OBITUARY: Doug Meredith - Matapouri's Water Man

Doug Meredith - Matapouri's 'Water Man' 1933-2017.

Doug was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1933. His parents were actors and theatre producers and his grandfather a judge.

Doug attended UCLA (university). He was an avid diver, competitive swimmer, surfer, sailor and snow skier.

Doug lived at Topanga beach, Malibu, from the early 1950s where he worked as a carpenter and remodeler of houses. In 1962 he met Reva on the beach and they married after just five weeks. They bought a house at Topanga beach and had their two sons David and Casey.

They moved to New Zealand in March 1971 travelling on a P&O Cruise ship. Doug's love of diving and sailing brought them to Northland.

After staying at Tutukaka the family were shown their new home-to-be by boat, the Doaks bringing them up the Matapouri River. The Meredith family lived in Matapouri on the Clements' old homestead, up Clements Rd. From November 1971 to 1981 Doug worked on the Clements farm and their home became a local gathering place with wonderful food, great conversation, music and art.

In 1976 Reva and Doug started the Pizza Parlour on 22 James St, Whangarei. Twelve successful years later they opened a new restaurant at the A&P building, next to the bowling alley at the Town Basin.

In 1995 Reva and Doug were granted the lease to their purpose built restaurant, Reva's On The Waterfront which continued for 20 years until 2016.

Doug started boatbuilding at Smiths Boat Yard and then worked at Orams Marine on Riverside Drive for many years. Doug met with wooden boat and traditional boat groups that gathered like-minded enthusiasts. He cared deeply about conservation and protection issues and was respected for his opinions, knowledge and dedication.

He was chairman of the Whangarei Town Basin open spaces committee which stopped the council from selling waterfront land that became the Loop Walkway to developers. They also pressured WDC to prevent the Kingsgate developers from building a taller hotel complex on Riverside Drive.

Doug was part of the Friends Of Matapouri, a group deeply concerned about development desecrating sacred land at Matapouri-North's Otito Reserve.

Doug was a co-founding member of the Tutukaka South Pacific Yacht Club. He was commodore from 2006 until 2015.

Doug is sadly missed by Reva, David, Casey and grandson Jamie Meredith, and his step-grandchildren Ben and Kerryanne Mayhew.