Castor Bay Training Camp

Describes joining Army, marching down Victoria St. to Railway Station. Put into trucks and onto to Devonport vehicle ferry. Landed at Castor Bay, near Milford.

"...barbed wire fence with three wires at the top on a slant ... all the boys there ... great big tins of jam on the table and big sandwich loaves ... they were going to make us supper ... we all got the giggles ..."

"...given our palliasses and grey jerseys ... half the girls couldn't do up the metal fly buttons ... and the others had trouble getting the braces on ... there were shrieks of laughter ... and some of the beds were fixed so that when you got in the legs gave way and you land on the floor, but that night you really had a lot of fun ...in the morning ... it looked like the end of never-never"

Remembers the 120 steps down to the beach to do P.T. Describes the shower block,

"Nine showers in a row, no dividing walls or anything ... I was shy ...wouldn't shower with everyone ... sneak down when they'd gone"

Remembers Sister Nepia, stationed at Takapuna, came over to their camp. Transferred to North-Head, saw Japanese submarine,

"there was a big stir round camp ... had surfaced but had gone down...there wasn't much said about that it was a hush hush sort of thing"

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