Cambridge, New Zealand

June 3, 2021

From the age of eight to thirteen years, Mal lived in the small country town of Cambridge, about two hours drive south of Auckland. At the time it had about five thousand residents but it has grown dramatically since then to over 20,000. It is a lovely town with a decidedly English feel. In fact, in 2019, it won New Zealand’s Most Beautiful Large town. So Mal dragged Lauren and our niece Debbie on a nostalgic tour of the town. We started out walking around Lake Te Kouto. Although it sits at the center of the town it is not easily visible and is sometimes called Hidden Lake.

Near to the lake is the one of the two houses where Mal lived. It didn’t look all that different from when he lived there. There are two things that stick out in his memory about the house. The first, is that it is, without doubt, the coldest house that he has ever lived in. It sits down near the river and in the winter the damp fog would not lift until noon. Often there was thick frost on the ground. Like most New Zealand houses, it had not been built for the cold. There was no central heating, insulation or double glazed windows. On the plus side, it had incredible gardens and orchards. He remembers grapes, raspberries, strawberries, passionfruit, kiwi fruit, apples, peaches, mandarins and grapefruit. There were also beans, carrots and assorted other vegetables.

From there, we crossed Victoria Bridge high over the Waikato river on our way to visit the other house where Mal lived in the suburb of Leamington.

The house in Leamington was much warmer, sitting in the sun and on the edge of a hill up above fog. Unfortunately, we only rented that house and the owners were not interested in selling.

As a sign of the growth, the view from the house used to be of idyllic farmland. Now it’s of houses and streets.

It is citrus time in New Zealand and many of the houses had trees in their yards laden with lemons, oranges, mandarins, limes and grapefruit.

Adding to the English feel of the suburb was this bandstand which Mal remembers as a favorite hangout spot for the local kids.

Then it was back across the river to Cambridge to explore the cafes and shops of the main town. Here are some of the local buildings.

We walked up the main Street.

And passed by the town’s iconic clock tower.

Across from the clock tower is the National Hotel. Mal’s best friend’s father was the proprietor of what was then a bustling pub. He can remember staying over in his friend’s room which was right above the public bar and going to sleep to the sound of clinking glasses and drunken singing. In a sign of the times, the hotel is now the home of a fancy restaurant.

This is the church where Mal’s brother, Russ, and sister-in-law, Di, got married. In another sign of the times, it is now an upmarket restaurant and bar.

On our way back to Auckland, we dropped in at St. Peter’s School just outside Cambridge, where Mal spent three unhappy years. It was a private boy’s school that appeared to base itself on schools in Dickens time. Lots of caning, bullying, sitting in Chapel and studying of Latin. When he finally transferred to local Cambridge High School, it was as if a deep gloom had lifted. St. Peter’s is now a co-ed school and based on the look of students we saw, a much happier place.