Massey Birdwood Settlers Association

Latest Motorway Closures for the coming week

The NZ Transport Agency advises of the following closures for motorway improvements. Closures start at 9pm and finish at 5am, unless otherwise stated. Work delayed by bad weather will be completed at the next available date, prior to Friday, 12 May 2017.

Please note this Traffic Bulletin is updated every Friday.

 

CENTRAL MOTORWAY JUNCTION (SH1 & SH16)

• (SH1) Northbound lanes between Symonds Street off ramp and Nelson Street, 8 – 11 May (approx 10:30p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• (SH1) northbound to (SH16) westbound link, 7 – 11 May (approx 10:30p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• (SH1) southbound to (SH16) westbound link, 7 May
• (SH16 Port) westbound to (SH1) northbound link 7 May
• (SH16 Port) Wellesley Street westbound on ramp, 7 May
• (SH16) Hobson Street westbound on ramp, 7 May
• (SH16 Port) westbound lanes between Stanley Street off ramp and St Lukes Road on ramp, 7 May (approx 10:30p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• Symonds Street southbound on ramp, 9 May

NORTHWESTERN MOTORWAY (SH16)

 

• Eastbound lanes between Brigham Creek Road roundabout and Lincoln Road on ramp, 7 – 11 May
• Hobsonville Road eastbound on ramp, 7 – 11 May
• Royal Road eastbound on ramp, 7 – 11 May
• Lincoln Road westbound on ramp, 7 – 11 May
• Westbound lanes between Lincoln Road off ramp and Brigham Creek Road roundabout, 7 – 11 May (approx 10:00p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• Te Atatu Peninsula eastbound on ramp, 7 – 8 May
• Te Atatu Road eastbound on ramp 7 – 8 May
• Eastbound lanes between Te Atatu Road off ramp and Western Springs on ramp, 7 – 8 May (approx 10:00p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• Patiki Road westbound on ramp, 7 – 8 May
• Eastbound lanes between Patiki Road off ramp and Western Springs on ramp, 9 – 11 May
• (approx 10:00p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• Rosebank Road eastbound on ramp, 7 – 11 May
• Great North Road eastbound on ramp, 7 – 11 May
• Great North Road westbound on ramp, 7 – 8 May
• Westbound lanes between Great North Road off ramp and Te Atatu Road on ramp, 7 May (approx 11:00p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• Westbound lanes between Great North Road off ramp and Patiki Road on ramp, 9 – 11 May (approx 11:00p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• Westbound lanes between St Lukes Road off ramp and Te Atatu Road on ramp, 8 May (approx 11:00p.m. to 5:00a.m.)
• St Lukes Road westbound on ramp, 8 May
• Newton Road westbound on ramp, 7 May

PORT (SH16)

• Eastbound lanes between Beach Road and Quay Street, 7 – 8 May
• Westbound lanes between Quay Street and Beach Road, 7 May

UPPER HARBOUR MOTORWAY (SH18)

• Westbound lanes between Hobsonville Road off ramp and SH16, 7 – 11 May

For more information you can contact

For more information please contact:

Auckland Motorways
T: 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 444 449)
E: [email protected]

The following article appeared in the NZ Hearld in 2012 –  Below the NZ Herald article is short piece about Jack Riddell  who lived in Te Atatu South for 49 years and was active in the West Auckland Community through Rotary and his business.

The 24 Battalion Association may be officially disbanding next weekend but the remaining members know that the close relationships forged at war will never end. Yvonne Tahana writes

It was the rhythmic sound of horses’ hooves that tipped Jack Riddell off to the shifting position of enemies at the battle for the Senio River.

Inland from Florence, between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines, Senio broke the back of the Germans in Italy. In the previous year they’d been progressively moved north but clearing the enemy from the river wasn’
t an easy matter.

For three months in 1945, 24 Battalion had to wait out a winter to get across the narrow nine-metre waterway, which was so deep that at its centre it couldn’t be forded. Polish soldiers were part of the ground force, as were other sections of the Second New Zealand Division that faced enemy soldiers who had fortified machine gun positions on stopbanks.

The wartime record makes the point that even if the southern bank was captured, the Germans could still concentrate fire from close range from the other bank.

Near Cotignola on April 3, the battalion’s A and B companies attacked a 90m section of the river. The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45 explains the difficulty of capturing the southern side.

“A duel at close quarters ensued, in which each of our companies tossed more than a thousand grenades over the bank within a space of 24 hours,” historian Randal Burdon wrote.

Liquid napalm and grenades, which were packed into a bag to stop them rolling harmlessly into the water, finally cleared the southern bank. Allied airforces, using 800 planes, bombed north of the river, allowing 24 Battalion to push forward.

On April 9, Riddell, then a 24-year-old B company corporal, had taken up position on a roadside close to a stone home. He’d moved there because he’d heard a horse moving down the road and knew that was how German soldiers had been supplied food and ammunitions. He’d heard the sound on endless nights across the river. “Clippity clop, clippity clop, clippity clop.”

Seven decades on, Riddell is sketching out road formations at the table of his Te Atatu home.

He points out his position, where the horse fell after he’d opened fire and marks where it blocked the road. It was carrying a six-inch Howitzer, a type of heavy fieldgun.

Enemy soldiers took cover on the opposite side of the raised road.

“The horse was blocking the road, the Germans then lined up across the road, seven of them. But our fire was so intense. I called out and my call was answered.

“The officer in charge surrendered. His gun was on the ground in front of him – he bent down to pick it up and I kicked it away.”

He knows many Germans died during the war but that no one died in the small exchange is something that matters to him, all these years later.

“We took seven prisoners, we lined them up, searched them. The officer guy, he tapped me on the shoulder and he pointed to his leg. Ended up he had a knife in his sock.”

Riddell won the Military Medal for that action and his part in capturing an artillery wireless operator four days later.

They’re encounters that have to be coaxed from the 91-year-old because, like other World War II veterans, it’s not something he likes talking about. The war he says, wasn’t about individual effort, it was about a collective effort.

Riddell is far more comfortable talking about the wider history of the 24 Battalion, which saw action in Greece, North Africa and Italy.

Established in 1940 it drew its members mainly from Auckland but recruits came from Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. During the following five years 3500 men served in Greece, North Africa and Italy. Casualties were high: 522 were killed and 1600 were wounded.

Continued below.

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Rare war footage used in Anzac film tribute

Those statistics mean nearly everyone took a shot, Riddell jokes.

Age is catching up with the 120 members who are still alive and they’ve decided to wind up their 24 Battalion Association. The youngest members are in their late 80s. Second generation members, the sons and daughters of original members can’t be expected to run the organisation’s business.

Next weekend, on Saturday evening, a military Beat Retreat will sound the association’s end. The musical honour will be followed by a memorial service on Sunday.

The association was set up in 1947, when a popular officer, Major Sam Lea, died in a road accident. The association’s president, Murray Adlington, says that a man who could survive the greatest conflict the world had ever witnessed and then die just two short years later in a comparatively banal way at home gave the young men pause.

They didn’t want to drift slowly away from the mates they’d made in Europe and North Africa.

Adlington joined the Italian campaign after Cassino, where Allied forces had taken staggering losses of life. Now 89, he said he had worried about how he’d be received as a reinforcement.

“I joined with trepidation that I was late. But I had a wonderful reception. The senior officers welcomed me and said how pleased they were that I was there. That warmth from the old hands, it’s something that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.”

Both veterans say it is right that at Anzac Day New Zealanders remember those who did not return and the service of all soldiers. Important too, and maybe a little overlooked, is that many of the men who came back built their lives: they raised families, became business owners, judges and MPs, they played sport, got involved in their communities. They lived.

Adlington says some struggled with the readjustment to post-war life, and were overwhelmed by the memories of war. “If you carry the sad parts of life with you, you’d go under. You just hoped it didn’t happen to you. [Soldiers] had their civilian lives to get on with and they did it in the majority of cases.”

Over the decades the association worked hard to look out for the welfare of its members. Initially, there were visits to hospitals and convalescent homes, later there were education scholarships and a holiday retreat was built at Whangaparaoa for soldiers’ families.

An annual reunion at Queen’s Birthday Weekend was instituted, and trips around the North Island were common. Wives were excluded in the early years but were included once their husbands realised it wasn’t half as fun without them, Adlington says.

Working bees were called for manual work, like putting in a concrete driveway for a mate. Photos tell the story of the other simple ways the association helped each other. Riddell points to one middle-aged man, cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Eric Hunter, he says, was a “rough diamond” who mowed a war amputee’s lawns for years.

It’s the right time for the association to wind up, Adlington believes, but the friendships forged in extreme circumstances won’t die, he smiles.

“All these years it’s been a renewal of the comradeship of our war years. It’s become an extended family, we’ve shared our joys and our sorrows. I couldn’t have asked for closer friends.”

24 Battalion Association honours

The public are invited to attend the Beat Retreat, a Memorial Service and the Illuminate film projections at Auckland War Memorial Museum which will honour the 24 Battalion, their sacrifices and their enduring commitment to their fellow members through the Association.

Beat Retreat

Jack (John Victor) Riddell

Born 18 August 1920 and died 31 July 2015.

As a young man Jack Riddell was a deeply committed pacifist and spent time in prison and detention during the earlier parts of WW2. There was a gradual realisation that for him pacificm was too absolute and he came to see that ethics were not so black and white as he had thought. He applied to join the army and later in Italy won the Military Medal.

After the war Jack worked as an engineer before opening his business. In this capacity he was a pioneer in the manufacture of stainless steel yacht components in his premises in Partiki Road in West Auckland (Cleveland Matal Pressings). Jack in a book tells of his family life and describes the way in which his change from pacifist to soldier affected his parents and sisters. His account ends with a discussion of the moral basis for his life as he looks back on his experiences and the development of his beliefs. Jack was a member of and past President of the Rotary Club of Te Atatu.

Its 103 years since the start of the first world war (1914), and close to 80 years since the start of the second world war (1939).

Very few veterans will be taking part in the parades that fought in the second world war, however many of  the other conflicts will have veterans participating. Here are the times for the services out West and the cenotaph (Auckland War Memorial Museum) in Central Auckland, should you wish to attend any of the services and remember those that served our country in the various conflicts that have plagued and continue to plague our world -We Shall Remember Them.

In a separate story , a short story about the Secretaries father, Jack Riddell, who lived in Te Atatu South for 49 years  and won the military medal.

WEST AUCKLAND

Avondale Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: 9.30am outside Avondale RSA Clubrooms, 7 Layard St
Parade commences: 9.40am
Service: 10am at St Ninians Memorial, corner Great North Rd and St Georges Rd, Avondale
Road closure details: 9.40am-10.30am – Layard St; Rosebank Rd; Great North Rd; Crayford St West
Contact: John Weller 021 781 110
On the day contact: Helen Fraser 027 288 9136

Henderson Anzac Day Civic Parade & Service

Parade commences: 11.15am Fire Station, Railside Ave
Service: 11.30am at Henderson RSA
Road closure details: 9am-1pm – Railside Ave (between Edsel St and Cranwell St)
Contact: Henderson RSA 09 838 9012

Hobsonville Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: 10.15am Hobsonville School
Parade commences: 10.30am
Service: 11am at Hobsonville RSA
Road closure details: 7am-1pm – SH18 Hobsonville Rd (from Marina View Dr to Brighams Creek Rd)
Contact: Hobsonville RSA 09 416 7227

Laingholm Anzac Day Community Service

Service: 10.30am at flagpole outside Community Hall, Victory Rd, Laingholm
Other details: Refreshments will be held at the community hall

Contact: Graeme Booth 021 764 741

New Lynn Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: behind McDonalds in Memorial Square
Parade commences: 8.50am
Service: 9.30am at Memorial Square, New Lynn
Road closure details: 9am-11am – Great North Rd to Veronica St; Memorial Dr; Totara Ave
Contact: George Clark 027 664 4681

Piha Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: Piha RSA
Parade commences: 1.50pm marching from Beach Valley to Marine Parade, finish at Lion Rock
Service: 2pm at Marine Parade (Lion Rock), Piha

Contact: Piha RSA 09 812 8138

Swanson Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: 8.45am Swanson Primary School
Parade commences: after assembly
Service: 9am at Swanson RSA
Road closure details: 9am-9.20am – from 703 Swanson Rd (Swanson School) to 663 Swanson Rd (RSA)
Contact: Swanson RSA Secretary, Angela Newton 09 833 9013

Te Atatu Peninsula Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: Te Atatu Community House carpark, 580 Te Atatu Rd
Parade commences: 9.40am
Service: 10am at Te Atatu Peninsula Community Centre
Road closure details: 9am–12.30pm – Te Atatu Rd (between Hereford St and Harbour View Rd); Taikata Rd
Contact: Stephen Enger Te Atatu Peninsula RSA 09 834 3698

Titirangi Anzac Day Parade & Service

Parade assembly: 10.10am Lopdell House
Parade commences: 10.15am
Service: 10.30am at Titirangi War Memorial Hall
Road closure details: 10am-10.45am – Titirangi Rd (from Rangiwai Rd); South Titirangi Rd
Contact: Tania Pattullo Titirangi RSA 09 817 6415
On the day contact: Mike Logan 027 283 2087

Waikumete Anzac Day Dawn Parade & Service

Parade assembly: 5.45am Cenotaph

Parade commences: 6am
Service: 6am at Cenotaph, Waikumete Cemetery, corner Great North Rd and Glenview Rd, Glen Eden
Wet weather option: Parade and service will continue regardless of weather conditions
Other details: Temporary bylaw in place. No dogs allowed (except service dogs) at Waikumete Cemetery from 5am-1pm on Anzac Day
Event organiser: Angela Radosits 021 827 326

Waikumete Anzac Day Civic Parade & Service

Parade assembly: 10.45am Cenotaph
Parade commences: 11am
Service: 11am at Cenotaph, Waikumete Cemetery, corner Great North Rd and Glenview Rd, Glen Eden
Wet weather option: Parade and service will continue regardless of weather conditions
Event organiser: Angela Radosits 021 827 326

Waitakere Anzac Day Service

Service: 11.10am Waitakere RSA Clubrooms, Township Rd
Road closure details: 11am-11.15am – from 31-39 Township Rd
Contact: Waitakere RSA 09 810 9856

Auckland Domain Anzac Day Dawn Service

Parade assembly: 5.30am in the Auckland War Memorial Museum underground carpark
Parade commences: 5.45am marching on Cenotaph Rd to Court of Honour
Service: 6am at Auckland Domain in front of Auckland War Memorial Museum
Road closure details: 3am-1pm, Wintergarden Rd, Museum Circuit, Maunsell Rd Ext, Cenotaph Rd, Football Rd and The Crescent
Contact: Eddie Nock 021 078 130 or Ateesh Patel 021 0203 0888
Audio description of the Dawn Service: Gather at the Blind Foundation by 4.40am to collect headsets and walk together to Auckland Museum Underground carpark at 5am. Meet a staff member who will guide us to assigned spot near the cenotaph area at 5.15am. Please note, this reserved area will be opened to the public at 5.15am (if space allows). Booking is essential for the audio description and must be received by 4pm on Monday 17 April 2017. To book, please contact Nicola at Audio Described Aotearoa – [email protected] or 021 035 8513. If you wish to be a volunteer guide, please contact Nicola via the email or mobile number above. Dawn Service programmes in braille are also available from Nicola.
Getting there: For special public transport options to the Dawn Service, visit at.govt.nz.
Parking: There will be parking available at the Old Brewery Car Park, on the corner of Suiter Street and Khyber Pass, Newmarket. There will be attendants onsite directing parkers to the nearest available space.
More info: Find out about what’s happening at the museum all day to commemorate Anzac Day

Auckland Domain Anzac Day Civic Service

Parade assembly: 10.30am in the Auckland War Memorial Museum underground carpark
Parade commences: 10.45am marching on Cenotaph Rd to Court of Honour
Service: 11am Auckland Domain in front of Auckland War Memorial Museum
Road closure details: 3am-1pm, Wintergarden Rd, Museum Circuit, Maunsell Rd Ext, Cenotaph Rd, Football Rd and The Crescent
Contact: Ateesh Patel 021 0203 0888
More info: Find out about what’s happening at the museum all day to commemorate Anzac Day

Auckland Grammar School Anzac Day Service

Service: 9.30am in the Great Hall, 55 Mountain Road, Epsom. We suggest guests are seated by 9am for the 9.30am service
Other info: The Auckland Grammar School Old Boys’ Association invites you to join them for morning tea after the service in the Heritage Room of the Library
Website: events.ags.school.nz
Contact: Anna Graham [email protected]