|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 21, 2016 23:56:27 GMT 12
What a great photo, look just how rural the flying school was in 1918, I had no idea and assumed there'd be some homes and proper roads by then at least. 7-A11098, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries (via Timespanner)
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lewis on Mar 22, 2016 15:51:50 GMT 12
There was no coast road in those days.
Access to Kohi was either by sea or by gravel road through Remuera and St Johns.
Either way, a major trip pre-1920. You certainly could not commute daily to the Auckland CBD.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 22, 2016 16:17:40 GMT 12
I guess you could also access the place via flying boat. Denvy Ayr pointed out on Facebook something I'd not realised before, this school was actually at Mission Bay despite all the history books stating it was at Kohimarama (the next beach round). You can see the Mission House in the photo!
|
|
|
Post by errolmartyn on Mar 22, 2016 16:57:46 GMT 12
I guess you could also access the place via flying boat. Denvy Ayr pointed out on Facebook something I'd not realised before, this school was actually at Mission Bay despite all the history books stating it was at Kohimarama (the next beach round). You can see the Mission House in the photo! Actually the 'history books' are correct. Mission Bay . . . Originally incorporated within the harbourfront area known as Kohimarama the bay was the site of a mission school, St Andrew's College established in 1859. . . . When . . . "Kohimarama Flying School" closed in 1924, the land in the area, popularly referred to as Mission Bay, was subdivided for housing and named officially the suburb of Mission Bay. . . . Kohimarama . . . . Until the 1920s the area known as Kohimarama also included the bay to the west now called Mission Bay. . . ( Wises New Zealand Guide (7th ed, 1979). Errol
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 22, 2016 17:22:45 GMT 12
I thought this might be the case, thanks Errol.
|
|
|
Post by errolmartyn on Mar 22, 2016 18:09:49 GMT 12
I thought this might be the case, thanks Errol. Thinking about this a little more - either description would be correct provided there is no introduced confusion re context, ie you could say that the NZFS operated from (the suburb) of Kohimarama or (the locale) Mission Bay. It would be incorrect, though, to say 'from the suburb of Mission Bay'. From what I have seen, most of the NZFS old boys referred to their being trained at 'Kohi' rather than Mission Bay. Errol
|
|
|
Post by johnnyfalcon on Mar 22, 2016 19:03:10 GMT 12
Oh yes! There's the fountain...
But seriously, that photograph evokes the imagination and sensations of walking through the (kikkuyu?) grass down to the sparkling blue water of the Waitemata - smell the salt air, feel the warm sun, watch the flying boat ride the gentle swells that splash on the white sand... What an era! (I lived on Waiheke Island for a decade)
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 22, 2016 19:09:36 GMT 12
It's all the more fitting, now that I have fixed in my head exactly where these wonderful flying boats operated from, think that the Empire flying boat ended up in the same spot, preserved for generations to come.... oh, yeah that's right, some twat scrapped it
|
|
|
Post by johnnyfalcon on Mar 22, 2016 19:11:03 GMT 12
Touche Dave
|
|