Following on "A story in four parts".. ( now part 5 😕) If you can handle it please read those first four blogs below otherwise it may be confusing..as am I..very often😉! )
5 The saga continues...
It beats with two hearts...That’s what Dad said after returning to New
Zealand from a holiday on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
I had my successful shop in New Brighton, also the one in central Christchurch, which we were now
all a part of..my Mother...Father and myself. It had been around six years
since I first started my business and after several trips to Fiji and Australia
I was becoming restless. Needed a new challenge. My Parents had been to
Queensland Australia a couple of times; as had I. I knew they loved it in
Queensland and the weather suited. I really don’t handle the cold well...even
though I'm from the UK..I know...I know. Just getting soft I guess. Anyway it
was while my Parents were on holiday in the UK visiting relatives, and I was sitting almost on top of the heater in the shop one winters day, I said on the
‘phone to my Mother.. "When you come back I’ll shout you a trip to Queensland".
“Let us get back first?” I remember her saying... yes they loved the Gold Coast.
I guess the seed was planted from that moment...but that’s not where we ended
up!
I had a holiday on my own looking around. I would have many visitors/tourists in
the New Brighton shop...that’s when the place was booming back then..now it is
much much quieter in that suburb. Anyway Rockhampton kept coming up in different
conversations with customers so it piqued my interest. I love the heat but when
I landed in Rockhampton that March day on an exploratory trip I had never felt
heat quite like I did in Rockhampton. From the motel I went straight to the air
conditioned shopping centre...a quick walk around and back to the motel. I
remember I took a few walks around but it was hot HOT!
Mr Kawasaki had just recently opened the Iwasaki resort at Yeppoon and I
wanted to have a look but didn’t even make that. So I cut it short and flew to
Brisbane. It was while flying down from Rockhampton as I followed the coastline
I suddenly spotted the canals way below and what turned out to be, after a quick
search of the map, the Sunshine Coast. I was curious so the next day I caught
the train up. Through the cane fields passing little stations some the train
never even stopped. I had booked to Palmwoods I think it was...maybe Eudlo I can't quite remember. Anyway...it looked Like a
town on the map so thought I would start my look around there. The train
eventually stopped...but there was nothing there...just a small station...dirt
roads and not much else..so I kept on the train to Nambour. Pleased I did. It
was a bustling town back then. The local sugar mill, which has since closed,
was pumping out the sweet smell of cooking sugar cane. The small cane train that
ran through the centre of town halted traffic as it brought its load from the
surrounding cane fields. It all looked and had the feel of an exciting bustling
town.
I stayed in Nambour overnight and hired a car to investigate the coast
making my way to Mooloolaba. It was so pretty and warm and yet to be developed
as it is now. Noosa was beautiful and I stayed there for a few days and looked
around at land prices. The newly developed land just on the river was..I clearly
remember as I had a sales sheet from the developer there...$20,000 a block which
back then seemed like WOW a fortune...and it was a fortune back then! To me
anyway... That would be 1978. Now the same blocks..well there are houses on them
all are worth many millions. Many millions of dollars!
As I drove back to Mooloolaba and Caloundra I passed through a new
development Kawana Waters. A shopping centre was yet to be built and the new
houses were few and far between. I noticed a small new one with a board so
phoned the Builder. “You’re not another agent!” came the reply which turned out to
be the builders wife. “No..no agent” I quickly replied somewhat surprised. This
was on a dry block by the way...canal homes started at $50,000..crazy now I
know...crazy!
Anyway the house was priced at $24,500 .. but this was 1978 .... back in
the olden days 😀😀!! So I arranged to put a small deposit down and flew back to New Zealand with
the news. Sold up the shops...my Parents sold their house and we were off on
another adventure.....
More to come...Gold Coast was still a few years away...
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