This is the place

The story goes that my grandparents saw Woolleys Bay on a postcard back in the 1960s and decided it was worth a visit. Travelling all the way from the central North Island, they must surely have had second thoughts the first time they traversed the windy gravel road along the Tutukaka Coast. Especially when their destination was merely a paddock owned by local farmer, Mr Lyall Woolley. But as those of you who have been privileged enough to go on such family camping trips will know, in the summer time when you are across the road from the beach, a paddock is never just a paddock.

With all the water they needed (a tap on the sheep trough), all the shelter they needed (the classic canvas tent and a nearby Pohutukawa tree) and all the entertainment they needed courtesy of the beach, it was summer paradise. Many of the families they met had been visiting Woolleys Bay for years before my grandparents arrived, and since then many more new families have claimed a patch of grass as 'their spot'.

Granny recalls always making time to have a cup of tea with Mr Woolley (the "patriarch") up at the farmhouse and enjoying the bonfires Mr Woolley would host every year on New Years Eve, until the local hoons forced him to put a stop to them. Toilets were holes in the ground that you dug yourself, washing was done in a bucket and who needed a shower when you were swimming every day?

Before long, my grandparents had encouraged other dear friends to join them and with the extra friends their five children invited, they made quite a crew. My grandparents were so taken with Woolleys Bay that they purchased a section from Mr Woolley up on the hill overlooking the bay and built a small bach to offer a bit more protection from the weather (than the canvas) and to truly enjoy the magnificent view.

And so, almost 50 years later, I am able to sit in the same chair where my grandfather once sat, looking out over the bay to Whale Bay and beyond to the Poor Knights Islands. And I imagine how many treasured memories have been made by four generations of my family in this little bay on the Tutukaka Coast.

And I wonder how many more will be made this summer and next.

And I think how lucky I am.