums up exactly how bloody joyous I was feeling!
