The Tai Pari and its twin sister tug Tai Timu are the latest addition to the fleet of Tugs that have served our port and herald in a new era of super size shipping heading to our harbour.
When we were kids we would sit on the steps of Salisbury wharf and watch the The Edward G plowing up and down the harbour with its total pulling power of 310hp. Soon after followed the Mount Maunganui, the first in an era of flash purpose built tugboats for the Port of Tauranga. A port that back then we simply knew as The 'Wharf'.
Soon after followed the Rotorua in 67, the Kaimai in 78 and then the first of the big boys the Te Matua in 92, that still sits proudly in their pocket of maritime magic next to Salisbury Wharf, a pocket that so many boyhood dreams of sailing to the four corners of the world were born.
Like its namesake the Robert Owens tug boat when it arrived in 2000, to herald in the new millennium, had more grunt than anything else in town, and got the job done in record time.
In grease monkey grunt terms the Bob Owens has 50 tonnes of pure pulling power or 15 times that of the Edward G, and the two new twins Tai Pari and Tai Timu have 74 tonnes.
When you stand on the bridge of the Tai Pari (High Tide) you feel a sense of standing above an army of Patupairere pulling and pushing in unison below, much like the feeling Thor had when he would command his battalion of rowing warriors to lift their stroke rate to full combat mode.
Tug Master of the Tai Pari, Dennis Osbourne, who has a strong resemblance to a Viking warrior, sits at his helm a la Captain Kirk and tickles the controls with the skill of a concert violinist, each slight flick sending a growl to the huge donks below - who channel his commands out through the hawser - the long coil of tow line that stretched from the Tai Pari to the Chenan.
How times have changed from the Chenan being towed out by the plated hawser of the Tai Pari without a single sound up in the wheel house, back to when the Edward G would push and pull a barge full of logs across from Matakana and all of Tauranga could hear its groaning diesels work against the outgoing tide.
So where will we be in 25 years when the Tai Pari and Tai Timu will be stood down to sit out their days alongside Salisbury wharf, where the next generation of boyhood dreamers will sit, look and lick their lazy Sundays away?
Perhaps the answer can be found in the names of the flotilla of vessels that pocket themselves away next to the ice cream shop on Salisbury Wharf.
Te Awanui, the safe anchorage, Te Matua the wise master, Tai Pari- full tide and Arataki to pave the way forward.
Like the full tide and the low tide they come in and they go out, guiding us safely up against the parental port with the help of a tug boat fatherhood figure. They are constants that keep us floating through life just like love, death and taxes.
If the Ports of Tauranga continue to pave their way forward listening and learning to the wisdom of the legends who have gone before them, then the dock of the bay will always be a safe harbour to watch the world go by.
-broblack@xtra.co.nz
Tommy Wilson is a best selling author and local writer
