I am still working my way through my childhood album, documenting our move from the North of England to New Zealand (I've been back and forth a bit since). I came across these photos of our first few days in New Zealand, when we stayed at a motel in the Hutt Valley (near the capital, Wellington). My Dad had gone back to night school in England to get his degree as a metallurgist and he was offered jobs at both a remote nuclear power station in Scotland, another in Canada and a third in the metals industry in the Hutt in NZ. He opted for NZ. I especially love this photo in particular, of my mother proudly posing in front of what must have seemed a very hip and modern motel unit, with my sister and I in the shadows. I shared it on social media, wondering where exactly it was, and it went a little viral here in NZ. To be fair, much of the country is still in lockdown so any distraction ... People started trying to work out where it was, and it only took a day for the collective minds and people who live in the Hutt Valley to share screenshots from Google maps from 2020 showing some derelict private flats next to the motorway. Effectively a slum :-( It was hard to be sure since it was in a little enclave off the road, and I suspected it may have since been demolished. But we drove there in the weekend and got quite a surprise! Not only had the collective minds got it exactly right, far from being demolished, it was being renovated to meet new 'healthy homes' rental standards. And top of that, a lovely man came outside to read in front of his flat and (masked up!) we showed him the photo (he was very suspicious at first!) and he told us he had lived there for years, remembered the 'working girls' who lived and worked in some of the units and plied their trade in the cabaret restaurant at the entrance, and was now enjoying his updated unit, less cockroaches and damp. The colour scheme is now very bland, but at least they are been given a new life. Not sure what the plan is for the restaurant which is a total wreck and being used to store the wood and other building materials. It was called "The Quarterdeck" and you can see the carved ship's rope decoration on it.
Wow how interesting Lynn! @LynnG I looked at photos the end of last year of the demolishing of what was left of my Great Grandfather's home.. over the years it changed from a house to a business and they were tearing it down.. I did a page with the old photos and then the demolishing... interesting story though and how cool that you went back and saw it again.
I love stories like this! Awhile back I spent a whole evening on google maps looking at the area where my grandfather had his trailer for wintering in Fort Myers, FL over 25 years ago. Sad to say the area is really run down and I couldn't find Grandpa's trailer even though some are still there. It ceased being a retirement trailer park many years ago. But I was able to find several other landmarks near the trailer park that I could use the info to do the layouts about the pictures I had from the 1970's.
Oh my goodness! What a story! Now you to make a layout about finding the current state of the location! Inception! LOL
Interesting. I scrapped two pages in the past couple of years about elementary schools I attended. One was being sold and the other torn down and given back to the farmer. The land was originally donated to the school system to have an elementary school in the country. Funny that it went back to that.
The elementary school Mom taught in and I attended was torn down 10, maybe 11 years ago. Since it is in town, it was made into a playground park since that side of town had none. It also sits on a dead end street so not lots of traffic to worry about. They had an open house before it was torn down. Dad and Martha were in town and since Martha had also taught there, we went. I got some photos and did a couple of layouts about it.
Those photos are wonderful! They remind me of a few I have of my parents on their honeymoon and other trips early in their marriage. How cool that you were able to find the place and that it is being renovated! The restaurant looks like it could be an interesting building as well, but it's so odd that they built the portico blocking the windows!
What an amazing story! How cool that the "online detectives" managed to identify the place. Love your before and after photos. Are you working on a new kit for the "after" photos?
This is such a cool story Lynn! I love that you provided entertainment to your area while in lockdown and that you were able to not only figure out where the photo was taken, but that you got to go see it and it's getting a facelift! So cool!
