Share my Gisborne days

From a country childhood to racing motorbikes with a spell of local body politics thrown in, Peter Corrin has led a full and interesting life and is now inviting people to share his life story with the appropriately-named memoir Share My Days.

PETER Corrin was keen to impress his mates when he roared down Gisborne’s main street on his beloved Ariel motorbike towards the bikes parked on the side of the road, deciding to heel over to the right at the last moment, head for the last bike and end up parked parallel to the row.

It was something he and his friends had done many times before but this particular day as he was banking over for his final run he accidentally ran through a puddle of water.

“The next thing I knew I'd lost it,” he says.

The bike slid, dumped him on the ground and slid on into the parked bikes knocking them over like a row of skittles. Amazingly no one was injured and none of the bikes were damaged but in his words “the boys weren’t very happy with me”.

This amusing episode is just one of many Peter has recounted in his book Share My Days, which he will launch next Tuesday, February 2 at Ryman’s Kiri Te Kanawa retirement village after which it will be on sale at Muir’s Bookshop.

But there is a lot more than motorcycles to this book, which is a tableau of Gisborne and how it was in the 50s, right through to the present. It is packed with reminiscences and stories. There are many Gisbornites who will find themselves named in it, and it is supplemented by good pictures including early days on Waipaoa Station.

Peter Corrin is the perfect man to tell the story. He has been just about everything from a successful motor sportsman and small business owner to city councillor in a working life that has spanned a range of different jobs, the great majority of which have involved driving.

The start of the storyHis story starts with his childhood at remote Whakarau in the west of the district where he was taken as a baby by his father Jim, an obstinate and determined chap who was a roadman, and his mother Minnie. He spent his first seven years there before moving to Waipaoa Station in 1947 for a further five years before the family came in to Gisborne.

During that time he enjoyed a classic country upbringing with everything from riding horses, eeling, hunting possums for their skins, swimming in deep pools and even seeing a kiwi in the wild. Even at five or six he could roam unsupervised, growing up fast and enjoying the lifestyle often with his dog Spot. Memories like the major 1948 flood are vivid.

It was something of a shock then when the family moved in to Gisborne and he found himself among several hundred children at Gisborne Intermediate, but living in town was to introduce him eventually to motor sports.

Leaving school at 15, he started work on a farm owned by Alec Spence, but soon gravitated to a career based around driving with Owen Pinching, one of the biggest agricultural contractors at that time. There Peter’s experience included working on the sometimes dangerous construction of the Waipaoa River flood control scheme banks.

His career continued with a move to major road metal carrier Merv Fleming and then a whole series of jobs, driving everything from milk tankers to petrol tankers. He had his own milk run for 12 years and later worked for Gisborne Milk Company.

Peter also started his own motorcycle parts and repair service and has seen his son Paul follow him into that industry as a partner in CGM motorcycles.

After a long working life in which he regularly worked long and unusual hours he finally retired at the age of 65.

While working for Owen Pinching he purchased his first bike, a four-stroke Ariel 200 from Noel Third and in his own words ended up thrashing this bike, racing around the paddocks and broadsiding.

His next bike was an Ariel 500 which he swapped for a 1935 Ford V8 car he had bought to replace the original bike. Later he bought a BSA 350cc B31 that was more designed for racing.

His motor sport career included racing his bike at the Gisborne Showgrounds and also at scrambles on open country such as the beach and sand dunes.

The monthly ride to OpotikiA highlight was a monthly ride to Opotiki where he and his friends would compete in events on properties around the town. One of his favourite memories there was winning the Lap Record event by two seconds from Brian Scobie, the North Island short circuit champion.

Later he showed his versatility by driving a midget car at the showgrounds. This competitive spirit carries on through his children and grandchildren.

Motorbikes played a big part in his youth and he does not mind being called a Milkbar Cowboy, the name given to young men in the 50s who loved to gun their bikes through town.

He also feels, however, that while they were loud and drank too much beer, along with just about every other young man of that era, they never did any real harm and there was some respect for authority.

It was a time when entertainment came from Gisborne’s three picture theatres and its milk bars with a regular dance on Saturday nights spiced by parties. But like most from that era he believes it was a good time to be young.

One of Peter’s friends was Gisborne mayor Hink Healey, also a motorbike daredevil who is well remembered for riding through a burning wall at the A and P Show before turning his attention to local politics.

The city was facing a number of issues, one of the most notable being plans for a ring road around the central business district.

Peter and Hink were firmly against this and Peter also felt strongly that ratepayers were not getting value for their money so he decided to back his friend and run for the council.

He was elected and served a term from 1984 to 1987 when he was elected again. But early in that term he resigned on a point of principle relating to a committee appointment.

In 1960 Peter married the former Elaine Faulkner, a talented ballet dancer and teacher, and the couple have four children and 10 grandchildren.

Peter still likes to hit the road but these days it is in the motorhome that he and Elaine bought and in which they have covered most of the country.