There was something to celebrate in 1963: a town called Tauranga became a city, and I was turning another year older with more mobility and up to more mischief. The family and I hadn’t arrived in the Bay of Plenty that was to be in the 1970s with a shift to a town called Whakatane, just short of an hour’s drive from Tauranga.
Amongst many things happening in the sixties, much of which I had no involvement with, though what was enjoyed by many families were parades. Here are a few old photographs of an event called a ‘Cavalcade of Transport’.
A colour slide shows vehicles driving along Cameron Road. The front vehicle is a tractor pulling a float with a waka and people on board. This event was part of the celebrations connected to Tauranga becoming a city in 1963.
“A unique transport parade through the last fifty years was staged to coincide with the historical exhibition at Tauranga Town Hall. The cars proceeded along Cameron Road from the racecourse and parked for an hour in Wharf Street, where spectators could inspect the many interesting and valuable vehicles.” Tauranga Photo News, 7 December 1963.
A colour slide showing vehicles driving along the main road. The front vehicle is a vintage car with a sign that reads “Studebaker 1923”.
Half-plate glass negative showing a view of Sixth Avenue camping ground on Jordan’s Field, now part of Memorial Park, Tauranga. The photograph was taken from Devonport Road. Tauranga Harbour is visible in the background.
What a difference fifty-plus years later.
Life at No. 22 
What a wonderful and interesting step back in time. And still today parades and festivals exist, bringing colour and life to country towns. Thanks for sharing your pics.
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It is wonderful to wander down memory lane. I must remember to read my posts before publishing as I hadn’t finished this post, a tad too distracted at the moment. Pleased you enjoyed it even with the repeating words.
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It’s lovely to see photos from times gone by, Suzanne 🙂
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Oh to go back to those days with no traffic issues 😉 Though to be fair the traffic is usually no issue for us and for me I have other modes of transport like my cycle, thank goodness.
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You’re very lucky, the traffic here is only getting worse and we can’t seem to go anywhere without road works!
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Plenty of road works here too, seems a worldwide issue.
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Yes, it probably is. Very annoying all the same 😉
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It is annoying, Cathy. The major ones here in Tauranga are to improve the infrastructure and in the interim it has created more chaos. I am sure traffic issues are the most talked about subject surpassing the weather 😉
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They probably are 😄
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A poignant reminder of my first marriage
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I love seeing the old photographs that you and others show, everything has changed so much since then, and yet in my head it was only yesterday!
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Nothing surer in life than change. Mostly for the betterment of people and sometimes the environment. Some things do feel like they were yesterday. If we took the best out of every generation we would have a perfect society 🙂
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What amazing old photos, though I think I like the modern Memorial Park better than the old camping ground. Those tents don’t look appealing!
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A task for the winter. Drag those boxes of photos out from under the bed and make whoopee with the memories.
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Whoopee with the memories – hilarious 🙂
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