Jack Chambers used to be a "skinny little rat" but just right for being winched with the wool bales on to lighters heading off Tokomaru Bay's wharf.
He'd dressed up in his old man's boots and coat to get a job as a casual wharfie when he was 15.
In those days the wharf at the northern end of the bay was humming.
There was a freezing works, wool store and shipping company nearby, feeding goods out onto the concrete and wooden structure via a small railway.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
It was bustling even at night, Grant Dargie remembers. He lives in the old harbour master's house now where there's a fine view of the crumbling wharf below.