A tribute to a good friend and mate ....

 

Rob Mulholland (52 years young) - passed away 7th December 2013

Now at rest my friend, you fought your hardest battle with everything you had.

Our Connection

Met up with Rob in 1978 in Nelson.
Rob was 16 and I was 18 years old. He was tall and skinny with long dark curly hair.
We flatted together in 2 flats, we worked together at Southpine Sawmill and partied hard out.

We were kind of like brothers and when Rob got the gleam in his eye and that particular grin on his face, we were sure there was going to be good time to be had.

We did a fair number of trips down to Westport to catch with friends and to party.
We used to collect hitch-hikers along the way. Rob knew the road so well, that at parts we were doing 100 mph and all the hikers could say "wow, you can drive real fast".
We knew they were frightened by the way they were grabbing hold of the front seat with white knuckles being pretty well the giveaway.
I trusted Rob entirely, because of his knowledge of the road.


So all in all we had a really good social life and met some amazing people along the way.
Most of these people are still friends to this day.

The Service

You would of been really impressed with your send-off Rob, the place was absolutely packed with so many friends and family who wanted to pay their last respects to you.

Your club-mates had the most amazing casket made for you dude, you were a very highly thought of member but we all thought the same of you as well. Was impressed with the salute they gave you and Gav-Boy gave an awesome tribute to you.

I wanted to get up and pay a tribute to you mate, but suffered from stage-fight at the amount people gathered.

Was amazing to catch up with Rob's two brothers Tony, Ross and sister Jill. Also to two old friends Mike and Alice which I haven't seen for 20 odd years. Plus many others I couldn't put names to.
Not forgetting Mark and Denise who I had met through Rob.

Gaz (Butch),Seaweed and myself came down to say goodbye to you. Seaweed flew over from Wellington specially to see you off.

Rob Family -

Has been with Di for twenty odd years adding two kids to the extended family.
He loved Di and loved his family and loved this way of life, his family was his world.
He was very close to his siblings as well and very protective of his little sister.

You got to admire this man with so many people he loved and loved him unconditionally.

Some Stories - The Printable Ones

Halifax St -

A flatmate was to hold a BBQ and Rob and I were told in no uncertain terms to behave ourselves. We were good boys and after we had some food, we washed our paper plates and hung them on the clothesline to dry. We were quite thirsty so decided to get some water to drink.
Rob got that glint in his eye and gave the nod, and that's when the water-fight started.
All the flatmates friends backed up against the fence hoping not to get wet and the flatmate had the look of death a us. Her friends left when we broke out the eggs.
It was well worth getting told off so we chased her down the road with a pot of water.

 Rob had a habit of leaving his overalls in the lounge so I decided to play prank on him. I stuffed the overalls with rolled up newspaper and made a dummy with gumboots and a 1/2 gallon flagon for a head and then chucked a hat on for good measure.
Next morning he let his dog out and she nutted off at the dummy. Rob rolled out of bed realising he was late for work, had to get the paper out of the overalls while swearing and cursing at me.
We had a good laugh afterwards as it was a classic .

Took the lounge door off the hinges to prank another flatmate, when she came home with a male friend and went to open the door, it just fell to the carpet. The look on her face was priceless.

Grove St -

Hung empty beer bottles and cans off the black-boy peach tree  one Christmas.

Had a competition to see how many cars we could fit in the drive/front lawn ( We got to 3 each)

Got a visitors motorbike and hid it a unfinished shower on it's back wheel.
She panicked that someone had stolen it and was going to call the cops until she saw us chuckling away. She eventually found and had to ask us very nicely if we could get it out for her.

Had a couple of hangis using dozer treads for stones and a huge steel lid to put over top.
The spuds were washed in the old agitator washing machine and came out brilliantly.

Wrote on the side of the work van Rob used - "Rob Mulholland before he robs you".

Rob, you were a good man, an awesome mate.
You may be gone mate, but you will never be forgotten.
RIP good friend.