Excerpt from Rex Kerr's A Ship, A Man & A Boy, published in 2012

"The Otaki shield winner will be, as usual our School Captain. He is Robin M. McLachlan (date of birth, 8 January, 1934) of 27 Moir Drive, Aberdeen. He is a boy of good ability, specialising in science and mathematics, and is going to University to study medicine. He is Sergeant Major of the College contingent of the Combined Cadet force, and takes an interest in all the school activities. He is keener on association football than rugby, plays golf and tennis and is a good all-round athlete."

He sailed on the MV ‘Rangitata’ on Friday 13 of June and arrived in Wellington on Wednesday 16 July, a trip of 31 days. Robin departed Wellington on the ‘Rangitata’

on 29 August, after a whirlwind tour of New Zealand from N to Z, in which he visited or stayed at twenty different places and was introduced to numerous dignitaries including the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. S.G. Holland, PC. C.H.

Robin's diary of his adventure reveals many interesting facets of such a trip including some less than happy experiences. The first of which occurred at Napier Boys’ High School.

Friday 25 July.

What a night. The dorms are open air and by bad luck there was a considerable frost during the night. I was absolutely freezing. My body was O.K. but below that, from the hips down, had no feeling. I had to wrap my pullover around my feet to get any sleep at all.

At this time in New Zealand a number of school dormitories were of the open air verandah type with pull down canvas curtains.

Another unhappy experience happened on the overnight ferry trip to Lyttelton, on the ‘Matua’.

Saturday 9 August.

Dinner was my undoing, I was given soup, a huge plate of meat & vegs, a sweet ice cream. I felt sick eating it but later on .... I went down to my cabin. The sea was pretty rough. It had been for a while & I felt pretty queer. While I was undressing it got worse & then up it came one solid chocolate coloured mass. I was proper sea sick. It explains why my writing is so atrocious, just now I am miserable.

Such are the joys of crossing Cook Strait.

Not all sea voyages are so miserable; in fact on the voyage home romance was in the air. It developed like this.

Tuesday 2" September.

After lunch as was my custom I hand coffee in the lounge, being joined by Denny, John and later Pamela Mirams a girl on whom ive had my eye since leaving Wellington. She turned out to be quite nice, and things are looking up.

.... I am with a good set of young folk, John & Janet Hardie, Derry Blackwood, Pamela Mirams, Bruce Moon and myself.

Pamela was almost always included in the group’s activities and as the voyage continued Robin spent more and more time with her. Robin accompanied the

Mirams on the trip from Southampton to London.

Soon after returning home Robin received an invitation from the New Zealand Shipping Company to attend the launching of the fourth ‘Otaki’ at John Browns shipyards at Clydebank on Friday 24 October. Robin describes the launching as follows;

Then at 1620 came the thrill. After a few preliminaries Mrs Whitehouse cut the thread which released the Champagne bottle. After a slight pause, the ‘Otaki’ started on her new medium. My first launching ceremony. Its peculiar how the sight of 12,000 tons of metal gliding so smoothly down to the water can be so majestic. Once afloat the tugs took charge of her and she was guided into dock to be completed.  Diary Friday 24 October.

On his return to Aberdeen Robin attended the Medical School at Aberdeen University and graduated in 1958. During his time at Aberdeen University, Robin resumed his love with soccer, captaining both Aberdeen University and Scottish Universities and the latter in a memorable 3-1 win over English Universities.

After graduating Robin returned to New Zealand ostensibly on a working holiday, but, as it turned out to stay. However, remember that shipboard romance. The girl on the ‘Rangitata’, Pamela Mirams, to whom he became so attached was a New Zealander. They were married later that year in St Johns Cathedral, Wellington. Robin and Pamela had two boys. They moved to Whanganui, where Robin took up general practice in Totara Street in 1961, the first new one in the city for a number of years.

The other reason which influenced Robin’s decision to return to New Zealand, and which encouraged him to stay, was the egalitarian nature of New Zealand society. There was no apparent class distinction, the various groups mixing freely, a feature commented on by other Scholars. It was in the hospital service that this was most apparent, and was what made it so appealing to him. The young interns were treated kindly and as colleagues, by senior staff, a situation that did not exist in the United Kingdom at the time. This encouraged him to pursue a medical career in New Zealand.

With a young family Robin became involved in the Whanganui community. He, along with a number of other practitioners, established a group practice, Wickstead House. He later became interested in sports medicine, and in 1976 was co-founder of the Sports Medicine Trust. Robin officiated at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, testing for drugs. Other sporting interests were soccer, swimming, in which both his sons participated, rowing, golf, squash and skiing. While staying at Mt Cook, as the Otaki Scholar he developed a passion for skiing. He was also President of the local Medical Association and the AA. For a brief period in 1960, he acted as a locum for Dr. Caird in Otaki. His most vivid memory of that brief stay is getting lost one dark night, in a back street, while on a callout. In those days doctors made regular house calls even after hours.

Robin, the second oldest surviving Otaki Scholar (77years old), with his second wife Jan lives in Whanganui. Although retired he is still practicing medicine as a locum. He continues to take a keen interest in the Otaki Scholar, recently meeting the current Head Master of Robert Gordon’s School, Hugh Ouston, at a function held at the British High Commission in Wellington, during his visit to New Zealand in September 2011.