Listening to the stories told by “One-armed Fred”, as he is known, you would think that maps showing the way to Great Barrier Island should be marked with >>There be pirates in these seas<<.

 

Humour aside, Fred does offer us a clue about the “odd characters” that according to Grace Medland can be found here: ‘We come to live on an island because we are different from mainlanders.’ Of course, Fred’s stories explain that the journey before arriving on the island was already character forming in itself.

Back in the 60s, we first find Fred working in Tokerau when forestry was booming and people came from all over the country looking for work opportunities. Those were the days ‘when loggers were real loggers’, Fred laughed. He stayed at it long enough to end up leading his own logging team and saving a little nest egg.

Other adventures followed, some of them bringing a wicked twinkle into the old pirate’s eyes. About 25 years ago now, he came by “Lazy Bums” which was his floating home until only a few years ago.

‘She was a fine vessel that proved its worth in many places. After Tairua, I was berthed in Tauranga, anchored in Warkworth and spent time in numerous other harbours as far north as Port Reinga.’ Because the house boat only drew 2 feet of water, it literally ended up a few creeks, was run onto the odd beach and otherwise could go where other ships would risk running aground.

‘I am sure that sounds very romantic but you get to live all the storms.’ he commented dryly as he described all the places where he took his boat.

Nearly five years of this period were spent at Waiheke Island were Fred was well known among ferry commuter when he had a pie cart on the wharf. At another time he became a landmark in the Bay of Islands when the boat became a craftshop and was renamed – you guessed it – “The Pirate’s Never-ending Garagesale”

“But all these were just stepping stones … “ Fred murmured.

“Leading where? To Great Barrier?” “Yes, I suppose so.”

Since 1988 Fred has been anchoring at the Barrier. Fitzroy was his base for the first 10 years, and in 1992 he bought land in Schooner Bay on which he now resides. But showing me around the “Owaka” which was moored at Puriri Bay wharf when I encountered him, it was clear that Fred was far from losing his sea legs. ‘She was a ferry and cream boat in Lyttleton Harbour from 1927 to 1948.’ he explained later, balancing a photograph on his knees showing daytrippers crowding on her deck.

And that is still her business these days, with the Owaka taking visitors to the fishing spots Fred knows around the island’s coast. And by all accounts the groups that charter the boat are greatly entertained, not least thanks to Fred’s genial company.

A lot of what Fred does to break even does not necessarily involve charging money but just looking out for opportunities. This involves heading to the mainland to stock up cheap coal for the winter, helping out by towing a broken-down fishingboat on the way over there, or crossing over to Tairua to obtain a needed water pump by getting a restored fire engine of some old mates. Or was it a water pump to restore a fire pump with?

 

‘My motto is simple really,’ Fred explained and probably echoes many of Grace Medland’s >>maligned, misrepresented and misunderstood island characters<<.

‘It is doing anything to survive without hurting anybody.’