gundry's grumbles with Simon Gundry
Simon Gundry is a Devonport and North Shore identity, and character, who is known for calling a spade a spade. He is a director of contracting company Gill & Gundry, is an enthusiastic and active sailor (past crew-member of Ceramco New Zealand and Lion New Zealand in Whitbread Round The World races and Shockwave in Admiral’s Cup) and is a life member of the North Shore Rugby Football Club. This is his regular and lively contribution to CHANNEL.
Volunteering in your community
I read somewhere recently a wonderful quotation “There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer” this was from a Lt Col. James H Doolittle of WW2 fame.
This country of ours, on a sports club level, is run by thousands of volunteers donating their time and experience on a regular basis to enable our youth to take part in sport and other activities.
Recently I was down at the best little Rugby club in the world, that’s the North Shore Rugby Club, and stumbled upon a gentleman by the name of Dean Kenny who has played 111 first class rugby games for Otago, also a handful of test matches for the All Blacks. He was down at the club showing a 12 year old boy from Rosmini College and budding All Black half back how to properly throw a ball from the base of the scrum. Later on in the evening when the senior club started their pre season training, there were the likes of Buck Shelford, legendary former All Black Captain; Frano Botica, former All Black and Rugby League Wigan star, Scott Pierce, former Rugby 7’s international player and no doubt one of the unluckiest men who never played for the All Blacks. The trainer was Dean Rice, former Black Sox star, and the holder of three world championships for softball. A handful of people volunteering their time on a warm Devonport Tuesday evening, it was outstanding. The country is blessed with such people.
The Christchurch earthquake in February saw thousands of volunteers come out of their homes, their streets, their communities to help their neighbours. Even the Christchurch students who so often are lambasted for their typical student type antics, volunteered thousands of hours to clean up the crippled suburbs of Christchurch. All wonderful volunteers working for the common cause.
Quite often during the summer, I go down to the local sailing clubs in the North Shore area and watch the young wide eyed kids launch their boats in the anticipation of a fine days’ sailing. I see the volunteers helping launch the boats, set out the courses, man the patrol boats and at the end of the day doing all the tasks in reverse, picking up the course marks, helping the kids de rig and wash and stack the boats and invariably when you think it would all be over, they’re manning the barbecue to feed everyone. To the uninitiated you would think it all happens by magic, but without a volunteer base it wouldn’t happen at all.
We can also reflect on all the thousands of volunteers that help at the Cricket Clubs on a Saturday morning, umpiring, score taking and such. When my boys were attending Rosmini College, they were under the leadership of the great headmaster Mr Tom Gerrard. One particular Saturday morning, I was short of a person to keep score, this father arrived with one of his sons and dropped him off and I asked him very politely if he would mind stopping and giving me a hand. His answer was “No, I have to be at the golf course at 8.30” – how sad for that man, he never once watched his son play cricket in all the years I coached that team. That’s where volunteers get so much out of sport; watching and helping their children participate. You get to know their mates, and their mates’ parents. Volunteering can be a two way enjoyment - there is nothing like watching one of your children making a great catch; or sitting on a committee boat and seeing one of your children make a great start in the fleet of Optimists. You can still participate in sport to a ripe old age by simply volunteering and how much fun and enjoyment you get out of it is up to you.
The volunteer base is huge, but we could always do with more. It doesn’t take much to move one’s body off the couch and see what can be done down at the local sports club. It doesn’t matter if you have no children involved, I’ve seen plenty of people helping out just for the love of sport and getting young people involved – keeping our Clubs going on into the future. You don’t need to be a nuclear physicist to hold a tape measure at a shot put event on a balmy afternoon at Takapuna Athletic Club.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the volunteers who help out at all the hundreds of Clubs around the Shore, without you, it would not be possible for all these young people to take part in these many and varied sports. The Auckland District Courts Judge Mick Brown used to say “Keep them in Sport and they stay out of Court” which is so true.
To veer right away from this topic, finally I can nearly see the light at the end of the tunnel with regards to the reconstruction of the road between Esmonde Road and Hauraki Corner. I think the contractors have finally got the message from the Community about their outrage at the time it has taken to construct this piece of road. They seem to have picked up the pace a bit to get this finished prior to the Rugby World Cup. The hire equipment is slowly starting to disappear, the tar seal is slowing starting to appear and the whole job seems like its coming to a slow but painful end. Not bad for five years of construction. I think the Community should have a street party – similar to the ones they had at the completion of the trans Siberian Railway, the trans America railway – or even the Panama Canal construction. All those three projects had a construction time a lot quicker than that stretch of road.
Another thing, which is just a little grumble, is why does it take three Council officers in a Council car to come and inspect, photograph and document a protected tree on my property recently. I told them at the time, what a bloody waste of time this is and who the hell is paying for it. Our rate payers’ money again put to good use.
Things to do in the next month: get down to your local Club and volunteer your time; organise a grand opening party once that stretch of road is finally finished and all the hire road barriers are returned, the tar seal levelled, the paths and planting completed, traffic lights turned on, and road marking finally completed.
Thanks very much to all the people who come up to me in the street and agree with many aspects of my column, it’s heart-warming to know that it is being read on occasion.
Channel Trivia
1 Excluding smuggled snakes, name the four countries without any snakes.
2. The following are the first lines to books by which Irish writers?
A. Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road…
B. 3 May. Bistritz.- Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning…
3. With the exception of “The Sound Of Music”(the original soundtrack), only three bands or singers had a number one album in the UK charts in 1965. Can you name the bands or singers?
4. One of the most expensive paintings ever sold is titled “No 5, 1948”. Who painted it?
5. Since 1992, in which country have the most journalists
been killed?
6. Which music commemorates the Battle of Borodino?
7. The animal “Struthio Camelus”, which can grow to nine feet (2.7 metres) tall, can be trained to successfully herd sheep. What is the more common name of this animal?
8. Which biennial sporting event was postponed in 2001 following the September 11th terrorist attack on New York?
9. Rapa Nui is the native word for which ‘holiday’ island?
10. How many parks including sports fields, playgrounds and scenic bush reserves are there on the North Shore?
State King Of The Bays LEADS WAY...
