I love getting calls from people on the Shore telling us about interesting people we should be highlighting in Channel. I got one of those calls recently from Uwe Dorr, owner of the British Isles pub in Rothesay Bay. Uwe’s in his 20th year of running the popular East Coast Bays ‘local’ and he was keen for me to interview one of his regulars, Harry Hobin, who has been coming to the pub for four decades. Uwe was fascinated with Harry’s interesting story. Never needing an excuse to share a pint I popped along on to have a chat with Harry Hobin at the British Isles on a Wednesday afternoon in early May.
The fun about putting together this magazine is you do meet interesting people of all ages. We concentrate on highlighting the ‘positive’ so all these people are usually doing, or have done, great things. Harry Hobin is no different. At the age of 92 you would think he would be slowing down. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. He doesn’t look or act like a 92 year old. The well-known Bays resident cheekily told me the secret to his longevity is his partner Gail, who is many years younger. They met as part of the WAGS group – stands for “Wine Appreciating Group Slurpers”. He reckons the wine tasting keeps him young as well!
Harry lives near the British Isles pub in Rothesay Bay and is there regularly enjoying a wine at his favourite watering hole. Often joined by partner Gael and occasionally by son Terry.
Harry Hobin was brought up in the Hawkes Bay, attending Napier Boys High before joining the air force, beginning a lifetime love affair with aviation. At the end of World War Two he ended up in the 14th
Fighter Squadron and as a youngster was posted to Japan, just after the United States detonated two nuclear bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered in August 1945 after the bombs were dropped, and the New Zealand government agreed to participate in the US-led occupation of the country as part of a Commonwealth force. So that’s how young Harry Hobin ended up in Japan. Harry’s son Terry – well known in local soccer circles – retraced his father’s footsteps over seven decades later when he visited Hiroshima and was photographed at the same place – Miyajima, Hiroshima. See photos with this article.
It wasn’t the first devastated city he had experienced. In his 92 years Harry has lived through the 1931 Napier earthquakes as a young fellow and 80 plus years later he just happened to also be in Wellington when the Kaikoura earthquakes shook the capital city.
Harry Hobin has always been a leader – in the community and business. Originally living in Blockhouse Bay he was on the board of Lynfield College when his four sons went through there. During that period he started the Roskill South Athletics Club and the Roskill South Ratepayers Association. Moving to the Shore, Harry became heavily involved with the Bays Club in Browns Bay – he is a life member. For 25 years he ran the wine tasting group at the Bays Club. The Hobin’s lived on the waterfront at Browns Bay and one of his proudest achievements was playing a leading hand in stopping a wharf being built by a group advocating that for the beachside suburb. He started a group called the Browns Bay Environmental Protection Association and the resistance included him running full page adverts in the local paper.
Harry was a leader in business. He is also a Chartered Accountant. For decades he ran the family business, originally called Hobin & Luke (Harry’s father was a founder), and later under his leadership becoming Clearlite Industries. He sold the business when he turned 60 in the 1980s. The business started out manufacturing perspex cabinet handles and expanded this to include display stands, towel rails, fluted sugar bowls and car tail lights. In the 50s Clearlite then moved to Ponsonby and produced a wide variety of plastic products including skydomes, refrigerator door liners and firescreens. Clearlite won a design award from the Plastics Institute of New Zealand for their vacuum formed polystyrene refrigerator doors in the 1960s and expanded to a staff of over 100. The product range grew to include exhaust fans, neon signs, boat windscreens, car weathershields, ear tags and even injection-moulded animals.
Harry says when assessing the location of the business he gathered data on where all the staff lived and plotted it on a map that showed it was predominantly on the north side of the bridge. As a result the business relocated to Glenfield in 1972 where it remains today. By that time the main focus had shifted to bathroomware products.
During the long period Harry built the Clearlite business he was also a president of the Plastics Institute of New Zealand and records show he was also internationally respected. He was on a panel of specialist members to meet with a similar panel of the Australian Plastics Institute to discuss common interests. His expertise on the panel was around fabricated products.
Right through his life Harry’s passion has been flying. He loved the challenge of being able to fly while leaving all his earthly problems behind. With now 170 employees he says he needed something to clear his mind and flying gave him that.
For years he was a member of the North Shore Aero Club, later becoming patron. Harry loved flying and in particular participating in races. In fact there was one notorious race he recalls back in 1991 that coincided with the 150th anniversary of the city of New Plymouth. Hosted by the New Plymouth Aero Club, this was the largest air race ever held in New Zealand. From New Plymouth,105 aircraft flew over 66 towns and cities over an eight day period. 64 year old Harry went on to win the race by six seconds and recalls golfers at Muriwai Golf Club thinking World War three had broken out as 105 aircraft flew over as this was one of the race turning points.
Harry’s partner in the plane, Chris Toms, recalled this period in a more recent article he wrote for a local newspaper in Northland. “I bought my first plane in partnership with Harry Hobin, in 1981. The Tampico was built in France, by the same company that made the Concorde, Mirage and the Exocet missile. Harry flew the Tampico in the largest air race held in New Zealand and won. We owned the plane together for 14 years and had some great times travelling to events all over New Zealand.
Harry Hobin stopped flying in his early 70s, two decades ago. But that was about all he stopped. Life is still busy and social. Both he and his partner Gael admit that they hardly use the kitchens in their homes as they enjoy travel and eating out – locally that’s often at Uwe Dorr’s British Isles Pub just across the road. Now that sounds like a pretty good retirement to me!
