USS Spangler DE-696
1957 WESPAC Trip
Visit to New Zealand
January 27, 1957 - February 1, 1957

On leaving the Equator we took a course due south to Auckland, New Zealand arriving there on Saturday, January 27th.   You can't imagine a group of sailors more anxious to reach a port.   After all, these were English-speaking girls waiting on us!

On spotting the coastline it seemed to take forever to finally reach the Port of Auckland and have the Pilot Boat pull alongside.   Fortunately, for those of us that worked on the bridge and had access to binoculars we could get an early look at the city and surrounding countryside.   It was beautiful!  The abandoned gun bunkers on the rolling hillsides lining the harbor gave us a facinating sight on the way in, as did the sailboats sailing along in the harbor.

I wish I could say ours was the first ship to tie up to the dock, but we weren't.   We were one of five destroyers and about the third one coming in, so we missed much of the initial fanfare.

Our squadron was the first American navy ships other than some submarines to visit New Zealand since the end of the war.   So the town folks were as excited for us to arrive, as we were to get there.   This was a unique event for them as it was for us! People lined the dock.   Bands were playing.   Flags waved.  To say it was exciting moment is not an understatement!

Liberty call couldn’t come quick enough!  First, though, had to store away work gear, straighten our work areas and make certain everything was shipshape, then and only then could we get cleaned up and into the uniform of the day, which happened to be whites since we were in a warm climate.

So what's it like being in an English speaking seaport, again with 213 shipmates you have 213 different stories, then you have to multiply that by four other ships.   A lot of guys, especially the older ones and married members of the crew looked forward to just meeting the New Zealander's and tour the city and the countryside.   An excellent example was the trip some of the crew made to thermal gardens in Rotorura, taking in the Kiwi experence and the sights of natural giesers and small holes spouting boiling sulphur water and mud, similar in many respects to what one might see in our Yellowstone National Park.  For a lot of us single guys, though, we had one thing in mind -- meeting girls!

So what was that like?  Well, not being the first ship into port was a major disadvantage! By the time Joe Mitchell, my buddy, and I made our way to the dock and into the city, all the girls we could spot were already talking to other sailors.  I was starting to get depressed but Mitch was undaunted.  We walked several blocks when he said, "Hey, look at that! Wow!"

Two girls had just come out of a theater.   Mitch yelled to them and starting waving and running across the street.  I wasn't far behind, but not nearly as bold or as animated.   The girls stopped, looked at us and started giggling.

Mitch got there first so naturally had the first choice.   He immediately started talking to the taller of the two girls (I no longer remember her name, so for the sake of this story, we'll just call her Sue).  She was a very cute, shorthaired blond, nicely dressed and definitely nicely shaped.

The second girl (Bonnie Smith as I soon learned), had her hair in a ponytail and while pretty, was a little on the plainer side.  She had no make up on to speak of, wore lose fitting clothing and covered most of her hair with a headscarf.   You know -- the girl next-door type, the kind you take home to mother but not to a bar, and not exactly what a sailor on liberty in a foreign port was looking for!

First looks, however, can be deceiving, as I was to discover the following day.   The way she looked coming out of the theater belied how she would look during the remainder of my stay in New Zealand.  She proved to be much, much prettier than I initially thought much to my pleasant discovery!

Unfortunately, my photographs of her have long dissapeared.   Not so for the ship's photographer, though, he worked his into the ship's cruise book.

In New Zealand, high schools are called colleges and go for thirteen years instead of only twelve as they do in the America.   Since Bonnie was in her final year she would have been about 18 when I met her.

We asked them where they were heading and wanted to know if we could string along.

They said, "Sure!  We’re heading to a football game?   Would you like to go?

Of course we wanted to go, we would have gone anywhere they asked.

It was still a little early to go to the football game so we wondered around downtown in some of the department stores.   Naturally we were a little excited and doing a lot of laughing and talking while we were at it.   Mitch chased Sue down an escalator in one store, making a much bigger ruckus than they should have.  The proprietor came up to us and said, "Shhhhhh! We’re really glad you Yanks have come for a visit, but you need to be a little quieter.   Have fun!   But keep it quite, Mates!"

We all looked at each other, a little embarrassed, and moved on!

The football game turned out to be unlike any Joe and I had ever seen, so we stayed confused from the beginning to the end.

I asked Bonnie, "I thought you said this was a football game?"

"It is, "she responded."

"What kind?"

"Just football," she said, and laughed.

Such was liberty for just a couple of the guys over the next few days.  Again, I'm sure there are 213 similar, but different stories from all the guys on our ship, not to mention the crews on the other ships in the squadron. Bonnie and I swam at the beach, hiked the bluffs overlooking the bay, played in the parks and had a wonderful time.  She and all the other girls I saw were just like the girls back home and received the same decency, respect and admiration we would have shown any nice girl we had met back in the States.  Falling in love would have been so easy! And some of us guys did! I recall being told that a few guys on other ships in our squadron did end up going back and marrying girls they met during out visit.   I certainly can't say I blame them!

Bonnie had a natural, smooth singing voice and very enjoyable to listen to.  She was good at it and definitely not shy in that respect.  If she wasn’t humming or talking she was singing.   Mostly they were popular love songs, similar to those sung by Doris Day, Brenda Lee, Patty Page and other female vocalist on the pop charts.

What amazed me was that when she sang she had absolutely no accent! I mean none! It was as if I was listening to a girls back in the States.   For the fun of it, sometimes instead of saying something she would sing the words.  And for a change I could actually understand every word of it.  She just laughed at me!

We had a lot of fun chiding each other over our accents!

Friday morning and time to depart came all too soon.  After a short while to visit onboard with some our new found friends, the ship’s whistle blew for all hands to report aboard and our visitors to leave the ship.  Oh, how we hated for that moment to arrive!

My time in New Zealand would always remain a special place in my memory.  What was previously just another country on a map had become a real place, with real people in a beautiful city.  I had met a wonderful girl that I would never forget!  The seven letters that caught up with me on Thursday mail-call from my stateside girlfriend helped put things back in perspective.

Watching the city and harbor slowly fade from sight left me with an empty feeling hard to describe.  I’m sure everyone else aboard felt the same, considering the subdued mood evident around the ship the following day or two.