Abstract Person recorded: Edwin James (Ted) Thomas Date: 7 September 2005Interviewer and abstractor: Morag ForresterTape counter: Sony TCM 939Tape 1 Side A004: States he is EDWIN JAMES THOMAS and that he was born in 1933 at the maternity hospital in RIVERTON.013: Says his FATHER was RICHARD BENJAMIN THOMAS while his MOTHER was born ELSIE FRASER and that he has two surviving SISTERS (does not disclose their...

Overview Ted Thomas is a prolific artist of Fiordland landscapes. Before taking up the easel and brush, he was involved in a variety of different enterprises from building commercial properties to running a milk bar. This interview concentrates on his involvement in the Fiordland Venison Industry as a meat processing and packaging factory owner and operator. Starting in Mossbum and moving to Te Anau in the early 1960s, Ted provides some details about how he got into the business and who he worked with....

Overview Ritchie Air Services was the first commercial passenger air operator to be established in Te Anau. It was October 1960 when Ian's wife Dell was put behind a desk with a book of tickets while her husband took their first Te Anau passengers on a scenic flight around the Basin. The business, started in Gore, shifted its operating base to the resort town the following year where Ian, Dell and family changed the way visitors and residents could view the mountain and lake scenety of Fiordland. In...

Overview Peter's immediate environment, as a young child, was the granite, tree-covered mountains and clear waters of the Hollyford Valley. As a youth and into early adulthood it was the tussock country of the Te Anau Basin that he frequented. He was also among the early contract staff to carry out the initial task of levelling swathes of shrub and bush so that it could become productive agricultural soil. Leaving for a few years to live further south, Peter returned and worked for the Fiordland...

Overview Lewis Blatch grew up on one of Te Anau's original pastoral runs, Lynwood Station. Along with his younger sister, Win, he is one of a dwindling group of people who can recall life in what was once a remote part of New Zealand, bordering the Fiordland National Park. In this interview, Lewis talks about the methods his father and brothers used on the Station's freehold pastures and the open run country before the government implemented its huge land development programme in the 1950s.

Abstract Person recorded: Peter Alexander Brotherston Date recorded: 4 July 2005Interviewer and Abstractor: Morag ForresterTape counter: Sony TCM 939Tape 1 Side A006: States he was born PETER ALEXANDER BROTHERSTON in 1936 at the old maternity hospital in LUMSDEN. 012: Explains that his parents at that time were living in the HOLLYFORD VALLEY (at the MARIAN CAMP) where his FATHER, ALEX, was working as a MECHANIC on the HOMER...

Abstract Person recorded: Lewis Francis Blatch Date: 2 September 2005Interviewer and abstractor: Morag ForresterTape counter: Sony TCM 393Tape 1 Side A009: States he is LEWIS FRANCIS BLATCH and that he was born in 1922 at a nursing home in INVERCARGILL.015: Affirms he grew up at LYNWOOD STATION, TE ANAU, and that his FATHER was HENRY FREDERICK BLATCH who died in 1938. Adds that he was attending HIGH SCHOOL at the time so...