Leading from the front issuu

it was shifted to Awatoto, in what was Westshore’s gain
and Awatoto’s loss.
Through Brethren connections, a young architect
called Martin Yeoman, who worked for Guy Natusch, was
appointed to design the house. The section was narrow
so the footprint was long and the three split-level house
frontage was pretty much all glass to bring in as much
of the sea view as possible. This was modern thinking
and Navarac was a very modern home, designed on a
budget for open and easy, seaside family living. That was
exactly the family’s experience of a design that still looks
contemporary today.
Family connections helped build ‘Navarac’ as the
house came to be called. Catherine’s brother Pat
O’Donnell, an experienced builder, moved over from
New Plymouth for the duration of the project and was
keen to see his ‘big sis’ settled into the couple’s new
abode before the arrival of Baby Number Three.
Delivery day, September 2, 1955 and — it’s a boy!
Prized and handsome, he was named Patrick Robert,
who promptly became known as ‘Rob’. That’s because
Pat’s full name is Robert Patrick but he was known as
Pat, because his father was already called Robert … you
get the idea. This was a uniquely Irish naming tradition
if ever there was one. What is more clear is that young
Rob had started something; a run of Magill males with
twins Tim and John born two years later. And Jesma
came along two years after that, resolutely completing
a sterling child producing effort from Catherine and Pat.
Westshore Beach was a fantastic place for the Magill
kids to grow up; it was their very own Splash Palace.
The older girls surfed, summer and winter. Pat worried
though that the cold water could play havoc with their
ovaries and even asked the family doctor whether continuous
exposure to chilly seas could affect his daughters’
ability to have children. To which the doctor replied
Above: The front yard playground: Catherine loved taking a
dip in Whale Bay, 20 steps from the house at high tide;
Pat wonders how many kids can fit in a canoe.
with a smile, “I wouldn’t be too concerned, Pat”.
The boys surfed too and as the children grew older
they enthusiastically tapped into the ‘70s zeitgeist of sun,
fun, music and freedom. The passion for which their children
embraced the era was a little concerning for their
parents but those seemed to be the times and they simply
had to roll with it. It was mostly “all good” though, to
quote one of Pat’s favourite mantras. Ever the optimist,
if things weren’t exactly all good at the time, he held out
hope that they soon would be and generally, they pretty
much were.
PURCHASING
3 WHAKARIRE
Continuing from page 30, Clyde Jeffery then
bought an existing house further along Whakaririe
Avenue and following his marriage to
Margaret, they joined the aspirational procession
to buy “on the hill”. Pat and Clyde
were each other’s best men at their respective
weddings and Clyde went on to become
mayor of Napier from 1974 to 1983. As the
men matured their political views diverged
and Pat and others would lobby the council
hard against the proposed development of
a marina at the Ahuriri Estuary, which Clyde
was all for. This was a passionate civic battle
that raged for a number of years, with the environmentalists
eventually winning the case
(See chapter 7).
The Westshore years 31