At about 4 years of age my mother and stepfather took me on an adventure in their sidecar motorcycle around the North Island. I had to share the sidecar with Merlyn the black dog. Some time after that, when I was about five, my step father asked, "How would you like to live in a big red bus and travel around?". Sounded good to me. He, an aircraft engineer, and son of a spitfire pilot, sold his brand new Norton Commando motorcycle and purchased an old Leyland Tiger half cab bus, fitted it out, and painted it fire engine red. With a top speed of 50km/h you saw a lot, and in fact, could get out and walk faster going up hills. There were very few 'no camping' signs back then. We were likely the first permanently mobile family to fully savour this fair nation.

It was an interesting life, without electricity, refrigerator or TV. We did have a 12v record player. Water for the bath was heated on the wood stove, the chimney of which one had to remember to remove before passing under a low bridge. I still think that food baked in a wood stove tastes best. The stove failed to light once so mum thought a bit of gasoline would help, then more paper and kindling. The fuel had evaporated in the warm fire box, and with the flash of a match 'boom' - it blew the doors off. Mum did the washing on a wash board in a stream or wherever she could, until she later upgraded to a Hoover wash tub driven by a petrol engine. That engine also drove the grinder, for my stepfather, who became the 'traveling saw doctor' sharpening knives, scissors and saws. 

One interesting experience I recall was when a pod of pilot whales stranded and died. I helped the local farmer, who dragged them into the scrub above the high tide mark with his tractor, and then rendered them down for oil in 44 gallon drums. It may have been  the last whale rendering in New Zealand. On another occasion the Tupu Road collapsed and we had to escape out of the emergency exit. It was a large heavy vehicle with the average adult only as tall as the top of the radiator.

We had more adventures than you could shake a stick at and met many interesting people along the way. Such as a man who lived under an upside down boat, who gave me some Maori bread. He sailed off in it one day and was never seen again. Another interesting character was an old war veteran that towed around a box like a coffin behind his bicycle, that was fitted with a series of dynamos to charge his reading lights. That was his major upgrade from living under a beach umbrella which blew into the river one night. For money he collected glass bottles along the way. His black 'tea tree' tea was a bit sour I recall.

At 15 I left home, well actually home left me, and at about 16 I came to Christchurch for a two week holiday. I'm still here. Résumé

The Natural Heritage Collection is a result of mucking around learning to build a website by searching google when stuck. Choosing nature as the topic by random choice, I began to learn of the serious issues our species and planet face in the process, and it's disturbing. They were my and others entertainment, occasional company, and are of endless wonder. I found no other readily accessible collection of high quality on-line natural heritage images. I hope to remedy that. As I complete papers towards a Bsc majoring in the environment the site will be continuously updated and improved.