Overview Rex grew up in the 1930s on Stewart Island surrounded by the sea and people whose lives were ruled by the tides and the weather. Despite his mothers’ efforts to prevent him going into an industry that had taken the lives of some of her immediate family, Rex spent nearly 50 years making a living from the seas around his childhood home and along the Fiordland Coast. He remembers a time when crayfish were considered not worth catching. In this profile he gives an account of those early days and...

Abstract Interviewee: Jack De Wilton LUTTRELLDate of Interview: 10 February 2005Interviewer and Abstractor: Morag ForresterTape counter: Sony TCM 393Side A starts 022: Says he hunted in his local district of the WAIRARAPA from about the age of 15 and it was only a few years later that BAS(IL) BLATCHFORD offered him a job SKIN-HUNTING in the HAAST. 035: “I was given the LANDSBOROUGH block to SKIN-HUNT”. Adds that it was his first...

Overview Holidays in Te Anau were a regular event for Val from a very young age. As a result, she is one of a handful of people with memories of summers on a section of land just a stone's throw from Lake Te Anau which was bordered by scrub and manuka and indented by makeshift wharves and boatsheds. By the late 1930s, the family had gone upmarket after being allowed to build a 'crib' on the same section. The dwelling, which was extended and upgraded over the years, was soon one of a motley collection of...

Overview The Roberts family connections with Te Anau span almost one hundred years as it was Tom's grandfather, Captain Thomas Roberts, who first laid roots in what was a remote settlement in 1906. As skipper for the government steamer, Tawera, there is already printed documentation about Captain Roberts and his years spent in Te Anau. This interview, therefore only touches lightly on Tom's ancestors. The focus is more on the achievements made by Tom and his brother, Ted Roberts, in the local building...

Abstract Interviewee: John Robert (Jack) MURRELLInterview date: 2 November 2004Interviewer and Abstractor: Morage ForresterRecorded at Jack's home in ManapouriTape 8 Side A starts001: Continues discussing his jobs around NEW ZEALAND, saying his next move was towards WELLINGTON. 022: There, he says, he wanted to find a way to work his passage to ENGLAND (in the 1950s the mode of transport was by passenger ship). Recalls getting a...