Wednesday, September 06, 2006

New Zealand Wind Vane 1904





















The New Caledonia, a posh New Zealand Hotel in 1904, displayed what may have been the first surfboard wind vane . The locals nicknamed the hotel the "Hawaiian Board House" after the wind vane, which can be seen, on the right, in the enlarged portion of the picture. The surfboard measured over 18 feet, but most probably was never actually used for surfing before being installed as the hotel's signature wind vane. The hotel was famous for its Sunday brunch in the Captain Cook room, an elegant dining room named in honor of the European discoverer of New Caledonia and Hawaii.

The primary fare of the restaurant was a piece of salt beef between two slices of toasted bread , or as they became known, sandwiches, since, as you will recall, Captain Cook's patron and superior officer was John Montague, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, which is why Hawaii was originally named the Sandwich Islands .

Although not clearly visible in this photograph, the upper side or top of the surfboard had a mother of pearl inlay in the design of the flag of New Zealand. It is thought that the 'Hawaiian ocean wave riding board' was originally going to be placed in the restaurant since the top side, as installed on the top of a tall pole, was only visible to airplanes, of which there were none in New Zealand in 1904. The underside also had a mother of pearl inlay of the family crest of the Earl of Sandwich, whose descendants are alive and well today.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

In honor of the the earl, today I will have small steak rolled into a tube of flatbread.

I will call it a "montague."

Anonymous said...

Those steaks in a tube sound great.
I want a 'montague' too.

Hmmmm . . . Montague.

Anonymous said...

I want a montague too.

A steak tube sounds great.

Anonymous said...

WHATZ THIS GOTA DO WITH THE F--KING COST OF TEA IN CHINA?!?

Anonymous said...

Tea doesn't go with tubes of steak flatwiches. Hot Dog you are a buffoon.

Anonymous said...

kewl pics. kewl story.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Sidney, but surfboards in 1904 did not have skags on them! You had to drag your foot to turn them!

Anonymous said...

wind vanes had 'rudders' before 1904. it's a wind vane.

Anonymous said...

yeah.
go smoke some more of your chinese tea.

Anonymous said...

What a crock.

There's no such league.

Anonymous said...

I have one of those old boards.
I drag a ranger on a kite string to turn it.

Anonymous said...

Me too.
But I drag a steak in a tube of flatbread to catch sharks for dinner at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Lawyer Sydney:
Your pictures suck.

be nice. said...

ouch.

Moon Phase