From Ponsonby to Matakana and back

In early 1969 I had my first taste of living in Herne Bay Road. It was an old flat, I was a student, I worked in a sandwich bar in Hobson Street and the trams were still running. It was summer: the streets were hot with red McCallum chip and the walk to the sea was under fragrant pepper trees. Annie Bonza opened a shop; I brought a red tie- dyed coat and it was stolen from a party.

David and I brought our first house in Ring Terrace in St Mary's Bay in 1976. We loved it for Pt Erin Park, the Leys Institute Library and the swings in the little parks and of course Ponsonby and Herne Bay Road shops. We were so sophisticated eating on the footpath outside Fed Up. We spent a lot of time pushing Luke in his buggy through the streets and around Westhaven.

We moved to Matakana to grow grapes- then a little country village with a post office and a shop. No telephone box. no public toilets, but they had a good flying fox for the kids to play on at Matakana School.

We straddled the two villages for a while but moved to Matakana in 1992 when we finally left Ponsonby, but my mum and sister still live there. Luke has moved there and taken over Heron's Flight Grapejuice.

So I was delighted to see that Lindy and Graham MacDonald; who own the popular Red Letter Day - for your writing pleasure- in Matakana Village; are opening a new Red Letter Day in Jervois Road. We are looking forward to intoducing our friends and family to Red Letter Day in Ponsonby; and would like to remind everyone that the Matakana Village is a pretty cool place to visit as well. This opens a new era in our relationship with Ponsonby when we can catch up with old friends- and their children and grandchildren!

Luke will be introducing his Heron's Flight Merlot Grape Juice over July and Augusts, so keep an eye out for it in your favourite bars in Ponsonby- such as The Ponsonby Road Bistro. I'll tell you more in future blogs.