Boatbuilding on Great Barrier Island

. . . continued from surf.co.nz http://surf.co.nz/forum/surfing-chat/203/Riding old singlefins again was good but didn't satisfy the urge to create, so we moved ahead with our original Great Barrier plan which was to build a scow for our own transport. We had with us a large library of books including " The Scows and scowmen of Auckland " and a host of boatbuilding manuals. These were read late into the night by candlelight. Our budget was limited, so we took Ralph Sewell's advice that " There's nothing like a bit of good clean pine for boatbuilding " and started stockpiling Kaitoke pine, this was being milled By Bruce Marx and the Haszard Brothers who lived on the other side of the Kaitoke Creek.Peter and Buster Haszard were a couple of classic old engineers, a gay couple who had taken refuge from the prying public in the Kaitoke forest. The had piles of old machinery scattered through the pine trees and tea tree on their property, they owned the sawmill. Bruce Marx the Biker lived in a housetruck with his wife Robyn and two children on an acre of creek front property. Bruce operated the mill.Kaitoke had great towering pine trees which were over 70 years old. The trunks were perfectly straight and clear for up to 30 metres or more. The wood itself was very hard, and of far superior quality to plantation grown pine. Once a week we'd head over to the mill and select the best pieces.