Merv – My exciting holiday at Ohakea 1987

Gidday.  My name is Merv.  I’m a Gnome.  I was created in 1986 by craftsmen at the gnome factory in Bulls, New Zealand. When they saw me at the factory shop it was love at first sight for the Barclay girls from Ohakea – Tracey, Nicola and Stephanie – and they fell for me; much as they wanted to own me themselves, they knew I would be the ideal 1986 Christmas gift for their Uncle Gavin Trethewey who, like lots of Air New Zealand pilots, lived in sunny Howick, Auckland.  It was well known that Gavin hated garden gnomes (and wall butterflies, too, for that matter) so my mission in life was to win Gavin over.   

Gavin displayed mock shock when he took the Christmas wrappers off me at his house.  He was more than a little surprised to find in the gift card that accompanied  me, a requirement that he must display me prominently at all times.  Furthermore, should he happen to accidently lose me I, or my cuzzies, would reappear at his house in multiples.  Thus, I became a permanent Pool Guard at Gavin and Judy’s house and I was constantly admired poolside by all their friends and family who in turn were very surprised at Gavin’s good taste in having such a handsome gnome like me.

Poolside life was pleasant until Judy & Gavin decided to go overseas on holiday in mid-1987.  As they thought I was too young to stay poolside by myself, I was ‘invited’ to go to Uncle Jim and Auntie Joanie Barclay’s airforce house at RNZAF Base Ohakea, without them knowing about my visit, of course.  They got a (naturally pleasant) surprise when their nephew and young RNZAF Andover aircraft captain, Steve Trethewey personally flew me from the RNZAF airbase at Whenuapai to Ohakea.  When he got to Ohakea, Steve was in a real hurry so he delivered me to Barclay’s house where he rather unceremoniously dumped me before hurrying off to fly his Andover on to Wellington and Christchurch. 

The Barclays opened the parachute bag left on the floor of their kitchen by Steve and were absolutely thrilled to find me, together with my little suitcase (it was Steve’s first school case) carrying my toothbrush,  a sunhat, a Pixie caramel bar, my favourite book called ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, and a clean hanky.  What a lovely warm welcome the Barclays gave me!  After they read the ‘return address for unaccompanied little gnome’ note from Gavin that he had tied to my wrist in case I got lost, the Barclays set about to plan an exciting holiday for me.

 What a fantastic time I had over the next few weeks!